Autism and Vaccines

One of the signals of our times is the dominant role that we expect the courts to play in making decisions.

I'm really struggling to understand why law courts could reasonably make a decision about the alleged and repeatedly unproven link between autism and an agent formerly used in vaccines.

There have been several large scientific studies done. Thimerisol has not been used for years, but the autism rates have not declined. There are no other statistically valid correlations.

Oh wait, there's a government fund with money in it, and the court holds the key.

Part of intelligent analysis is seeking what is not found in a presentation of information. How much suffering and death was forestalled because children were vaccinated against horrible diseases? How many children have not been vaccinated because parents were frightened by news stories about vaccines inducing autism and causing other problems?