The Curious Case Of Hannah Poling

Did a court award a girl for a vaccine-injuced autism injury?

14 years ago this headline appeared:

Family to Receive $1.5M+ in First-Ever Vaccine-Induced Autism Court Award.

Antivxxers love to hang their hats on this one using it as evidence of autism from a vaccine.

But was that the case? Was this a smoking gun?

Well…no.

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Hannah Poling appeared to be a normal healthy child, although she had bouts with ear infections. Months after her vaccinations she was diagnosed with encephalopathy caused by a mitochondrial enzyme deficit. This genetic condition impairs the mitochondria's (small organelles found within cells) ability to produce energy and perform other functions.¹

She began having difficulty communicating and developed a pattern of behavioral problems. An outsider might say “signs of autism.”

Her parents blamed her vaccines and of course, the anti-vaxxer crowd stepped in to use Hannah as a poster child for their movement.

In the end, the Poling case does not show that vaccines cause autism as the evidence pointed to her preexisting mitochondrial disorder caused by a mutation in a specific gene. Nor did a judge rule that it did.

To this day, autism is NOT on the vaccine injury table.

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The following resources address the matter in greater detail:

1. The Hannah Poling case and the rebranding of autism by antivaccinationists as a mitochondrial disorder

2. Vaccines and Autism Revisited — The Hannah Poling Case

3. What the Poling Autism Case Means

4. Mitochondrial disease and Vaccines

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Image courtesy Sergei Tokmakov

1. Using and Misusing Legal Decisions: Why Antivaccine Claims About NVICP Cases Are Wrong