On Monday I criticized Senator John McCain for giving credence to claims that vaccines are linked to the rise in autism diagnoses. Some believers in such a link point to the case of Hannah Polling, recently settled by the federal government, as evidence in support of their claims. Specifically, the government agreed that Polling's parents were entitled to compensation from the federcal vaccine injury compensation fund because vaccines "aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder, which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder." Today's NYT reports on the case:

Advocates say the settlement — reached last fall in a federal compensation court for people injured by vaccines, but disclosed only in recent days — is a long-overdue government recognition that vaccinations can cause autism. . . .

Government officials say they have made no such concession.

"Let me be very clear that the government has made absolutely no statement indicating that vaccines are a cause of autism," Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday. "That is a complete mischaracterization of the findings of the case and a complete mischaracterization of any of the science that we have at our disposal today." . . .

There are two theories about what happened to Hannah, said her mother, Terry Poling. The first is that she had an underlying mitochondrial disorder that vaccinations aggravated. The second is that vaccinations caused this disorder.

"The government chose to believe the first theory," Ms. Poling said, but added, "We don't know that she had an underlying disorder."

In a news conference on Thursday, Dr. Edwin Trevathan, director of the National Center for Birth Defects and Development Disabilities at the disease control agency, said, "I don't think we have any science that would lead us to believe that mitochondrial disorders are caused by vaccines."

UPDATE: Orac rounds up posts on the Polling case here.