Archive | Autism RSS feed for this section

Autism pre-birth gene test. Here?

22 Jul

Has the day finally come?

CombiMatrix Corporation (Nasdaq:CBMX) announced today that it has launched an updated version of its ATScan(tm) test for pre-disposition screening for autism, through its wholly owned subsidiary CombiMatrix Molecular Diagnostics (CMDX). The ATScan test has been updated to encompass recent discoveries published in the journal, Science, which confirm the role of several new genomic imbalances in the etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

The product page for this testing is here.

CMDX is proud to offer the first of our ATScan™ suite of BAC (Bacterial Artificial Chromosome) array CGH (Comparative Genomic Hybridization) based tests. ATScan™ is designed to detect known genomic copy-number variations (CNVs) associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and this test is now available to our physicians and consumers.

I can’t find anything out about this test – such as price or reliability. Any comments would be welcomed.

Michael Savage – bottom lip trembling

22 Jul

The Michael Savage autism saga carries on as he issues a whiny please to ‘please don’t judge me’.

I grabbed his latest whine so you don’t have to visit his site. As I said, he starts off with a plea (you can almost hear the tears in his voice) not to rush to judge him. In my view, you should judge him. I know I do.

He then goes on to say that the _truly_ autistic child (apparently there are no autistic adults) – that 1% of all diagnosed autistic people that is left over from Savage’s 99% of fakers – need as much help as they can get. I would agree with that included in that help they need to be shielded from ultra-stupid cowards who don’t even have the balls to stand by their self professed opinions for a week.

He then goes on to say that its the falsely diagnosed, the misdiagnosed and the outright fakers (???) – the 99% of all autistic people in Savage’s opinion if you recall – who need to be ‘found out and turned out’ so that the money can go to the right people. A direct quote:

that was the essence of my conversation last week

Uh, no it wasn’t. You said (and I quote) that autism was:

a fraud, a racket……What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’

My autistic child screams and is silent. If you came round to my house and call xyr an idiot, I’d kick your arse square. You sell T-shirts on your website that read ‘Peace through superior firepower.’ I therefore judge you to be a person who respects violence. I also wager (and feel free to come and discuss it in person) that my foot is harder than your arse.

You then ask, rhetorically, ‘why would I chose to attack defenceless children, when I have never done so in my life?’ Only you know the answer to that, but I would imagine the word ‘ratings’ have quite a lot to do with it. But I think this time it has bitten you on the arse, coward. You have firmly established yourself as a ‘man’ who _does_ attack children. Disabled children at that.

Savage seem to be one of these new type of celebs that have sprung up in both the US and my country – famous for having a big mouth and little substance to go with it. After all, scum floats on the top. Personally, I think these are the people who should be found out and turned out.

Happy Birthday Katie

22 Jul

Today, Katie McCarron should have been six. Just about three years older than my youngest and two years younger than my oldest pair of girls.

Its still difficult – impossible – to think of Katie without thinking that in a fair and just world, we would never have heard of Katie and she would be just another little girl, one amongst billions, anonymous and safe.

I know that Katie’s family will be going to her grave today and so I ask you that, if you are the kind of person who prays to pray hard for them. They must go through the pain soon of an appeal hearing as Katie’s killer seeks once more to escape her responsibilities. If you not the sort who prays, then send them good thoughts.

If you look on the home page of this site you will see a pink ribbon on the left hand side. This is my best graphical representation of the pink ribbon, chosen by Kassiane and worn by the McCarrons every day of the killers trial and by me too during those days as Mike and Paul brought some over to us when they visited us last year. Please click that ribbon for photographs of Katie. Remember her.

There is also a memorial grove where you can donate money for a grove of trees for Katie. Her dad and grandad visited the grove and saw the young living saplings that her life had inspired to be planted. They grow wild and free, as should a little girl from Illinois in whose memory they thrive.

David Kirby vs Accuracy

20 Jul

As I’ve said before, I like David Kirby personally. We exchange friendly emails. We even recently discussed the idea of having a private blog – readable by all but one that allowed only two posters (David and I) and no commenters. This would, I suggested, give us the opportunity to have a civil debate.

Unfortunately, David was too busy, which was a shame. However, the offers always open should he find a bit more time.

He did have time yesterday to blog a piece for the Huffington Post in which he discussed Amanda Peet and said she was ‘against the medical establishment’ for taking the stance she did. He cited a few things to support his point. I’d like to discuss these things but before I do I’d like you Dear Reader to take note: someone who was at the IACC meeting David talks about (he wasn’t there) will hopefully be posting their account of proceedings on LB/RB.

Anyway. Lets proceed. David’s first piece of rhetoric to support the idea Amanda Peet was against the medical establishment was:

A workgroup report of the IACC (the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, which includes HHS, CDC, NIH and others) says that some members want “specific objectives on vaccine research” included in the new, multimillion-dollar national autism research program, as mandated by Congress in the Combatting Autism Act.

I’m sure that some members do want this. Lynn Redwood and Mark Baxhill to be precise. As the upcoming IACC account will show, I don’t think any other IACC workgroup members were interested. (Please see this correction of an ignorant Limey’s take on the US system.)

I would also like to correct David on his characterisation of the Combating Autism Act. The Act contains no mention of vaccines. It specifies environmental research but the words ‘vaccine’, ‘vaccination’ ‘immunize’, ‘immunization’, ‘mmr’ or ‘thimerosal’ appear nowhere in the CAA. I hope David will correct his HuffPo piece accordingly.

Notes from the meeting indicate that workgroup members want federal researchers to consider “shortfalls” in epidemiological studies cited as proof against a vaccine-autism association (by Offit, Peet, et al); as well as a specific plan “for researching vaccines as a potential cause of autism.” The workgroup also says that the final research agenda should “state that the issue is open.”

Once again, David’s notes are coming from two people, Lynn Redwood and Mark Blaxill and indeed – they asked for all these things. The account of the meeting I have heard (from someone who was there) differed somewhat. As a flavour of how much the majority of the working group listened to Redwood and Blaxill, I enclose a teaser quote from chairperson Tom Insel:

“Lyn, your community is not the whole community and there are many people with well thought out concerns about ethics of the concept of prevention and if we want to be inclusive we will not do this.”

Back to David:

July 14, 2008 – Rep. Brad Miller (R-NC), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, (Committe on Science and Technology) writes to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt to complain that current federal autism research “shows a strong preference to fund genetic-based studies,” even though there is, “growing evidence that suggests a wide range of conditions or environmental exposures may play a role” in autism.

I blogged that episode here. Suffice it to say that a _politician_ is not representative of the medical establishment. I would urge everyone reading this to read that piece as it suggests amongst other things that Generation Rescue and SafeMinds be responsible for a Board that would serve as a liaison between the IACC and parents of autistic people and autistic people themselves!. After reading that I would urge everyone to contact the following people to express your thoughts (politely!) to the decision makers:

HHS Sec Mike Leavitt (mike.leavittAThhs.gov)
NIMH director/IACC director Tom Insel (tinselATmail.nih.gov)
Everyone here: http://science.house.gov/about/members.htm

Once again, back to David:

Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the NIH and the American Red Cross and current Health Editor of US News & World Report tells CBS News that, “Officials have been too quick to dismiss the hypothesis as irrational,” and says they “don’t want to pursue a hypothesis because that hypothesis could be damaging to the public health community at large by scaring people.”

I still can’t get over the fact that David is using this person to back up his points! He continues to trumpet the opinion of Bernadine Healy who actually did assert that cigarettes do not cause cancer and worked closely with Philip Morris to do so. She also totally reneged on her stance on fetal tissue research when she found herself in the same camp as President Bush. In AoA language she’s a shill.

David then goes on to cite al three Presidential Candidates – as if a politicians opinion in an election year means anything! I definitely fail to see what any of them have to do with being part of the medical establishment.

Onwards:

March 29, 2008 – Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of the CDC, speaking about the Hannah Poling case on CNN says: “If a child was immunized, got a fever, had other complications from the vaccines, and was pre-disposed with the mitochondrial disorder, it can certainly set off some damage (including) symptoms that have characteristics of autism.”

Er, so? I’m really not sure how this is a ‘point’ for David (or anyone else who thinks its supportive of the idea vaccines cause autism). If she’d said ‘yes, vaccines caused autism in Hannah Poling’s case’ (which no-one ever has by the way, despite statements to the contrary) than _that_ would be a bombshell. As it was Dr. Gerberding was simply speaking what is obvious.

David again:

The CISA Network (Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment), headed by the CDC, receives a report from top researchers at Johns Hopkins University that 30 typically developing children with mitochondrial dysfunction all regressed into autism between 12 and 24 months of life. At least two of them (6%) showed brain damage within one week of receiving simultaneous multiple vaccinations.

Now, I can’t answer this as much as I’d like to. I have spoken to people involved in the preparation and writing of this report (as has David) and I was given two take home points from our email chat:

1) The science is _not yet complete_ . The paper is not published.
2) The authors feel ‘disappointed’ in the slant David has put on their work and are loth to discuss it with anyone else due to that. I was told that David might be rather surprised when everything comes out later in the year.

David once more:

Medical Personnel at HHS concede an autism case filed by the family of Hannah Poling in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, before the claim can go to trial as a “test case” of the theory that thimerosal causes autism. Though portrayed by some (ie, Dr. Offit) as a legal decision, it is in fact a medical decision. HHS doctors admit that the “cause” of Hannah’s “autistic encephalopathy” was “vaccine-induced fever and immune stimulation that exceeded metabolic reserves,”

First of all, I beg to differ with David. The concession was a legal one. By definition the phrase “autistic encephalopathy” does not exist in mainstream science so if it was used (a fact which has yet to be determined – I invite David once more to link through to the document where this is stated). A simple test of its non-existence is to search for the phrase on PubMed. I got:

Quoted phrase not found.

So we have a multitude of uncertainties here:

1) Nowhere (except in David’s writings) can we find evidence of HHS apparently saying “autistic encephalopathy” caused Hannah Poling’s autism.

2) The phrase itself (“autistic encephalopathy”) does not appear in the entire PubMed database, thus causing me to doubt its use by the medical establishment.

3) Is the concession legal or medical? If a diagnosis does not exist but is used in a legal document then by definition it must be legal – thats my opinion anyway.

David also mentions a HHS Vaccine Safety Working Group meeting but I know next to nothing about that so can’t comment.

I have to say that based on the above, David seems to be attempting nothing more than an intellectual ‘land grab’ i.e. to attempt to paint those who claim vaccines cause autism as part of the medical establishment and those who stand against them as not. Its a good political idea but I don’t think its going to work. There are just too many holes in this particular boat for it to float for long.

Socially aloof? Moi?

19 Jul

A New Scientist report discusses an intruiging new study that reports on how parents of autistic people process visual information. Turns out they do it very similarly to their autistic offspring:

The study evaluated how parents of autistic children evaluated facial expressions and found that they gauge the faces in exactly the same way as people having the disorder, despite them not being classified as autistic themselves.

And

They discovered that while those having autism had to make effort to read others’ emotions, all three groups of parents scored equally on the task, getting it right around 83 percent of the time.

But, when they paid attention to how the parents were judging the faces, it was found that the socially aloof parents with autistic children were increasingly dependent on looking at the mouths of the faces, and not the eyes.

“This bears a striking resemblance to what we have reported previously in individuals with autism,” New Scientist quoted Adolphs, as saying.

On the other hand, neurotypical people seemed to be more interested in looking at people’s eyes, in order to read how they are feeling.

This is yet another small cog in support of the genetic case for autism and a pretty interesting study in its own right.

“It definitely supports the idea that there is a genetic basis to autism,” says Angelica Ronald, an autism researcher at Kings College London.

One emerging theory is that behavioural traits such as introversion are passed down genetically, so if you have a parent who is introverted and another who is mildly obsessive, their child could be at increased risk of developing autism – although environmental factors are also likely to play a role as well.

The ‘social aloofness’ of parents of autistic people is something I’ve heard mentioned time and again, both online and amongst the parents I know locally to me. They (me too) tend to have few close friends and are quite happy with that, they are not big fans of smalltalk and are very happy with that. They have a few other features of autism too, which is again, not an unknown phenomenom.

I have heard some criticism of this study that it is tying to bring back the Bettlheim era of ‘refrigerator parents’. I don’t see how myself. That useless, unscientific idea expressley blamed parents for their children’s autism, stating it was a direct cause of bad parenting. This is is just an interesting take on how the parents of autistic kids in this study processed information in a way similar to their kids. The idea of blaming onesself for the genes you carry is faintly ridiculous anyway.

Cookie Mag talks to the expert (not plural)

18 Jul

Cookie Magazine has found itself getting a lot more traffic than normal as of late. Amanda Peet was featured and spoke out for vaccines.

Lock the doors! How could someone say vaccines are good!

Well, we all know how people can jump on that subject. All too well. Amanda Peet got her information by talking to an expert of vaccines, Dr. Paul Offit. She was pretty darned lucky to have a connection like that, in my view.

Long story short, after statements, an apology (but not backpedaling!), lots of internet discussion, a threat here and there, Cookie Magazine now has posted some interviews with Dr. Offit (vaccine expert) and, huh?, Dr. Jay Gordon.

Oh, Kay. Dr. Jay, on the same level as Dr. Offit?

Actually, I think I’ll print out the Dr. Offit interview for people with questions. As for Dr. Jay, well, here’s the final quote:

How do you reconcile the notion of not vaccinating with the public health benefit that you mentioned earlier?
I think that the public health benefits to vaccinating are grossly overstated. I think that if we spent as much time telling people to breastfeed or to quit eating cheese and ice cream, we’d save more lives than we save with the polio vaccine.

People seem to think there are two sides to this discussion. Yep, there’s preventing disease and stopping people from eating cheese.

Amanda Peet Aplogizes…

17 Jul

…about the word parasite but at the same time, she holds her ground on the issues surrounding vaccines.

She notes that the term “parasites” was “mean and divisive”.

I wanted to address my comment in Cookie magazine that “parents who don’t vaccinate their children are parasites.” I believe in my heart that my use of the word “parasites” was mean and divisive; I completely understand why it offended some parents, and in particular, parents of children with autism who feel that vaccines caused their illness. For this I am truly sorry. Since my mom has Parkinson’s Disease, I know what it feels like to want a concrete cause, and a concrete cure, as soon as possible.

Cookie Magazine deserves the click-through, so go ahead and read the entire statement. Here’s another taste, though:

However, I still believe that the decision not to vaccinate our children bodes for a dangerous future. Vast reductions in immunization will lead to a resurgence of deadly viruses. This is as indisputable as global warming. I know a lot of parents who secretly use as a justification, “Well, enough other people are vaccinating, so therefore, we don’t have to.”

Unfortunately, the apology is not being met well in some circles. I’ve already read people comment that she couldn’t have written that herself. Just a thought here: she graduated from Columbia, not Google U.

I’ve been told recently that it’s really neat how both sides of a story can be told. So, in that spirit, here’s a link to Jenny McCarthy’s apology to Dr. David Tayloe of the AAP and Dr. Harvey Karp, for shouting “bull****” at them on TV. I promise to put it up when I get it. Maybe I missed it.

In searching for a possible Jenny McCarthy apology, I tried a search for jenny mccarthy apology. What I got was a lot of hits to the Amanda Peet apology. Including AutismVox.

Is this guy for real?

17 Jul

From Media Matters:

On the July 16 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage claimed that autism is “[a] fraud, a racket.” Savage went on to say, “I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ ” Savage concluded, “[I]f I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, ‘Don’t behave like a fool.’ The worst thing he said — ‘Don’t behave like a fool. Don’t be anybody’s dummy. Don’t sound like an idiot. Don’t act like a girl. Don’t cry.’ That’s what I was raised with. That’s what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You’re turning your son into a girl, and you’re turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That’s why we have the politicians we have.”

SAVAGE: Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism, since I’m not talking about autism? A fraud, a racket. For a long while, we were hearing that every minority child had asthma. Why did they sudden — why was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I’ll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], “When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], ‘I don’t know, the dust got me.’ ” See, everyone had asthma from the minority community. That was number one.

Now, the illness du jour is autism. You know what autism is? I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is.

What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, “Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.”

Autism — everybody has an illness. If I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, “Don’t behave like a fool.” The worst thing he said — “Don’t behave like a fool. Don’t be anybody’s dummy. Don’t sound like an idiot. Don’t act like a girl. Don’t cry.” That’s what I was raised with. That’s what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You’re turning your son into a girl, and you’re turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That’s why we have the politicians we have.

So this mans dad said: “Don’t behave like a fool. Don’t be anybody’s dummy. Don’t sound like an idiot” eh?

Doesn’t sound like the advice sunk in.

Oh and next time someone tells you we don’t need more autism awareness, play them this.

Comparison of EvidenceOfHarm traffic and VAERS autism reporting

17 Jul

This will be a quick post. The following is a graph (obtained from compete.com last month) of the EvidenceOfHarm.com traffic pattern from May, 2007 to May, 2008. Click for a bigger version.

The effect of a couple of well known events over the last year is clear in the graph. Traffic spikes up on the same month or a month after the event; then it returns to baseline after a relatively short period of time. Note also that the Hannah Poling event was apparently more important that the McCarthy event.

I also collected the number of VAERS reports that have “autism” listed in the Symptoms field submitted every month from May, 2007 to May, 2008. You can see a time series of this data in the following figure.

My interpretation of this? The majority of VAERS reports related to autism are driven by publicity rather than unequivocal occurrences of vaccine injury. Of course, other interpretations are possible.

Legal Bombshell in Autism Omnibus Proceeding!

17 Jul

This is a Guest Blogged piece, written by a beloved legal expert – Clem Heckenberry.

In what can only be described as a legal bombshell, the Petitioners in the Autism Omnibus hearings seemingly withdrew four of its highest profile experts to support the various claims that say that vaccines cause autism. The experts are James B Adams, Mark Robin Geier, Boyd E Haley and Andrew J Wakefield. The ‘New’ experts are those we recognise from the testimony offered thus far. Indeed, this reporter can find no further mention of Adams, Geier, Haley or Wakefield as expert witnesses for the petitioners.

If this case was in the civil arena, the withdrawal of four experts of such magnitude would in all likelihood result in sanctions, a directed verdict or the total failure of the case as in the time Jeff Bradstreet (another expert for the petitioners) left his clients high and dry. There’s no way to spin this as a positive development for the petitioners.

Drs. Adams, Geier, Haley and Wakefield were apparently unwilling or unable to testify about the substance of their beliefs and ‘science, leaving only the report and testimony of Dr. Asphosian, a scientist who has not devoted significant time to the question of mercury and autism. (At one point in his career it’s alleged that Dr. Asphosian claimed that the argument that ‘the dose makes the poison’ was wrong.)

I spoke with various people about this development and they also agreed that this was knocking out some of the petitioners strongest pillars that autism is related to thimerosal or MMR. All those I talked to considered it difficult to underestimate the near-hilarious reputation of these four experts in the field of autism. Their apparent unwillingness to testify on these matters suggests they cannot sustain their previous assertion that thimerosal or MMR has anything to do with autism.

Although the parties are continuing to submit motions and it appears unlikely that there will be a decision this summer, the withdrawal of these experts are likely to have profound consequences.

UPDATE: There’s a good chance this might be satire, although the facts are true..

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →