Paul Offit on the Poling Case

Paul Offit has a typically brilliant op-ed piece in today's New York Times. He takes a logical look at the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the potentially destructive fallout of the recent and highly publicized Poling case. An especially compelling (and often missed) point is the harm that cases such as this may do to autism research and, indirectly, to affected children. Every dollar spent trying to prop up the discredited vaccine-autism link is a dollar diverted from research that might lead to a better understanding of a complex disorder.

Note: There is also the obligatory asinine response from David Kirby at Huffington Post.