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October 12, 2008 4:07:49 AM CDT

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For Top Vaccine Doc, Autism Battle Hits Home

Posted Jul 1, 08 7:33 PM CDT in Science & Health 

(Newser) – For one of the country's highest-profile vaccine researchers, the accusation that the medical establishment is covering up a link between autism and vaccinations hits a nerve. Peter Hotez's 15-year-old daughter, Rachel, has autism, a fact that colors every aspect of her family's life. Her parents, Peter and Ann, declined to let a reporter meet Rachel but opened up to the Washington Post.

"It is an ever-increasing snowball of horror—one disappointment after another," Peter Hotez says. "You recognize the gravity now as she has become a difficult and impossible teenager." He dismisses the notion that vaccinations are to blame. "This is not something that can be caused by a toxin after birth. This is a deeply patterned mis-wiring in the brain, and this is not how a toxin works."

Source Washington Post

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For one top vaccine researcher, the struggle to isolate the causes of autism is personal: His 15-year-old daughter is autistic.   ((c) batega)
Hannah Poling with her parents Terry and Jon in Atlanta, March 6, 2008. Government officials have conceded that vaccines worsened an underlying disorder that led to Hannah's autism-like symptoms.   (AP Photo)
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