There will be a debate titled “Vaccines and Autism: Is There a Connection?” between David Kirby and Arthur Allen. The debate will take place in San Diego, California (UC San Diego Price Center, 9500 Gilman Dr. La Jolla CA 92093) on Saturday, January 13, at 10am:
Admission is free, provided you register with TACA before January 10. (Be prepared to give out a mailing address). Or you can pay $10 on-site.
Sponsors include Generation Rescue, SafeMinds, TACA and the Autism Research Institute so as you can imagine, the quackery quotient will be high – anyone who favours a bit of reality and is in San Diego should go and give Mr Allen some support as I think he’s going to need it – the audience sounds like it will be partisan to say the least. Apparently some mercury mum or other has suggested wearing t-shirts with pictures of their autistic kids on them. Sounds like it’ll be conducted on a sound scientific footing.
The other thing regards the NIH which, not being ‘merican I’m not up to speed with so I’ll quote Diva:
Would you like to have a voice in how the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) spends it’s autism research dollars? The NIMH may be getting a windfall of cash for autism research by way of the “Combatting Autism Act.” Whether or not they get that windfall, money will continue to be spent on autism research. Whether that research will benefit humanity to a greater or lesser degree depends on how the money is spent.
Many people shudder at the thought of science driving a big eugenics campaign where every last unfavored gene is scrubbed from the gene pool by culling or sterilizing the genetically defective, though it should be noted that not all studies of genetics are aimed at eugenics. If prenatal testing for autism sounds bad to you, for instance, or if another kind of research bothers you, what kinds of sensible research can be done with all that money? And how can you have a say in how the money is spent?
Go read this petition that will be sent to the NIH/NIMH, and if you agree with it, sign it. Signatures are needed before January 16th, it would probably be better to sign it by the Friday the 12th as that would give someone a chance to send the petition to the NIMH properly by the Tuesday the 16th. A few hundred or a thousand signatures would be really great.
Spread the word as quickly as possible :o)
Left Brain Right Brain 
Kev –
Tremendous dilemma for me! I live very close to UCSD, about a 30 minute drive. I am a staunch supporter of the fact that there is no link between mercury/vaccines and autism. I want to lend support here.
So the clear choice is to attend, right?
Not so fast. On Monday, January 15, 2 days after the debate, at 8:30 a.m., my wife is scheduled for a c-section at the hospital just off the UCSD campus.
So, should I spend the last weekend of our current family structure talking to the boys about the new arrival, doing social stories for my son to help him understand the trip to the hospital, soaking my kids with attention so they know they are not being diplaced by the new baby, and caring for my wife’s every need so she can be as comfortable as possible during her last weekend of pregnancy?
Or, alternatively, should I go to the debate, surround myself with rabid supporters of the mercury/autism thing, and gnash my teeth in frustration for a few hours?
Hmmmm…….Let’s see…….(insert “Jeopardy music here”)…..what to do?……..Ding! I’ll spend the weekend with my family.
Believe me, if it were another weekend without this type of conflict of schedule, I would be there for sure. I would love to offer a contribution to the debate, which certainly promises to be acrimonious considering bias of the expected crowd. But in light of the imminent birth of a new child, I think I will just cocoon with my family for the weekend instead.
Good choice ‘Friend.’ And I think you’re right, it’s going to be quite a spectacle.
Content yourself with the other ‘item’ of the two – far more practicable.
Cheers
Great decision, be with the family.
If you have a blog, belong to a group or even a friend to email, please spread the URL for the petition around.
It’s an issue that should be of interest to any disabled person and any anti-quackery fan, and anyone interested in US tax dollars not being wasted.
There have to be a thousand autism spectrum or suspected autism spectrum computer programmers/ web designers and generally concerned odd people who read stuff on the net, see if you can get some of them to sign the petition, please.
189 signatures on the petition, as of this moment … that means only 811 or so to go. I think it’s doable. Researchers from outside of the States can apply for NIH grants, did you know that?
I see Huckleberry Hound has signed it. I can only assume this was an accidental misspelling and will therefore pool my resources with other blogs who collect IP’s and see if we can identify the person and correct their errant spelling to their correct name.
Kev, how many signatures were on the petition when it was sent in? I thought about signing but because a certain person was watching I figured I’d better not because I wasn’t going to give him another fake excuse to put my full name on his blog.
Hope it all comes to fruition!
I’m not Kev, but, I’ll answer your question. I think it had 480 on the day that the petition was due. It had something like 455 when it was submitted the night before. I didn’t submit it to the NIH, but I linked to it in my email.
When there were 455 signatures about 150 of them were non US signatures. The NIH grants money to non-US researchers, so they may consider non-US voices in how the money is being spent, either way, the signers had their nation of residence labeled, with a few exceptions.