Judge "not satisfied" that whooping cough vaccine causes permanent brain damage.

KIE: A report is given of the British High Court ruling which, unless overturned on appeal, will stop all future payments under the government's no fault scheme for compensation for permanent brain damage caused by the pertussis vaccine. The Lord Justice indicated that although he had believed that the vaccine could cause permanent brain damage when he had embarked on the case, he was more impressed by the "quality of evidence and reasoning" of the ten experts called by the vaccine manufacturer than by the mechanism of injury proposed by the nine experts called by the plaintiff. He also concluded that examination of the data compiled by the National Childhood Encephalopathy Study failed to show that brain damage was caused by the vaccine rather than by an underlying condition.^ieng

Pertussis vaccine and brain damage: two claims before the courts.

KIE: Two cases are presented that demonstrate the difficulties in proving causation of injury under Britain's Vaccine Damage Payments Act of 1979. In one case, R v. Vaccine Damage Tribunal, the tribunal provided by the Act and the appeals court were not satisfied that diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccination caused or aggravated brain damage. In the more recent case, Oliver and Dillon, the Court of Session rejected evidence which had "apparently satisfied the vaccine damage tribunal" by ruling that the medical evidence seemed to "cast doubt on the scientific basis for connecting brain damage with pertussis vaccine." Since for legal purposes the plaintiffs must prove causal effect, these cases illustrate that scientific proof will be difficult to present.^ieng