Archive by Author

Believe it or not.

2 Sep

Believe it or not – ‘Believing is Seeing’!!!

I have heard people commenting that ‘Seeing is believing.’ But from now onward the process may change. They will believe first and then see. That is exactly what happened to me today.

I was taking my usual walk along the trail when I began to believe floating squirrels flying in the air frolicking over their newly found freedom from the hold of gravity all around me.

And because the squirrels knew that I believed in them, they began to show up one after another around my head. Some of them felt very encouraged by my believing in them and began to show all kinds of aerodynamic floating skills.

Most of them speeded past my head with their backs facing the ground and face looking upward to see the treetops from where they were being watched by suspicious birds. They knew those suspicious birds believed in them.

Those remarkable floating squirrels shared the air with dragon-flies and wasps, birds and water-vapour, aeroplanes and fairies, germs and locusts. They stretched their limbs to face four corners of the sky as part of some squirrel belief.

It was none of my business to ask them about squirrel beliefs. My belief at least showed them above my head whizzing pass by with random speeds.

I strongly believe others will also begin to see what they believe.

–

Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay

"I don't believe that"

29 Aug

To promote his new book ‘Autism’s False Prophets. Bad science, risky medicine and the search for a cure’ (Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon Canada) – and look for a review here very, very soon – Dr Paul Offit went on the US radio show Talk of the nation ‘Science Friday’ earlier today.

It turned into a microcosm of exactly the sort of scenario that those of us who have blogged about this for some time have come to expect. A question, a reasoned response and then a flat statement of denial.

The show began with the show host (who’s name I didn’t catch) asking why people weren’t vaccinating. Offit gave the answers we all know.

Then the show took a turn into what could’ve been a blog argument on any one of a number of blogs – including this one. A caller called Chantelle/Chantal came on the line and essentially asked Dr Offit how it could possibly be safe for a newborn to receive up to 1250micrograms of Aluminium and that there hadn’t been any studies on how Aluminium could affect a child. She said –

that is why I will not follow the CDC’s guidelines….my child will be vaccinated on my own schedule.

(Her emphasis)

Dr Offit answered with a brief overview of Aluminium’s role in a vaccine is and then told Chantal the simple truth – one that I blogged about fairly recently – there’s more Aluminium in between 50 days to a years worth of breast milk than in the entire vaccine schedule:

We live on the planet Earth. If we choose to live on the planet Earth that means we’re going to be exposed to light metals like Aluminium and heavy metals like mercury.

Chantal then seemed (I wasn’t entirely clear) to want to compare kids with kidney issues (who clearly need to be careful with Aluminium) with _all_ kids. As Dr Offit stated – that’s hardly a valid or real-world comparison.

Then the host asked a great question:

Chantal, is there anything Dr Offit could tell you that would change your mind

.

The answer: “Absolutely not”.

And there we have it. That is the rock bottom of every single argument the autism/antivax brigade peddle. Screw the science, screw the facts. I just don’t want to hear it and I will put my fingers in my ears and make ‘la-la’ noises until you go away.

Chantal then goes on to justify this ridiculous stance by saying (a la Jenny McCarthy) that there is no independent science supporting vaccine safety. This is tosh. A study this is submitted for peer review to a science journal is peer reviewed by independent experts from the relevant field all over the world. And then, the ultimate test of impartiality takes place – the science is either replicated or it isn’t. Replicated science _has to be_ by definition be independent of its author. How could it not be? If we want to see the opposite of reproducible science, then that can be arranged.

Chantal goes on to say that Dr Offit ‘makes millions’ from speaking about the safety of vaccines. A bizarre claim that I’m pretty sure is not true. He then goes on to describe the ‘high bar’ that vaccine studies must pass. Studies with tens of thousands of participants.

Next, Chantal tries the ‘too many too soon’ dogma that we’ve become recently familiar with. She claims ‘six at one time is absurd’. Dr Offit gives Chantal some facts to play with on that score too:

…the bacteria that live on their nose [a newborn], or the surface of their throat are literally in the trillions. Those bacteria have between 2,000 and 6,000 immunological components and consequently our body makes grams of antibody to combat these bacteria….The number of immunological challenges contained in vaccines is not figuratively, it is literally a drop in the ocean of what you encounter every day.

(Emphasis his, slight paraphrasing)

Chantal then got a bit snappy.

So tell me…how many studies have been done on vaccine loading, which means five or six vaccines at one time. How many?

Dr Offit’s answer:

Somewhere in the vicinity of the high hundreds to low thousands.

Chantal:

I don’t believe that.

Boom! There it is again – she simply doesn’t believe it. Screw the facts, screw the evidence, my fingers are going right back in my ears…la-la-la-la…I can’t hear you…

Dr Offit explains further that any vaccine in the US has to undergo something called a ‘concomitant use study’. These are to establish that vaccines work OK together.

You have to show that vaccine does not interfere with the immune response or the safety of existing vaccines and similarly that existing vaccines don’t interfere with the immune response or the safety of the new vaccine

Dr Offit said ‘high hundreds to low thousands’ of studies (Chantal didn’t believe that remember). A simple Google search reveals over 1,800 results for that phrase. Searching PubMed for ‘concomitant vaccine’ returns over 700.

Dr Offit closes the interview by saying he doesn’t believe all parents are as close minded as Chantal. He uses a nicer phrase than that as he’s a gentleman but that’s how I see it. Close minded to the point of obstinate stupidity.

For some people, it truly doesn’t matter what the facts are, or what the science is. They just stick their fingers in their ears.

La-la-la.

Reality bites back

29 Aug

I think Scripps is a School of Journalism associated with Ohio University. Maybe someone can correct me if I’m wrong.

Anyway, this little nugget popped up in my feed aggregator today.

Although two-thirds of the nation’s adults have heard concerns that vaccines might produce dangerous side effects, nearly three-quarters say the benefits outweigh the risks, according to a survey of 811 adults conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

They overwhelmingly report that it’s a “very serious concern” that nearly a quarter of the nation’s youth are not fully immunized against polio, mumps and measles.

The poll found that 66 percent had heard that “some parents and researchers say vaccines have side effects that may lead to autism, asthma, diabetes, attention deficit disorder and other medical problems.” About 33 percent had not heard of these concerns, and 1 percent was uncertain.

Seventy-one percent of the adults said “the benefits of immunizations outweigh the risks,” while 19 percent “have questions about the risks of immunization,” and 10 percent were uncertain or gave other responses such as “it depends upon the kind of immunization.”

811 people were polled via telephone.

Now, first off, lets not get carried away. Its an opinion poll and nothing more but its still pretty heartening. It also confirms an opinion I’ve long held: that the autism/antivax brigade are a noisy, unrepresentative minority. Also, that….well….

People with college degrees and post-graduate educations were especially likely to endorse vaccinations, while adults with only a high school education were more likely to be uncertain.

Ahem. Moving on…

I’d like to make sure that certain sections read this survey. It might (but probably won’t) give them some insight into how their actions are concerning their fellow citizens.

John McCain starting to back away from vaccines?

28 Aug

I’m a bit hesitant to blog about political figures from other countries. I don’t know an awful lot about John McCain other than he was a Vietnam (I think) veteran and was a POW for awhile. I know the Bush team sledged him pretty badly in the run up to Bush’s current term and I know he tries hard to cultivate a old-fashioned-take-no-shit-youngster attitude. I neither like him nor dislike him.

However, back in February he did irritate me quite a lot when he said:

[Autism]….is on the rise amongst children, the question is what’s causing it. And we go back and forth and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines.

It irritated me because firstly, there’s no evidence its ‘on the rise’ in the sense I think he meant it. There’s no way of scientifically telling from current studies if it is or not. In fact, the best science done so far on the issue (Shattuck, 2006) states:

The mean administrative prevalence of autism in US special education among children ages 6 to 11 in 1994 was only 0.6 per 1000, less than one-fifth of the lowest CDC estimate from Atlanta (based on surveillance data from 1996). Therefore, special education counts of children with autism in the early 1990s were dramatic underestimates of population prevalence and really had nowhere to go but up. This finding highlights the inappropriateness of using special education trends to make declarations about an epidemic of autism, as has been common in recent media and advocacy reports.

In other words, because autism has not been tracked well up until now, there is no way we can say with any degree of confidence that is increasing. It may be, but most scientists think that instead of an _increase in autism_ , we are seeing an increase in _accurate diagnosis_ of autism.

Secondly, McCain’s statement irritated me because, of course, there is _no_ evidence, strong or otherwise, that indicates autism is caused by preservatives in vaccines. And certainly McCain totally failed to provide any kind of evidence for this silly statement.

However, as election time draws nearer, it seems McCain’s statements are growing a bit more (he said with no trace of irony) conservative. Maybe someone explained the facts of life to him: after having someone of less than stellar brain power in office for the last eight years, it might be a good idea to evaluate things properly, rather than just sound off and come across as Dubya Part II.

Here’s what he said recently:

We don’t know what causes [autism]. There’s a huge debate going on now about vaccinations. And I’ve read and studied and gotten briefings, and I don’t know all the answers.

Thats quite a lot more circumspect than ‘there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines’. A simple statement of facts. After all, its true – we _don’t_ know what causes autism. And there _is_ a debate going on about vaccinations. And guess what? John McCain _doesn’t_ know all the answers.

I’m guessing McCain’s team have suggested to him that if he doesn’t want to be known as the also-ran who hyped up unfounded fears of vaccinations in the middle of a measles epidemic sweeping through the country he’s attempting to lead then it would be a good idea to engage his brain before opening his mouth.

Busy day at the Trib for vaccines

27 Aug

According to the Chicago Tribune’s “On This Day In History“, on this day in “1906 Albert Sabin, the Polish-American doctor who developed a polio vaccine, was born”.

Coincidentally, the Tribune had a couple of pieces on vaccines in the past few days. The main story, Kids’ vaccinations face risky resistance discusses how fears over vaccines and autism are causing a drop in uptake. This is worrying doctors given this year’s outbreak of measles in the U.S. The authors note:

Doctors say worried parents tend to find scientific data less persuasive than the horror stories they hear about vaccine side effects online or from friends. One expert said attitudes are likely to change eventually, but only after children start dying again of diseases parents have come to think of as obsolete.

Or, to put it another way:

“I think people have a hard time separating out what’s reliable information and what’s not reliable,” Dr. Ruben Rucoba, a Wheaton pediatrician. “What gets attention is not the statistics, but the story. All it takes is one friend of a cousin of a neighbor who they can point to who says, ‘My child got an immunization, and now he has a problem.’ “

Another page listed “Common Vaccine Beliefs“. Number one on the list being:

1. Vaccines cause autism.

The issue usually raised is thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative formerly common in vaccines. It has since been removed from most shots to reduce children’s exposure to mercury. Also, because signs of autism may appear about the same time children receive the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, some parents think there is a connection. Many studies, including a report by the Institute of Medicine, have concluded there is no association between autism and vaccines that contain thimerosal or the MMR vaccine.

The Trib has included some good links on vaccine information.

Bloggers respond to news. No big deal there. But, I find it is interesting to see one of the Trib’s own bloggers responding to Trib stories. Especially since the blogger, Julie Deardorff, as you can imagine if you know her blog, doesn’t agree with the Trib.

Ms. Deardorff has a number of pieces on vaccines and autism. She also is one of the AutismOne convention’s panelists on the media. She’s the one that AutismNewsBeat caught on video complaining that she isn’t allowed to “attack” vaccines.

Ms. Deardorff’s piece is “Why some parents question vaccines.” A statement towards the end makes it clear some of the mindset of Ms. Deardorff:

Vaccines represent social health without regard to individuals. That’s how they work.

Ah. Yeah. It’s hard to comment well on such rubbish, other than to thank Ms. Deardorff for actually putting that in a public place so we can understand her position. OK, I’ll add this comment–that’s not how vaccines work. She would do well to peruse the links her own organization has provided for some education on how vaccines do, in fact, work.

Scrolling back to the beginning of her piece, we see her actual thesis:

In the past, most parents didn’t question childhood vaccinations because they inherently trusted medical officials and feared common childhood diseases.

She then goes on to discuss that this trust has eroded. She takes no credit for her small part in contributing to this erosion of confidence (nor does she mention any of the other people and groups actively working to erode confidence). Instead she places the blame on public health community:

But the real crisis is not that some parents skip or delay vaccination because they believe vaccines might pose health risks or are linked to autism. It’s that they’re losing confidence in public health officials and policy, partly because vaccines are being forced on them, regardless of their personal desires or beliefs.

She then, without any indication that she sees the irony, lists a number of events and adds her own odd interpretations in order to erode confidence. I pick a few out for example:

In Maryland, parents who didn’t vaccinate their children against chickenpox and Hepatitis B were threatened with jail time and fines.

This is a grand example of Ms. Deardorff facilitating the misinformation campaign of the vaccine rejectionists. Here is the form that people in Maryland have to submit on their children’s vaccine status in order to enter the children in school. The same form has the exemption clause. In other words–the parents could have avoided any and all pressure by filling out that form. Instead, the vaccine rejectionist parents decided to make a political statement by not submitting the forms in order to gain publicity.

The AAP issued a sample letter to pediatricians suggesting that physicians tell parents who refuse to vaccinate that they have a “self-centered and unacceptable attitude” since their child is getting protection from others who have chosen to vaccinate. Parents who absolutely refuse to vaccinate could be booted from your pediatrician’s practice.

I haven’t asked our pediatrician what his policy is on vaccine rejectionist clients. I hope that when I brought my children in at 1 month, 2 months, etc., that they weren’t being exposed to vaccine-preventable infectious diseases like some of the children in San Diego’s recent measles outbreak. Yes, some children caught measles in doctor’s waiting rooms. I have zero problem with pediatricians telling vaccine rejectionist parents to find vaccine rejectionist pediatricians.

I really hadn’t intended to discussing all her points. I started with just one. The one that really caught my eye was this:

Research suggests that America might be over-vaccinating its kids and that we might want to re-evaluate and adjust the immunization schedule. But not because of health concerns; the vaccines might just be unnecessary and waste a lot of money according to the study by researchers with Oregon Health & Science University published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The article she is referring to (I believe) is a favorite of rejectionists groups and websites. The abstract is here, and the full paper is available free.

I have a lot of concerns with the above statement by Ms. Deardorff, but I will concentrate on this on this phrase: “…the vaccines might just be unnecessary and waste a lot of money…”

Which vaccines, Ms. Deardorff? Which vaccines? Your phrase is very vague. I am often vague and don’t use language accurately, but I don’t have the Chicago Tribune’s name behind me. You see, Ms. Deardorff, your statement makes it sound like it is the “vaccine schedule” that is in question. Not a fraction of it, as the actual research would suggest. Sloppy writing is one thing. When it supports your quest to “attack vaccines” it makes me question whether it should be attributed to mere sloppiness.

Let’s take a look at the story that was scary enough to be quoted by JABS. “Report: Vaccine booster shots may be unnecessary”.

So, it isn’t the schedule in whole, it isn’t even really the pediatric schedule for the most part, it’s the booster shots. What they found is that in adults–most of whom had immunity from infections, not from vaccines, by the way–kept immunity for a long time. Half-lives of immune cells were longer than human life-spans.

They measured half-lives for both people with natural immunity and for people with presumed vaccine immunity The group with the presumed vaccine-induced immunity was quite small, as noted in the supplemental information given online:

However, it is important to note that this is based on a very small sample size (n = 2-5 subjects) and more studies on a larger group of vaccinated individuals will be necessary to determine statistically significant antibody half-life measurements.

Thus the data on vaccine-induced immunity are quite limited. But, taking the data that we have, they don’t say “… the vaccines might just be unnecessary and waste a lot of money…” as Ms. Deardorff interprets them.

I found the study rather interesting, actually. I found it interesting since one of the tried and true arguments promoted by vaccine rejectionists is that vaccine immunity is short lived and “natural” immunity is somehow better. I find it interesting that JABS, GR (they host the paper on their website) and other groups latched on to this study, yet, they seem to neglect what it may actually teach.

What I also found interesting was some information I found searching for Dr. Slifka (the anchor author on that study). Turns out he wrote a review of Dr. Offit’s book “Vaccinated”. I’ll leave you with two quotes from that review:

More recently, unfounded concerns over theMMRvaccine and the use of mercury-containing preservatives have fueled a fiercely debated controversy over childhood vaccines and their suspected links to autism

and

Offit ends by emphasizing the power of preventive medicine and hopes that the great strides in vaccinology, in large part due to Maurice Hilleman, will not fall to complacency and ignorance.

Sharyl Attkisson's 3rd autism/vaccine concession

26 Aug

A few days ago, I posted an entry about Sharyl Attkisson’s breathless parroting of ‘facts’ regarding a case from 1991 based on a child born in 1974. This case was settled in favour of the child. It transpired (of course) that the Special Master had in fact said nothing about autism whatsoever.

However, an interesting comment was left by ‘M’ who said:

Dravet syndrome? It is a genetic disorder, de novo mutations of the sodium-channel gene SCN1A. Children with these mutations are seemingly normal until they have the first high fever episode (it could be post-vaccination fever as well) – then the syndrome manifests with epileptic syndrome and subsequent developmental delay (encephalopathy). The genetic diagnosis was not possible until recently – the mutation was first identified in 2001.

An intriguing possibility that I read and then with my usual stunning foresight, totally forgot about.

However, I got an email yesterday that raised the issue once more. I cannot share with you who its from, a fact that is rather annoying (but understandable, this person doesn’t want to expose themselves to the loving care of the mercury militia) but I assure you, you would recognise this name.

The writer assumes that this is a vaccine injury because the special master determined that this was a compensable case. However, this event occurred in 1974 and the hearing in 1990-91. Now, in 2008, it is obvious that the epilepsy and resultant developmental impairment and “autism” are not caused by DTP but, rather, are due to Dravet syndrome (or severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy), which is a genetic epilepsy with a mutation or change in the SCN1A gene. The evolution is typical of this disorder. It is a very temperature sensitive epilepsy (a 1 degree Celcius elevation is sufficient to trigger a seizure) and is not caused or aggravated by any immunization. Berkovic et al described this entity as a cause of vaccine encephalopathy in their Lancet Neurology 2006 paper.

I am concerned about the superficial investigatory actions of this writer (actually no real investigation was done – she assumes everything to be true). I thought I would share this information with you and let you use the information as you wish.

I can’t find a copy of the entire transcript, but from the parts Attkisson transcribed and quoted and comparing the evolution to the Dravert Syndrome home page, it certainly does look like a good match.

So what does that imply? Well, if its _not_ Dravert Syndrome then, nothings changed – still not autism though. If it _is_ Dravert Syndrome then it goes to show how little we know about genetic disorders and how careful we should be about rushing to judgements.

Endemic in the UK

25 Aug

Endemic:

Adj. 1. endemic – of or relating to a disease (or anything resembling a disease) constantly present to greater or lesser extent in a particular locality; “diseases endemic to the tropics”; “endemic malaria”; “food shortages and starvation are endemic in certain parts of the world”

Or, another example is measles in the UK.

How very shameful in the year 2008 that we have allowed one person to create an all-encompassing atmosphere of fear – groundless fear at that – that has allowed a disease that 10 years ago was virtually unheard of to return with such vengeance that two children have died in the past two years and many more have been hospitalised.

There are two reasons I find this shameful. Firstly, there is the fact that as an autism parent I am ‘judged’ every time I leave the house. We all are. The people who stare, the people who do double takes, the people whispering behind their hands. What are they saying now? How long will it be before the general public cotton on to the fact that measles _is_ now endemic is largely due to autism parents and the quacks they pay huge amounts of money to? As a community of parents we are divided and when people ask why that is or ‘can’t we just come together?’ on this issue, this is why.

*I cannot condone or stand by quietly whilst the autism community sinks into becoming a convenient media scapegoat. Neither can I stand by and say nothing whilst autism parents sink deeper and deeper into anti-vaccinationism and pretend that hospitalisation and death in the name of chasing a belief for which there is no proof is OK.*

The CDC’s Jane Seward (deputy director of the division of viral diseases) is interviewed today by Scientific American.

…in the 1960s, right before the vaccine was developed, it killed 400 to 500 children every year out of 500,000 reported cases at that time.

That’s a death every 1,111 reported cases. The current US measles epidemic has 163 cases. You’re nearly 15% there already.

Seward also says there were 4,000 cases of encephalitis a year resulting from measles in the 60’s and goes on to describe some of things that can follow on from encephalitis. Quite a lot of anti-vaccine believers say that encephalitis can lead to autism. Taste the irony.

Kelli Ann Davis doesn't get it

23 Aug

Over on Orac’s blog, a discussion is ongoing about (you guessed it) thiomersal.

One of the usual antivax canards is played beautifully by Kelli Ann Davis when she says:

So Phoenix Woman [another commenter], can you explain to me what the skull and crossbones is doing on the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) if thimerosal is not a poison

This is top notch antivax stupidity. Not only does she entirely miss the point of ‘Phoenix Woman’s’ comment (which was not that thiomersal was not a poison) she also infers that the fact that thiomersal is a poison means that its automatically going to cause damage. She conveniently forgets – or doesn’t care – that the adage ‘the dose makes the poison‘ always applies.

And of course we have the scare tactic of mentioning the skull and crossbones.

Thing is, there are plenty of other Toxic substances used routinely in medicine. Lets have a look at Warafrin – which is at one level rat poison and at another level an anticoagulant. And hey – look at that – the MSDS sheet has a skull and crossbones on it.

Common clinical indications for warfarin use are atrial fibrillation, the presence of artificial heart valves, deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, antiphospholipid syndrome and, occasionally, after myocardial infarction.

And also

To this day, coumarins are used as rodenticides for controlling rats and mice in residential, industrial, and agricultural areas. Warfarin is both odorless and tasteless, and is effective when mixed with food bait, because the rodents will return to the bait and continue to feed over a period of days until a lethal dose is accumulated.

So, lets spell it out nice and slow for Kelli Ann – the dose makes the poison.

And so, lets have a look at the current dose levels of thiomersal in vaccine shall we?

For an ‘average’ person of 154 pounds, there is 6mg (miligrams) – or 6000 micrograms(µg)) of mercury occurring naturally in the body. So, roughly, a person of 25 pounds has 1mg (1000µg) of mercury (or, to put it another way, 1 pound of body mass gives us 40µg). A healthy newborn weighs on average about 7.5 pounds which gives a mercury body burden of approximately 303µg of mercury.

When we look at the FDA thimerosal content of vaccines currently mandated and add them all up we see that we get 239.2µg of mercury – way under what occurs naturally in the body of a healthy 7.5 pound newborn.

Now, this is not even a fair comparison. I have added up all the vaccines for a child of 6. Including doubling up on doses of a vaccine made by different manufacturers. Quite obviously a child won’t get a Td jab from two different manufacturers at one time. I have also included all the flu jabs – again, no one will get all flu jabs in a single flu season.

The maths is quite clear. There is more mercury existing naturally in our bodies – even those of a 7.5 pound newborn – than the combined total of every single thiomersal containing vaccine on the market.

Dear civilised world

22 Aug

Hi, I’m parent to an autistic child. I want to write a letter to apologise for the actions, inactions and unerring stupidity of some of my fellow parents of autistic people.

You see, we have become something of a scapegoat, us autism parents. But – it has to be said – a scapegoat who really can’t protest too much that we are so designated. A sizeable minority of us have done exactly what you accuse us of and what you are so irritated about. In fact, I know it goes beyond irritation to fear and I can understand that.

‘Measles Cases Grow in Number, and Officials Blame Parents’ Fear of Autism‘ says the New York Times. Officials have a good point. In the last two years, two teenagers in the UK have died from measles. In 2006, a 13 year old boy became the first person to die from measles in 14 years. In 2008, he was joined by a seventeen year old. Of particular poignancy was the fact that both of these children were genuinely unsuitable candidates for vaccination and were thus relying on herd immunity.

How sad that these children were victims of grown adults negligence and irresponsibility.

In the first six months of this year, 131 people in the US have contracted measles. Fifteen people were hospitalised. Thankfully, none have died. Of those 131 people, 63 chose (or their parents chose for them) not to vaccinate.

I guess what I really need to apologise for is the attitude displayed in the face of a disease that can kill. Some say that they’d rather measles than autism. One parent I know of said:

…..15 American children were hospitalized with Measles. None died. How many children with autism drowned least year? Deadly indeed.

Drowning would seem to be an elevated risk for autistic children (if anyone can get that paper I’d like to read it – got it now – thank you 🙂 ) however, I think that’s really besides the point. This is year one of what looks like the _start_ of a measles epidemic in the US. Over here, its about year four. If things continue at this pace, measles deaths will easily outstrip drowning deaths or any other accidental deaths of autistic kids. It should also be noted that its highly probable that the drowning deaths will be much more common in populations that have domestic pools. That’s a very uncommon feature in the UK for example.

So please civilised world, please remember that this vocal minority do not speak for us all. Please remember before we are all tarred with the same brush that many of us believe in and accept our social responsibilities as well as our parental responsibilities. We know vaccines don’t cause autism. We need you to make more noise about how unacceptable it is to live amongst those who _choose_ not to vaccinate.

IACC Wants to Hear From You

21 Aug

The IACC was formed after the Combating Autism Act was passed last year. Their role is to help formulate the direction of future scientific research.

As I have blogged about previously,autism/antivax groups are attempting to short circuit this process. These groups include SafeMinds and Generation Rescue. They claim to want to represent autistic people and the parents of autistic people.

The only way actions and groups like this can be stopped is for as many people as possible to contact the IACC with their own thoughts on the draft plan the IACC have. The plan is as follows:

Children with or at risk for ASD will be identified by 24 months and receive appropriate interventions.

Discover how ASD affects development, which will lead to targeted and personalized interventions.

Causes of ASD will be discovered that inform prognosis and treatments and lead to prevention/preemption of the challenges and disabilities of ASD.

Interventions will be developed that are effective for reducing both core and associated symptoms, for building adaptive skills, and for preventing the disabilities associated with ASD.

Communities will implement high quality, evidence-based and cost-effective services and supports across the lifespan for people with ASD.

Advances in intervention, education and services will support and enable individuals on the autism spectrum to lead fulfilling and productive lives in the community.

I personally like the bare bones of this plan a lot.

You need to respond. It is imperative that autistic people and parents of autistic people that do not believe in the unscientific agendas of certain groups allow their voices to be heard.

Full details of how to make your points and who to send them to (please note – the deadline is 30th September) is on the NIH website.

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