Last Monday court proceedings began in Washington, DC with 4,800 families asking a special court to rule that mercury in vaccines had caused their children’s autism. It has many people in the medical and public health establishment worried.

The suit these families brought is unusual because it is the Federal Government, not vaccine manufacturers from whom the families are asking compensation. In 1986, Congress created the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Under the enabling legislation vaccine manufacturers are protected from liability for injuries caused by their products. Instead, injured families can take action in a court of so-called special masters who hear evidence, decide whether a vaccine caused harm, and determine compensation.

The medical establishment has closed ranks against these families. What worries them is that the standards they have used to reject mercury as a cause of autism will not be in play during the court proceedings. To win their case, the families must simply convince the court that the mercury theory is plausible. If the court agrees, that decision could establish a precedent for parents to easily opt out of mandatory vaccination programs for their children.

Two recent news items illustrate the alarm in the medical community. One had the title “The Truth About Autism.” In it the mercury theory is said to have been “soundly disproved” and worries extensively about the danger of questioning the value of vaccinations. The other news item was titled “Autism Debate Strains Family and Its Charity.” The grandparents of the autistic child created a high rolling foundation that funds research. The mother of the child criticized her parents because the foundation was backing off its promise to fund research into the mercury theory. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that the mother is portrayed as irrational, as is the mercury theory.

So far as I can tell, it’s not the quality of the science that’s causing the medical establishment, led by pediatricians, to puff itself up and deny any credence to the theory that’s been advocated by concerned families.

First, it’s incorrectly framed as vaccination causing the problem. While there are some scientists who have pointed to health problems caused by the number and timing of vaccinations, it is the presence of mercury in vaccines they claim causes autism. There’s lots of science showing that mercury is indeed a powerful neurotoxin and lots of epidemiology showing a relationship between exposure to mercury and autism—for example, a study in Texas showing that rates of autism increase as people live closer to coal-fired power plants, a major source of mercury.

Second, doctors talk as though anything that sullies the reputation of vaccination as a medical practice is heresy and will leave our children’s immune systems utterly defenseless. This confuses vaccination with immunity. Because alternative methods for developing a child’s immunity don’t fit into standard medical practice as doctor’s know it, they simply don’t see things like making environmental changes that help train a child’s immune system as viable. The ideology of vaccination as a miracle of immunity has a firm grip on the medical mind, which has a firm grip on what counts as effective health practice.

Finally, there’s professional shame. I think there’s a sense in which doctor’s don’t want to admit that they might have aggressively promoted something that in fact does harm on a massive scale.

I hope those 4,800 families prevail in court, that other families will have greater freedom in making informed choices about vaccination, and that the medical establishment will be forced to do some real science instead of cling to ideology and have the courage to admit they made a mistake.