Talk:Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services/GA1

GA Review edit

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Reviewer: GregJackP (talk · contribs) 07:28, 5 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

Rate Attribute Review Comment
1. Well-written:
  1a. the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct. Abbreviations are not identified prior to first use, rendering the prose unclear. For example, what is the HRSA? It is not clearly identified as the Health Resources and Services Administration. MMR is never identified as measles, mumps, and rubella. See below comments.
  1b. it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation. See below comments.
2. Verifiable with no original research:
  2a. it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline. Although not required for GA status, there are some bare URLs that are cited, while some are done via CS1 templates. It is a better practice to be consistent.
  2b. reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose). Infobox contains inaccurate information. Court is the United States Court of Federal Claims, not the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Lead is inaccurate, the case started July 3, 2002 (see Docket of Omnibus Autism Proceeding.)
  2c. it contains no original research. See comments.
3. Broad in its coverage:
  3a. it addresses the main aspects of the topic. The article does not describe the flow of a vaccine case, nor the role of each part.
  3b. it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).
  4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
  5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:
  6a. media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content.
  6b. media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.
  7. Overall assessment. No significant improvement after holding open for over a month.

I am starting the review, but have a great many concerns.

First, while the science on this may be accurately described, the legal process and description is not. The article does not clearly identify that there were several distinct test cases, including Cedillo v. Sec'y of Health & Human Services, 89 Fed. Cl. 158 (Fed. Cl. 2009) aff'd, 617 F.3d 1328 (Fed. Cir. 2010); Hazlehurst v. Sec'y of Dept. of Health & Human Services, 03-654V, 2009 WL 332306 (Fed. Cl. Feb. 12, 2009) aff'd sub nom. Hazlehurst ex rel. Hazlehurst v. Sec'y, Dept. of Health & Human Services, 88 Fed. Cl. 473 (Fed. Cl. 2009) aff'd sub nom. Hazlehurst v. Sec'y of Health & Human Services, 604 F.3d 1343 (Fed. Cir. 2010); and Snyder ex rel. Snyder v. Sec'y of Dept. of Health & Human Services, 01-162V, 2009 WL 332044 (Fed. Cl. Feb. 12, 2009). It concentrates on Cedillo only, with only passing mention of the other two.

Second, there was no "verdict" in the case. The special masters issued findings of fact and a decision, not a verdict. There is nothing in the record that I've found that indicates that there was a verdict, yet there is a section in the article titled verdict.

Third, there is no background about the Vaccine court in the article, with only a "See also" mention. As this is a cause of action in the "Vaccine court", there should be some discussion in the article about the court.

I will go through and look at this in more depth, but it may be prudent to withdraw the nomination, work on the legal side of the article, and re-nominate it at a later date. Regards, GregJackP Boomer! 08:21, 5 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

Comments edit

Infobox edit

  • Case is misidentified as Cedillo, Hazlehurst, and Snyder v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, while it is actually three separate cases:
  • Cedillo v. Sec'y of Health & Human Services
  • Hazlehurst v. Sec'y of Dept. of Health & Human Services
  • Snyder ex rel. Snyder v. Sec'y of Dept. of Health & Human Services
  • Cedillo v. Sec'y of Health & Human Services, 98-916V, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 146, 2009 WL 331968 (Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. Feb. 12, 2009) aff'd, 89 Fed. Cl. 158 (Fed. Cl. 2009) aff'd, 617 F.3d 1328 (Fed. Cir. 2010)
  • Hazlehurst v. Sec'y of Dept. of Health & Human Services, 03-654V, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 159, 2009 WL 332306 (Fed. Cl. Feb. 12, 2009) aff'd sub nom. Hazlehurst ex rel. Hazlehurst v. Sec'y, Dept. of Health & Human Services, 88 Fed. Cl. 473 (Fed. Cl. 2009) aff'd sub nom. Hazlehurst v. Sec'y of Health & Human Services, 604 F.3d 1343 (Fed. Cir. 2010)
  • Snyder ex rel. Snyder v. Sec'y of Dept. of Health & Human Services, 01-162V, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 193, 2009 WL 332044 (Fed. Cl. Feb. 12, 2009).
  • Judges are misidentified as being on all cases.
  • George L. Hastings, Jr. heard Cedillo
  • Patricia E. Campbell-Smith heard Hazlehurst
  • Denise Vowell heard Snyder
  • Appealed to is incorrect (see above on courts)
  • Really, as this is three separate cases, there should be separate infoboxes. Another option is to re-title this as Cedillo v. Sec'y of Health & Human Services and discuss this case. It would allow you to just mention the other two cases, as is currently done in the article. Otherwise the information on those cases need to be drastically expanded. More to follow. GregJackP Boomer! 17:13, 5 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

Lede edit

  • The first sentence misstates the legal action. The trials involved three individual cases. The use of the phrase "concerned approximately 4,800 families" is inaccurate and infers that this was a class action suit, which it was not. The cases affected a great many people, but that was a subsequent event or development, not part of the case or trial itself.
  • MMR vaccine is not clear, and should be spelled out for its first use as "measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR vaccine)."
  • The lede does not summarize the body of the article. See MOS:LEAD.
  • Citations do not belong in the lede. See WP:CITELEAD.
  • The lede is too short. The article is 36K, so the lede should be three or four paragraphs, minimum. See WP:LEADLENGTH. More to follow. GregJackP Boomer! 18:44, 5 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

Background edit

  • It is not clear that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) is a trust fund established to pay claims on injuries. The statement also needs to be cited to a source.
  • NVICP should link to National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, not redirected to Vaccine court. Vaccine court should be linked to, but under its own name and to explain its purpose, which is different from the purpose of the NVICP.
  • The background only covers the Cedillo case.
  • There is no discussion of the Autism General Order #1, issued July 3, 2002, by Special Master Gary J. Golkiewicz, which established the unique process and handling of these claims.
  • For example, procedural matters were decided by the three masters together, but individual cases were decided by individual masters, per the requirements of the statute.
  • No mention is made of the discover process that lasted from 2002 to 2006, nor that this is an extremely unusual amount of time for discovery.
  • No mention is made of the three theories of claims.
  • There is no mention of Petitioner's Steering Committee (PSC), nor that the Cedillo case was selected to test the first theory, "(1) that the combination of the MMR vaccine and thimerosal-containing vaccines can cause autism. . . ." Cedillo, at *9.
  • There is no explanation of the test case approach.
  • There is no discussion of the Hazlehurst or Snyder backgrounds. More to follow. GregJackP Boomer! 20:48, 5 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

Overview edit

  • Again, no discussion of the Hazlehurst or Snyder cases.
Plaintiff's case edit
  • Last sentence about Hasting's decision needs to be in the Verdict section, not in the plaintiff's case section.
Opposing arguments edit
  • Too much "countered" testimony, to the point that the prose becomes unclear.
Verdict edit
  • As previously noted, there was no verdict in these cases.
  • Although only one case is discussed, this section addresses the rulings in all three cases.
  • The discussion of three subsequent cases, Mead, King, and Dwyer, needs to be in a Subsequent developments or Impact section. More to follow. GregJackP Boomer! 02:44, 7 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

Impact edit

  • No source cited for SafeMinds quote.
  • No source cited for Rebecca Estepp quote. If these two quotes are supported by the LA Times source, it needs to be clearly identified in the article.
  • No source cited for Paul Offit quote.
  • No explanation on the actual impact, other than the quotes issued immediately following the decision.

References edit

  • Citations are not consistent, although this won't affect GA status.
  • Some have periods following, some do not.
  • Some appear to use CS1 templates, others do not.
  • FN1 does not support the material.
  • FN2 is behind a paywall and should be identified as such. It does not support the 4,800 number, nor the statement about MMR vaccine, thimorosal, or a combination of the two. WP:OR.
  • FN3 does not support the material. It says nothing about the families seeking compensation.
  • Checked through FN10, more to follow. GregJackP Boomer! 13:00, 8 January 2014 (UTC)Reply
  • FN14 does not support the quote "autistic children have a greater body burden of mercury." The quote does not appear, although similar language does appear.
  • As this appears to occur throughout the article, the references need to be completely reviewed. GregJackP Boomer! 17:16, 11 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

On hold edit

I am placing the article on hold for the nominator to correct the deficiencies. GregJackP Boomer! 17:18, 11 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

Fail edit

I am failing this article. There has been no significant improvement in over a month, and almost no edits during that time. GregJackP Boomer! 17:31, 9 February 2014 (UTC)Reply