Archive by Author

Mark and David Geier promise its true

4 May

The South Jersey Courier Post carries a story today concerning the father and son team of Mark and David Geier.

They have presented at the branch meeting of the U.S. Autism & Asperger Association concerning their own branch of autism related woo – treatment with Lupron. A process that has led them to stretch the truth beyond breaking point numerous times, claiming false affiliations and using friends and family as members of review bodies in order to pass ethical regulations. In a wider world of autism related woo, this is a particularly sordid story.

The Geiers say excess testosterone increases the toxicity of mercury, which they claim is the primary cause of autism, and that the suppression of testosterone production improves the ability to remove the poisonous mercury — a method often referred to as chelation therapy.

The drug Lupron, or leuprolide acetate, lowers testosterone in autistic children, which then frees up the toxic mercury, the Geiers say. The Geiers, who operate eight offices nationwide under the name “Genetic Consultants,” found that testosterone blocks the body’s ability to make glutathione and that mercury binds to glutathione.

So, the Geier’s are still clinging grimly to the mercury = autism belief. A belief for which there is no sound science whatsoever and so much against it would take too long to discuss in one blog entry.

And they are also claiming that they have ‘found that testosterone blocks the body’s ability to make glutathione’. Searching PubMed for ‘lupron glutathione’ returns no hits at all. So where have they found this? Under the stairs? Why aren’t they publishing this science if they’re so sure?

Lupron lowers testosterone and…

To prove there is a hormonal connection to autistic children, the Geiers displayed several studies that showed a major side effect of high testosterone in children is precocious (or premature) puberty. The Geiers said they found signs of premature puberty, such as facial hair, body odor and early sexual development, in 80 percent of the autistic children in their clinic.

Weird stats. When I searched PubMed for ‘precocious puberty autism’ I got one result back:

This is a presentation and discussion of clinical and laboratory data obtained on 13 girls with Rett syndrome…..Precocious puberty and respiratory alkalosis were not found in our patients

Huh. Fancy that. Not found. And here the Geier’s are claiming an 80% correlation rate between autism and precocious puberty. Maybe that results from the test they’re using.

The Geiers said they found signs of premature puberty, such as facial hair, body odor and early sexual development…

And yet they somehow failed to perform the very simple and definitive test for precocious puberty – an xray of the wrist. If bone age is one year older than their chronological age then they have precocious puberty. Simple. And not done by the Geier’s. You have to wonder why.

And here we have more hidden science.

Mark Geier said laboratory tests at his clinic show that after just three months on Lupron, autistic children improved in dozens of cognitive and behavioral ways.

Next time someone tells you that ‘big pharma’ are using unindependant research, tell them this: science published in a mainstream journal has its methods and results clearly published so that other scientists can attempt to replicate them. That’s about as independent as you can get. Here we have the Geier’s simply saying these kids improved. No methods, no results, no science is shown. We’re just expected to take their word for it. That’s about as unindependent as you can get. Anyone would think the Geier’s have a vested interest in Lupron doing well.

Insurance companies start to abandon quack autism “cures”

3 May

Some good news. Mary Ann Roser reports on the investigations by major health insurers that are creating funding difficulties for autism clinics which specialised in unproven and dubious treatments for autism:

The owner of an Austin-area clinic that treats children with autism — using techniques that are controversial in mainstream medicine — says investigations by three major insurers have left it with a pile of unpaid claims and a crisis: She’s had to lay off most of her staff and drastically reduce the clinic’s hours.

In addition, Kazuko Grace Curtin said the Texas Medical Board is investigating her medical director. She and the doctor — Jesus Caquias — say the investigation is a way of harassing them because they offer nontraditional care for autism patients.
[…]
CARE Clinics is struggling now because Aetna stopped paying claims in August and is questioning “about $1 million” in claims, Curtin said. Cigna and United Healthcare stopped payments in October and are disputing smaller amounts that Curtin declined to reveal. United is paying again but at a lower rate, she said.

“What they were saying is, autism treatment is not established, it’s experimental,” Curtin said.

Spokeswomen for Cigna and United said the reviews were routine to ensure proper payments. Aetna declined to comment.

Curtin said she closed the two clinics in January to cope with the amount of paperwork she had to produce when the three insurance companies challenged charges for all patients treated in October, November and December. She reopened the Austin clinic March 6, but now it’s open 10 days a month instead of 20 and has 10 employees instead of 40, she said. The Tampa clinic won’t reopen until May, she said.

She also is delaying indefinitely a 30,000-square-foot medical building, school, corporate offices, sports facility, lodge and conference center in Dripping Springs.

“I need some funds,” Curtin said, declining to release specific financial details about her business. “I don’t know how long we can survive.”

The bad news is that while CARE Clinics extract money from increasing skeptical insurers, Thoughtful House is careful to extract the money directly from vunerable parents. Read the whole article for the other non-finanicial pressures on such clinics, and the pleas of victimisation from their owners.

HBOT quackery maims 4 year old

2 May

So it turns out that four year old Francesco Pio Martinisi had Cerebral Palsy.

HBOT is not a valid treatment for CP and there is no quality science to support the idea that it may be one day.

There is growing interest in the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO2) for children with cerebral palsy. Although there is no rigorous evidence to support this management, private hyperbaric centers have been established throughout the United States and Canada….

They are Italian and in an echo of Tariq Nadama, came to the US for a treatment not offered in their home country. CBS4 states they have spent ‘hundreds of thousands’ of dollars on HBOT ‘treatment’.

Nobody knows why the fire started but one thing is sure. There was no medically indicated reason for Francesco to be in that chamber. This was another totally unnecessary accident.

Young autistic adults in the news

2 May

As I read the news today I just liked these two stories. They are short and about teenagers/young adults with Asperger Syndrome or Autism.

The first one is about a 20 year old in a vocational rehabilitation program in Arizona. Goodwill needs employers for Workforce Development Program.

Here’s a quote:

Maldonado said when placing their clients they begin with their interests and for Jeff that interest is books, he loves books, encyclopedias, history, and science fiction.

“He loves books so much, he can get distracted,” said Maldonado with a chuckle. “Jeff is in charge of organizing our books and movies. He takes a lot of pride in what he does, he is very detail-oriented.”

As you can imagine, with this economy it is hard to make the jump from this job to a permanent job. I wish him good luck!

Another story, this time out of Rhode Island, Youth center changes young man’s life. In this story a young autistic found support with his church.

The young man, a parishioner of St. Brendan Church, said that he had no friends, and that his life centered around his mother Christine, a single parent and other family members who offered unconditional love and unwavering support, despite the challenging circumstances.

After many years of turbulence, Crosslin said that his life changed when he discovered the diocesan youth ministry centers two years ago while searching for a service project to fulfill confirmation requirements. He joined the building crew constructing the Haunted Labyrinth at the Rejoice in Hope Youth Center in Cranston, and later returned to the site as a character actor.

Sometimes I need to read stories like that to “decompress” from some of the other news in autism.

Woman and child hurt in HBOT explosion

1 May

CBS4 is reporting that a woman and child have been hurt in a HBOT Chamber explosion.

There is no indication that the child was receiving HBOT as part of ‘treatment’ for autism. In fact, there’s no indication the clinic in question practice HBOT for autism at all.

Or thats what I thought until I read this page. Recognise the lead name there?

Dr. Rashid Buttar, D.O., FAAPM, FACAM, FAAIM
Broken Pathway in Autism: The Mercury Poisoning of our Children and Their Inability to Detoxify

The very same Rashid Buttar who I wrote about in 2006? Yes. The same Rashid Buttar who has been subject to numerous disciplinary hearings? Yes.

The owners of this HBOT installation describe Buttar as ‘forward thinking’. Hmm.

And so, I have to wonder – was this child autistic and undergoing a totally pointless HBOT session when the chamber exploded? Time will tell..

EDIT

Orlando Sentinel say:

The boy was flown to Broward General Medical Center. Broward Sheriff Fire-Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles said the boy was badly burned and is in critical condition.

If you’re a praying person, then pray for this boy. If you’re not, then hope for the best outcome.

Generation Rescue: an autism research organization?

1 May

Generation Rescue has been trying to rebrand itself as a “research” based organization over the past year. This is a tough sell given their track record of promiting junk as science. Even if they didn’t keep touting their phone survey it would be difficult to forget it. Rather than write the effort off as bad, they cherry picked the “results” which support their political and public relations agenda.

I was reminded of this while I was writing a review of the Science Advisory Board for the newly minted Autism Science Foundation. Why not do the same for Generation Rescue?

it is worth noting that it would have been impossible to review GR’s science advisory board a year ago. It didn’t exist from what I recall. I recall checking fairly recently, and the advisory board consisted of one person.

But, that was the past. GR is ramping up their Advisory Board. Below is the current Advisory Board for GR. I use the ISI Web of Knowledge database to check for papers with the Science Adviser as “author” and the topic as “autism”, just as I did for the Autism Science Foundation. I also did a few other checks, as you will see.

S. Jill James

I get 11 autism papers for Dr. James papers in the search. One of which was cited 84 times (which is very respectable), but most of which have been cited 1 or 0 times.

I found something interesting on her website. Under “Research Support” she lists, “CDC: Mechanisms of Oxidative Stress in Children.”

I find it amusing that the top science adviser to Generation Rescue is accepting funding from the CDC. Were she on the “other side” of the fence on the vaccine question, GR would certainly have claimed that accepting money from the CDC is a clear indication of bias and would call for “independent” research.

I guess you can be independent and still accept money from the CDC.

Dr. Richard Deth

Dr. Deth was recently discussed by Kev, by the way. He has two autism papers in the ISI database. One of which was cited 31 times.

Woody R. McGinnis, M.D.

I only get 3 papers from the ISI Web of Knowledge database for McGinnis WR and topic=autism. Apparently they aren’t listing his papers in the Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology which came out last year.

Jerry Kartzinel, M.D.

I get no hits for an ISI search on papers for Kartzinel as author and subject=autism. He is, of course, the co-author with Jenny McCarthy on her recent book. Not exactly research, though.

This is not a group of heavy hitters in autism research. As noted, Dr. James has a few papers which have been cited a number of times. But, given the nature of this group (and of Generation Rescue) the question has to be asked–is this a real advisory board or is it for show? In general, this is a pretty lightweight group in the autism world. When Jill James is your “heavy hitter” you aren’t going to impress many people who actively watch autism research.

Besides, when has GR ever really acted like they want “scientific advice”? Seriously–they seem to be an organization which thinks scientists exist to confirm the observations of parents.

Compare this Science Advisory Board to that of the Autism Science Foundation, which we recently discussed. GR, an organization that has been around for years, is just putting together their Advisory Board and, well, the effort is slow to get moving. ASF had a reasonable Advisory Board at their launch.

But, Generation Rescue isn’t an organization to let their glass house stop them from throwing stones. You can imagine that when an organization like the Autism Science Foundation comes out with a stance against the vaccine/autism hypothesis it would see some “heat”. True to form, but I admit later than I expected, Kim Stagliano put forth a mild attack. As attacks go, it’s actually sort of amusing. Ms. Stagliano uses as her theme an idea that the ASF is stuck in the past in their approach to research. I find this attack by Ms. Stagliano amusing given Generation Rescue’s approach to research. GR’s concepts of research are like a neaderthal man found in a glacier: they represent ideas frozen in time, and ideas whose evolutionary path led to nowhere. You know the ideas: MMR and thimerosal caused an autism epidemic.

I am left wondering why Generation Rescue doesn’t have Dr. Andrew Wakefield as a science adviser. Certainly if anyone typifies the antiquated stance on science that Generation Rescue holds, it is Andrew Wakefield. GR certainly shows great admiration for the man who fueled the MMR/autism scare in 1998. But, it is one thing to admire the man, it is another thing to add someone to your advisory board whose research is considered an embarrassment by the vast majority of the research community. Who knows, Perhaps Dr. Wakefield turned GR down?

If I may take another minute on Ms. Stagliano’s blog post. She calls in the spectre of the Tobacco companies. It seems to be a favorite contrivance for her and the entire Generation Rescue/Age of Autism crowd. Favorite and patently ridiculous. Here’s what she had to say.

If the American Lung Association had spun off a new group headed up by those with a strong allegiance to Philip Morris and called themselves, INCS (“It’s Not Cigs Stupid!”) would anyone take them seriously outside of those with a financial interest in cigarettes?

The tobacco gambit is a bad comparison to autism from the outset. Epidemiology showed clearly that tobacco causes cancer. The epidemiology on MMR and thimerosal has shown they didn’t cause an “epidemic” of autism.

What takes the tobacco gambit from bad to ridiculous is when, only a few paragraphs later, Ms. Stagilano cites Bernadine Healy. Dr. Healy accepted tobacco company money as part of an organization which denied the dangers of second hand tobacco smoke. One sure sign that Ms. Stagliano’s post is basically propaganda–she refers to Bernadine Healy as “one of the most trusted doctors in America”. Er. Yeah. I would love to poll the “man on the street” and see how many have even heard of Bernadine Healy. Plus, I guess someone can be accept tobacco company money and still be “trusted”? Wll, at least as long as they support the “vaccines might cause autism” concept, eh Ms. Stagliano?

I actually wish Generation Rescue well with their effort to build a Science Advisory Board. I would hope that they would (a) find real scientists and (b) take their advice.

It would be a new direction for Generation Rescue.

Autism Science Foundation: a Research based org

30 Apr

We need more quality research in autism, no doubt about that. Private organizations can fund/manage this. But, there are Research Organizations and ‘research’ organizations.

I was interested to see the new autism organization emerge–the Autism Science Foundation. Kev has already discussed introduction of the ASF.

When I saw ASF’s webpage, I was immediately drawn to the paragraph on their scientific advisory board:

ASF’s Scientific Advisory Board, still in formation, includes Dr. Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom (UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; past program chair of the International Society for Autism Research); Dr. Ami Klin (Yale Child Study Center); Dr. Harold Koplewicz (NYU Child Study Center); Dr. Sharon Humiston (University of Rochester); Dr. Eric London (NYS Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities and co-founder of NAAR); Dr. Catherine Lord (University of Michigan); and Dr. Matthew State (Yale Medical School).

There are some well-known names in there. Dr. Catherine Lord, for one, is a real heavy hitter in the autism world. There are some other names that were new to me, so I decided to do a quick check on them. One measure I use is how many papers a person has in Autism. To measure this, I used the ISI Web of Knowledge database. I searched for papers with the person in question as author and with topic=autism. I checked number of papers and number of highly cited papers. Keep in mind that not all papers get listed by ISI. But, it is one way to measure how active someone is in autism.


Dr. Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom

Six papers found in the ISI database under the topic “autism”. This out of 58 papers total, many very well cited. He is also past chair of INSAR.

Dr. Ami Klin

32 papers on autism. Six of which have been cited over 50 times. That is impressive. He has six autism papers published in 2008–so he’s currently active in research.

Dr. Harold Koplewicz

He’s at the NYU child study center. I don’t get any hits for him as an author with the subject=autism in the ISI database. He does have a long publication record, though.

You may recall his name. Dr. Koplewicz and the NYU Child Study Center was behind the “Ransom Notes” advertisement campaign that didn’t go so well.

Dr. Sharon Humiston

She is affiliated with the University of Rochester.

I don’t get any autism publications from her in my search. What I do get in a Google search is that she testified with Jeffrey Bradstreet and others in Senator Dan Burton’s hearings on vaccines and autism. She welcomed the call for research into whether MMR or thimerosal were causing autism–so claims that she doesn’t have an “open mind” don’t apply here. However, she has been very clear on the idea that there is no evidence linking vaccines to autism. She does have a number of papers on immunization, as well as a book Vaccinating Your Child: Questions and Answers for the Concerned Parent.

Dr. Eric London

I get four autism papers for Dr. London in the ISI database. One of which, The environment as an etiologic factor in autism: a new direction for research shows that this is also someone who has demonstrated an “open mind” to the the idea that environmental causes could be important in autism etiology. But, I expect he doesn’t get much credit for that in the vaccines-cause-autism world since he doesn’t like the “correct” version of environmental etiology.

Dr. Catherine Lord

46 papers on autism, with 17 papers cited over 50 times. Wow, 1/3 of her papers are very highly cited! That is impressive.

Her bio includes this statement of awards:

Lord is Chair of the Early Intervention in Autism Committee, National Academy of Science. She received the Irving B. Harris Early Childhood Lecture Award in 2004 and was a Finalist for the New York University Child Study Center Scientific Achievement Award in 2005.


Dr. Matthew State

Dr. State is from Yale. I only get 3 papers from him in my search. One of which, though, is in Nature Genetics and has been cited 178 times. If you aren’t familiar with the Nature journals, I’ll point out that these are highly prestigious journals. Suffice it to say, nothing in the “vaccines-cause-autism” research world has even come close to a journal of this caliber.

This is a pretty good group for a brand new organization–one that is still growing. We will have to wait to see what the Autism Science Foundation does, but for now it appears that, yes, there is a new research based autism organization in town.

Two new genetic studies – care required

30 Apr

Its always interesting to read about new quality science and two new genetic oriented studies in Nature give us just that – quality science.

The first of two Nature studies released today found that 65 percent of autistic participants shared a variation between cadherin 10 and cadherin 9, a region of the genome that controls cell-adhesion molecules in the brain. Those molecules help brain cells connect, and autism researchers have long suspected that trouble there may be linked to the disorder.

…

The second study suggested a link between autism and an excess of genetic material associated with ubiquitin, a protein involved with cell-adhesion molecules and connections between brain cells.

Truly fascinating stuff it looks like and yet I think the time is fast approaching when the need for an ethics debate about this becomes paramount.

I am on record as saying that I do not think science could be (as oppose to should be) curtailed when following research interests. In other words, we couldn’t stop an autism researcher from finding a cause or cure even if we wished to. Politics and research science are a bad mix.

However, that should not ever stop us from debating how to use (if at all) such a thing and the following statement from one of the research members is – to me – a bugle call to start thinking of ways we (the autistic community and the scientific community) can do this and remain on good terms:

If we could remove this variant from the population, just take it away … as much as 25 percent of autism would disappear, which is highly significant,” Hakonarson said.

It is indeed, highly significant. It opens up not only a world of scientific possibility bit it must also open up a genuine debate about the ethical issues surrounding this. But before we do this we need to clarify statements like this. 25% of the entire ASD population? 25% of an individual? 25% of the more disabling aspects of autism? 25% of what exactly?

So we need to clarify things like this. Lets hope we can do this very soon and start a respectful debate between two camps who have worked well together up till now – science and neurodiversity.

A better future for autistic adults

29 Apr

Following on from the National Autistic Society’s I Exist campaign and the massive support for the Autism Bill in Parliament the UK Government, after working closely with an external reference group chaired by NAS chief executive, Mark Lever, has launched a

consultation process for the first government strategy to support adults with autistic spectrum conditions (ASC) to live life as full and equal citizens.

The consultation documents can be accessed online at the Department of Health. At present the consultation documents are print only but should be available to complete online before the consultation period ends on September 15th. The consultation only applies to England. The Welsh Assembly Government already has a Strategic Action Plan for Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), published in April 2008. An ASD Strategic Action Plan is being finalised for publication in Northern Ireland and in Scotland the ASD Reference Group has published guidance to local agencies on commissioning services for people with autism. While these separate arrangements may reflect local differences it will be interesting to compare them in order to see how adults are being served across the United Kingdom.

The government has outlined 5 areas of need: social inclusion, health, choice and control, awareness raising and training, and access to training and employment. The NAS has a broader range of concerns on its website which it would like people to consider when completing the government questionnaire.

So, after years of being ignored or ineligible, autistic adults are finally being considered and their views taken into account in formulating statutory guidance for local authorities. So spread the word and mke sure the government hears your views.

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The problem with the IACC is…

27 Apr

…that Tom Insel is too nice.

OK, that is as oversimplification, but bear with me. Dr. Insel is the director of the NIMH (National Institutes of Mental Health) and the chair of the IACC (Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee). As chair, he gets to run the meetings. Lucky him!

I say that with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Dr. Insel has a tough job trying to manage the IACC.

Let’s back up a little bit. The IACC committee meets regularly to work on producing a plan for the government’s research effort in autism. The idea is simple–gather together a lot of people who can bring their expertise to the table and work together to build a good plan.

Unfortunately, Lyn Redwood apparently didn’t get that memo. Ms. Redwood represents her organization (Safe Minds) as well as the views of a number of other autism organizations who promote the idea that vaccines caused an epidemic of autism.

Lyn Redwood spends each meeting as though it is held for everyone to listen to her talk about vaccines. I know that sounds like an exaggeration–it isn’t. Here is a quote from another member of the IACC committee from a recent meeting, speaking about an effort by Lyn Redwood to insert a large amount of new language into the Strategic Plan.

I’m just a little perplexed as to why we are actually looking at this. Because we worked so hard over many months as a committee and..you know..and as one person in the field who is constantly seeing more and more children with autism this sense of urgency seems to sabotaged by this constant barrage of another opportunity for one person of this committee to constantly try to rewrite the Plan. It doesn’t seem to be the correct process.

Dr. Insel then commented “There are heads shaking here.” “Heads Shaking” is what Dr. Insel says when people are nodding in agreement during a meeting. In other words–a large portion of the IACC agreed with the idea that Lyn Redwood was hijacking the process again!

The problem is, to say it again, Tom Insel is too nice. He gives Lyn Redwood a LOT of leeway to talk about…well, whatever she wants to talk about. Unfortunately, she spends a lot of time talking vaccines. Lots of time. The IACC doesn’t have lot’s of time to spend on any one subject. Especially a subject like vaccines that the rest of the committee clearly isn’t interested in discussing. To make matters worse, many of the discussions are nearly meaningless. “Should we phrase this noncommittal statement this way or that way?”

Another person draining a lot of valuable time from the IACC is Mark Blaxill. Mr. Blaxill is not on the main IACC committee. He is in one of the working groups (think advisory group to the main committee). While, luckily, he doesn’t get to vote in the main committee, in his own way he is worse than Ms. Redwood. He makes long speeches, filled with insults to the other committee members, calling those who don’t agree with him “Epidemic Denialists”.

It strikes this listener that Ms. Redwood and Mr. Blaxill are trying desperately to engage the other IACC people in a debate on the autism vaccine question. Ms. Redwood has offered to bring in papers supporting her position. Thankfully, Dr. Insel avoided that mess. I can easily imagine many of the researchers on the IACC thinking, “Gad! I already wasted part of my life on that junk science when I read it the first time. Can’t we just get something accomplished for people with autism here?” I mean, seriously, does Ms. Redwood think that people haven’t read the papers she leans on? The implications sounds like, “You don’t agree with me. That means you haven’t read these studies.” What she doesn’t understand is that pretty much everyone has read the studies she uses as support for the “mercury and vaccines caused an autism epimic” idea. Everyone has read them, and most who have read them find them to be really bad science. The academics could use them as examples of bad science for their students. Those studies are that bad.

Here’s some much needed background. The IACC committee is made up of a number of professionals and stakeholders. People fly in from all over the US to attend meetings–most of which are only a day long. The agendas are packed; there isn’t much time to waste.

Rather than accept that IACC meeting time is limited and precious, with many topics to cover, both Ms. Redwood and Mr. Blaxill act as though they are in one of Senator Dan Burton’s hearings, where the goal was to get as much of the idea that vaccines cause autism into the public record as possible–whether the science was good or not.

So, what’s happening while Ms. Redwood or Mr. Blaxill are talking? This is where the “Tom Insel is too nice” bit comes into play. Dr. Insel, chair of the IACC, allows them all the time they want to take (and they want a lot of time) to talk about vaccines. I don’t know how much of it is Dr. Insel being polite or how much is an effort to stave off future complaints that the vaccine lobby was excluded from the process. There are likely multiple reasons. Net result–lots of time taken up talking about vaccines.

Well, that’s not really accurate. There is a lot of time lecturing about the supposed vaccine/autism link. You see, there is almost no discussion amongst the commitee. Just the one-sided presentations by Lyn Redwood and Mark Blaxill. The rest of the IACC members often (almost always) remain silent. My guess is that they are just too smart to get dragged into the discussions. Yes, too smart. What purpose would it serve?

From what I can see, the rest of the IACC “gets it”. They “get it” in the fact that they already understand the vaccine debate. I don’t see the point in taking up committee and working group time with Lyn Redwood or Mark Blaxill pretending to be trying to educate the other members. The rest of the IACC also “gets it” in the fact that they understand to avoid getting sucked into the debate. Mark Blaxill would likely enjoy some blog fodder. The likes of David Kirby and Robert Kennedy Jr. would love to take everything out of context and misinterpret it for their own blog readers. All this would come at the cost of people with autism.

Dr. Insel could, I guess, limit the time that Ms. Redwood and Mr. Blaxill use. To be honest, he does manage their time somewhat, but much more would help keep the meetings productive. Dr. Insel is in a hard spot–even a reasonable level of limiting the discussion would obviously be used to fuel complaints that the vaccine debate is being quashed or the process is corrupt.

So, in the end, Dr. Insel plays the nice guy. What else can he do? Lyn Redwood and Mark Blaxill take advantage of it and, in the end, it is people with autism who pay the price when the IACC meetings are hijacked and the sense of urgency is lost as one person tries to rewrite the strategic plan.

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