Science on Trial: The Omnibus Autism Proceedings and the Co-Production of Uncertainty.

In 2007 and 2008, after over 5,600 families of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder filed claims seeking financial recompense from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation (NVIC) Program, the court selected several 'test' cases consolidated into the Omnibus Autism Proceeding (OAP) to examine evidence about claims that the MMR vaccine or the ethylmercury preservative, thimerosal, caused the development of autism in young children. In the end, the court found all of the causation theories presented to be untenable and failed to award damages to any parents, but through these court cases American biomedicine has been forced to very publicly stand trial. The OAP hearings mark a turning point in the history of autism in the United States. They have been represented as a decisive victory for 'good' science, which effectively shut down any lingering debate about whether vaccine exposure was a potential cause for the development of autism in children (Kirkland 2012a and 2012b). And yet, parent groups continue to contest these findings and concerns about the safety of vaccination are widespread. Why? Through a detailed examination of the OAP court proceedings, we suggest that the answer can be found in the differential approaches to scientific knowledge production utilized by those on both sides of the controversy. Our aim is not to argue that either proponent in this trial (and in this debate more broadly) is 'correct.' Rather, we engage in a Foucaultian genealogy of knowledge production to show that the 'reality' of autism and its causation differs greatly depending on where one stands and which epistemic form one utilizes to attain evidence. In so doing, we attempt to break down the divide between lay and expert knowledge and show how science and society are co-produced (Jasanoff 2004), leading to two widely divergent interpretations of the world of autism and the role of uncertainty in scientific knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]