Task: Explanation
Input (English): Paragraph: A nurse extracts a vaccine in a file photo. Federal health officials said on Thursday the government has not conceded that vaccines cause autism even after a Georgia girl won federal compensation in a case arguing a vaccine led to her brain damage. REUTERS/Phil Klein  Hannah Poling, 9, had a rare mitochondrial disorder and a  federal court ruling said regular childhood vaccinations may  have contributed to some of her autism-like symptoms. She was  awarded compensation under the National Vaccine Injury  Compensation Program in a case that became public this week. Some activists who argue vaccines can trigger autism jumped  on the case as vindication of their cause. But Dr. Julie  Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control  and Prevention, denied this. “Let me be very clear that (the) government has made  absolutely no statement about indicating that vaccines are a  cause of autism,” Gerberding told reporters in a telephone  briefing. “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. So I think we need  to set the record straight on that.”    The vaccine injury program is a no-fault system that has a  $2.5 billion fund built up from a 75-cent-per-dose tax on  vaccines. It was set up to ensure companies would not be afraid  to make vaccines, and to provide injured children an easier way  to seek compensation. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed by parents who argue  their children have autism caused by vaccines. The Institute of Medicine, an independent organization set  up to inform U.S. policy, has found there is no evidence that  vaccines can cause autism. Many recent studies have come to the  same conclusion. Some autism advocacy groups argue that a mercury-containing  preservative in vaccines called thimerosal can cause autism. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain entered  the debate last week, saying there is “strong evidence” linking  autism to a thimerosal. Dr. Edwin Trevathan, director of the CDC’s National Center  on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said the  Poling case did not demonstrate any link between vaccines and  autism. “I think it’s also worth noting that most children with  autism do not seem to have a mitochondrial problem,” he told  the briefing. “So this association between mitochondrial disorders and  autism is actually probably relatively rare. But the  association between mitochondrial disorders and severe brain  damage and dysfunction is one that is not as rare and is  actually quite important.”    Trevathan said it is not clear whether a fever caused by a  vaccine might further stress a child with such a condition,  causing autism-like symptoms. Autism can have relatively mild symptoms or can severely  disable a child by interfering with speech and behavior. No one  knows what causes it. The CDC estimates that about one in every 150 children has  autism or a related disorder such as Asperger’s syndrome —  560,000 people up to age 21 in the United States. “Our message to parents is that immunization is  life-saving. There’s absolutely nothing changed in the adamant  recommendations that we are making to get children vaccinated,”  Gerberding said. Claim: Still no autism-vaccine link, say health officials.
Output (English): Federal health officials said on  Thursday the government has not conceded that vaccines cause  autism even after a Georgia girl won federal compensation in a  case arguing a vaccine led to her brain damage.