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Hernando Today

Local Parents Unfazed By Autism Ruling

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By TONY HOLT

Hernando Today

Published: February 19, 2009

SPRING HILL - One court ruling won't sway Barbara Lupo.

It is difficult to change the mind of someone who witnessed her child change from a smiling, playful 15-month-old boy to one devoid of personality and the ability to speak.

It happened overnight. The day he received his measles, mumps and rubella vaccines he was fine. The next day his eyes rolled upward and he wouldn't even turn his head whenever his mother called his name.

It took four years before he would say another word. Mike Lupo has autism.

"It was like someone took my son and put another kid there," Barbara Lupo said, recalling the day after he was vaccinated.

Lupo and her husband are among the more than 5,000 parents who filed a federal petition in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. They were convinced their children became autistic as a result of their immunizations.

At the time, the vaccines contained thimerosol, a preservative that contained small amounts of mercury.

Last Thursday, the judge ruled routine childhood immunizations were not linked to autism. The decision was praised by many in the medical community who fear the growing number of parents declining to vaccinate their children.

After the ruling, pediatricians have more ammunition to convince parents that autism is not linked to the MMR vaccines.

There is no convincing Lupo.

"I've been back and forth about this," she admitted. "I used to ask myself, 'Was it really the shots?' All I know is that my life changed the day after."

A few years ago, Leslie Bolen founded the Hernando Autism Parenting and Personal Experience Network (HAPPEN). She raises two autistic children and has another son in high school. Her family commitments were too much and the group will fold this month.

She organized monthly meetings with parents of autistic children. Many of the regular topics included the alleged link between vaccines and autism. She will continue to advise parents to educate themselves on what is being injected and digested by their children.

"There are so many families who have seen their children change within a day or two of their immunizations," Bolen said.

Thursday's ruling denied damages to three families. The three cases were considered "test balloons" for how the rest of the cases will be handled. Lupo's is one of them.

"It doesn't look good," she admitted.

The debate about childhood vaccinations began in 1998 when a British journal published a study suggesting a link to autism.

Activist and author Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also published an essay in Rolling Stone in 2005 that suggested the federal government covered up data that supported a link.

The government has researched the likelihood of childhood vaccinations causing autism and no evidence has been found.

Many doctors and scientists contend there is no autism epidemic and that the disease has been more widely diagnosed, much like depression.

"It's so easy for a court to make a decision like this because they haven't lived through it," said Kathleen Puglisi, co-founder of Unlocking Autism, a local support group that hopes to pick up where HAPPEN left off.

"I have a grandchild and I get scared to death every time he is vaccinated," she said.

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

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