"Tidal Wave" of Young Adults with Autism about to Flood Cash-Strapped California

Broke California will begin the new decade with crushing debt and wholesale elimination of human services. Meanwhile, President Obama has rankled Congressional Democrats with plans to earmark millions of dollars in NIH funds to find the causes and cures of autism.

Are these two things related? You bet they are.

Barack Obama is not a stupid man. He sees the budgetary train wreck hurtling down the track towards the US Treasury. His Administration knows that the number of adults with autism in this country is about to explode. Parents can't foot the bill, so taxpayers will have to. The price tag will be stratospherical.

Isn't it better to earmark millions in autism research funds right now for NIH to identify the causes of autism - despite outcries from Rep. Obey, Sen. Harkin and others - in order to save hundreds of billions further down the road?

It's called frontloading the budget, and if we don't do it, the coming army of young adults with autism will march in and break the bank.

Anyone who thinks that a lot of people with autism somehow "grow out of their disorder" by adulthood should take a look at an important article published today in the Sacramento Bee.

Here, you will meet California residents such as Marlon Barton, a 6'2", 283-pound "strapping young man who flaps his hands and makes odd noises," according to reporter Cynthia Hubert. "No one knows quite what to do with him," she says.

Marlon Barton is 26 years old and "acutely" autistic. He scares people. My heart goes out to him, and to his amazing mother.

But they are hardly alone.

"As a tidal wave of these youngsters moves toward adulthood with complex behavioral and medical problems, society is largely unprepared," Hubert writes. "The futures of hundreds of thousands of autistic people in America cannot be ignored for long."

Dr. Robert Hendren, director of the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, concurs. "We don't have the programs. We don't have the research," he warns. "We have this very large adult population of autistics coming along, and we don't know how to deal with them. We just haven't come to terms with it."

California has certainly not come to terms with it - and I have no idea what will happen to the thousands of young people in need who will be showing up at state offices in the next few years, their parents desperately seeking services.

Currently, 81.7% of all autism cases in the state Department of Development Services system are under 18, but that ratio is about to change fast.

There are now 6,300 adult Californians receiving autism services through DDS. But over the next four years, more than 4,000 teenagers will join their ranks. By 2018, the total number of adults with autism will more than triple, to 19,000 people -- each requiring tens of thousands of dollars (or more) in care, education and support services, every year.

California cannot afford it.

Which brings us back to President Obama. By 2023, the US will have some 380,000 people who will need "extensive adult services," at the cost of billions of dollars a year, Hubert writes. "Care providers are just beginning to grapple with how to deal with the surge, even as governments slash social services to cope with budget deficits."

That may be one reason why HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the Obama team, "is attempting a 'balancing act' of respecting science while trying to find cures for autism and cancer," according to The Hill newspaper in Washington.

Anyone still trying to lull Americans into complacently believing that autism is a genetic disorder that has always been with us in such staggering numbers (we just never noticed before) needs to stop doing that. Now.

It's time to stop pretending this isn't happening.

Autism's toll on children, families, friends and caregivers has been devastating. President Obama knows that the disorder will now exact its toll on taxpayers. I am encouraged that Federal health officials are finally moving to identify all possible environmental autism triggers - including vaccines - so we can finally learn how to slow this spigot down.

Why not spend money now to find the causes and cures for autism? If we don't, that tidal wave will just keep on washing over us.

Comments

[Teddy V]

You parents better be ready to take care of your children as long as possible because the country is broke. We already borrow the money for day-to-day government functions - sooner or later (probably sooner) the creditors will close down the saloon. We are going to be thrown back on the traditional way to take care of the helpless; family and friends will take up the slack as they once did.

[mbaty]

This is why we need universal healthcare. And this is why we need a society that does not measure every expense in dollar amounts, but rather in the quality of life for all, with shared resources. This is also why we should allow the class action lawsuits against big pharma to proceed--and those lawsuits are the reason for so much disinformation propaganda being spread about how "safe" vaccines are. But they would cover so much of the coming costs of dealing with autistic individuals, and we know big pharma has profited mightily from vaccinating kids with an exponentially larger vaccine schedule. In the end it doesn't matter if vaccines are the cause or not. We will have to deal with the fallout, as they say, of a for-profit health care system that has money as it's main priority. And in the meantime we should be very careful about the neurotoxins we inject into our little people.

[isjois]

"A 2008 preliminary case-control study based on a parent survey presented evidence that the common pain/fever reliever paracetamol (acetaminophen) following MMR vaccination is apparently associated with development of autism in children aged 1–5 years. The effect seemed to appear only in children who show some post-vaccination regression together with other post-vaccination sequelae such as fever, and it was not seen with other painkillers such as ibuprofen. The effect has not been independently confirmed.[63]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy#cite_note-62

[isjois]

Mr. Kirby - When will you write about the acetaminophen issue, as it pertains the autism debate?

Thimerosal has been present in many of our vaccines. If mercury is influenced by testosterone levels - or vice versa - we'll naturally see more males affected. Mercury has many side effects - but isn't one, it's impact on our immune systems? If our children are full of mercury (from Thimerosal) - then they receive "live virus shots"....aren't they more apt to contract the same viruses that they are suppose to be protected against? Many children with autism and children with encephalitis mimic one another's symptoms. The kids get their "mercury" shots and then their "viral" shots and are more apt to present with encephalit­is/encepha­lopathy...­and mercury toxicity...and autism.

Why isn't there more discussion about acetominophen? Many parents are advised by their doctors to give children "Tylenol" when they receive their shots - to counter "side effects (like fever)". Since acetaminophen suppresses liver function and glutathione production - how many of "our children" have been harmed by this "innocent" drug?

Under your post - under "More in Living" - is a link to an article about Tylenol and liver damage. When will you write about this topic? Couldn't it be playing a role for a lot of our kids? If our kids didn't get so many vaccines, they likely wouldn't ingest so much "Tylenol". But, couldn't "Tylenol" be a "player" in this epidemic?

[J Mac]

Why isn't there more discussion about acetominophen? Many parents are advised by their doctors to give children "Tylenol" when they receive their shots - to counter "side effects (like fever)". Since acetaminophen suppresses liver function and glutathione production - how many of "our children" have been harmed by this "innocent" drug?

A very good question, and one that I would like to see answered.

It's interesting to note that the director of Defeat Autism Now! is none other than Jane Johnson, one of the members of the Johnson and Johnson family (as in the makers of Tylenol). She and other members of her family have also been donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund Dr. Wakefield's work at Thoughtful House, most likely to ensure that the focus of autism research stays on vaccines instead of their own toxic waste product.

http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/annual-report-2007.pdf

see page 11.

[nowGo4ward]

This is a very important message, and you are right about the value of looking for causes and cures now instead of continuing on the present course. I think we also need to act on the knowledge we already have.

I believe the cases in the state Department of Development Services may only be the crest of a wave few are viewing as a whole. My California-born child is not affected enough to be included in the above numbers, yet, if no intensive acceleration is made in her development, she will probably need some level of supervision, personal care, and financial support all of her life. How many parents are to be put in the position where they might have to hope to outlive their children to try to care for them?

[nowGo4ward]

I look at the children around me with learning disabilities, asthma, diabetes, allergies--children who often have co-existent conditions of immune and neurological damage--yet there is little sense of urgency to investigate, prevent, and reverse what damage we can, and frankly, I think some of the causes are pretty obvious by now, even if they have not been officially backed up by research that leaves no tobacco-ty­pe-researc­h-intended­-to-confus­e-and-dela­y-wiggle-r­oom.

This isn't a multi-decade research opportunity to study individuals who were "hardwired" in their genes to become chronically ill, and maybe find "treatments" to "control" symptoms and "improve their quality of life." This is a wake-up call for a much need societal environmental course change that should have happened yesterday.

What will our children see happen to the health of their children? How will they thank us decades of inaction (excluding people like yourself who work very hard to help us see what is happening)?

[Halsey]

I still get confused...did "they" (pharma)..change the vaccines some time in the last 40 years?...I mean..I got all the vaccines in the 60's I guess...and didn't know ONE autistic child in my grade/high school years...so something must have changed..what is it..I'm serious..I dont' have kids..but still need to be educated on this pandemic that seems to have happened in the last 15 or so years..and keeps on keeping on? I mean.we MUST vaccinate for measles...but what did THEY do to the vaccines to make them toxic?

[nowGo4ward]

My understanding is that they've changed many things, but essentially they gave about 10 vaccinations over a lifetime in the past compared to approximately 27 (now 36) in the 90s by Kindergarten, with the majority of those injections given in the first 18 months of life.

They've begun making more combination vaccines (DTaP, MMR, MMRV) as well as giving two or three doses of most vaccines (in case the first didn't produce a significant titer response) within months of each other, as well as boosters before Kindergarten because for many the immune response has waned by five years (vaccines do not confer lifelong immunity). This means children are vaccinated for multiple diseases in nearly every "well-baby" visit.

Also, while they lowered the age (body weight) for receipt of these vaccines they did not proportionately lower the amount of ingredients such as thimerosal (mercury), aluminum, etc. These ingredients are being injected in doses that exceed what guidelines we have for daily exposure by extreme amounts, while we apparently do not have any safety guidelines for this type of bolus dose exposure (and this is assuming the child doesn't already have an ongoing exposure to these in their environment).

[usna73]

Accurately stated. May I add that the overhwhelming preponderance of multi-dose vials using Thimerosal as preservative did not come to the marketplace until the 1980's, thus increasing the odds that a child could receive more than he/she could handle.

[SpiralUp]

I was born in 1960 and recieved vaccines for 5 diseases. Children today get a minimum of 13, and some get many many more, and get them younger, while their brains and immune systems are still immature.

[MNmommy]

You didn't know any, because they weren't in the schools. They were either warehoused in institutions or at entirely separate schools.

Legislation mainstreaming disabled children into schools didn't pass until the later half of the 70's.

[JohnDanStone]

My previous post should have read:-

'A good article, having said which we have to note that "autism epidemic" denialism, which has set us back so many years was always closely allied to "vaccine causes autism" denialism, and these were always closely allied projects, as in this article by Eric Fombonne, who was retained by the vaccine companies:'

[JohnDanStone]

David

A good article, having said which we have to note that "autism epidemic" denialism, which has set us back so many years was always closely allied to "vaccine causes autism", and these were always closely allied projects, as in this article by Eric Fombonne, who was retained by the vaccine companies:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/107/2/411

The fallacy in this article (though I was much less experienced in these matters in 2001) was already evident when it was sent to me at the time by a British civil servant - for Fombonne the absence of controls in the data, was sufficient reason for retreating behind the static incidence theory. But all those years ago no sane person could have looked at the data and not have been extremely troubled. I hope we are not going to spend another decade pretending that it might not be the vaccines: frankly there is already sufficient evidence of obfuscation and malfeaseance (let alone the direct evidence of parents) for vaccines to be the main - although not only - suspect.

And let's face it the pharmaceutical industry are already pinning their growth forecasts on huge expansion of the already over-expanded vaccine schedule - we have to be strong on this issue now because things are planned to get much worse.

John Stone - Contributing editor, Age of Autism

[kwombles]

I'm sorry, let me see if I understand you correctly? Are you asserting that all ASDs are due to vaccine damage? Or just some of it? Or is it anything big pharma does collectively?

Does autism have one etiology or many? Do you think there is any genetic role whatsoever?


What exactly is going to get worse and how?

[JohnDanStone]

Kay

"I'm sorry, let me see if I understand you correctly? "

I am sure you don't.

"Are you asserting that all ASDs are due to vaccine damage? "

No

"Or just some of it?"

Most likely.

"Or is it anything big pharma does collectively?"

It would be infantile to regard the pharma as a benign operator, or properly accountable.

"Does autism have one etiology or many?"

Almost certainly several.

"Do you think there is any genetic role whatsoever?"

Surely - vaccines don't effect all children badly, only some.

"What exactly is going to get worse and how?"

As I have said the pharma project its major growth in the vaccine sector:

Kids’ vaccine market set to quadruple – Drug Researcher – By Anna Lewcock 20-Nov-2007

http://www.drugresearcher.com/Research-management/Kids-vaccine-market-set-to-quadruple

New Report Forecasts More Than Doubling of Vaccine Sales by 2013 – MarketWatch Jun 11, 2009 – Kalorama News Release

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-report-forecasts-more-than-doubling-of-vaccine-sales-by-2013

And it has all got to be injected into our children, for whose benefit?.

[mlinn]

Thank you, David, for your continued exploration of this topic. Autism is a huge issue and will have a significant impact on our society in the coming years. Additionally, people tend to forget that this generation also has the designation of 1 in 6 children diagnosed with a behavioral disorder. That's 17% of our population with ADD, ADHD, bipolar, schizophrenia and other disorders that are on the rise. While autism may be the most dramatic of these afflictions, finding the cause may well unlock the clues to these other disorders as well. When you consider 17% of our population being under or unemployed in the next decade or so, the implications for our economy and our nation are frightening. Why more reporters are not covering these issues is a mystery to me, thank goodness you still understand the role and responsibility of investigative journalism!

[lisasigismondi]

It is so heartbreaking to come to the realization that our children's (and our families') pain only become a concern when economics make it an issue. The many thousands of children that have been physically and emotionally suffering for years (and the new recruits too) only get attention when the budget scales tip.
Fine reward for being responsible parents and protecting the herd. And they wonder why so many parents and patients have lost faith in modern medicine - these days, even if you don't have autism in your immediate family, someone that you love does.

[mogrammy]

I believe the majority of the population has no idea what this will all mean in a few years. Yes, right now people are aware of the increase ; they see autistic kids at every turn, but what the tremendous cost to society will be in terms of meeting the needs of hese kids---------has not hit the general public. I have had talks with many in the school system and there seems to be a general nodding of the head to my comments and acceptance, but no alarms set off, which to me means not grasping the dire situation we'll be in, are in. I am truly scared for the future. Thanks, David, as always.
Maurine Meleck

[torsienj]

..remember time eventually passes, and the school door closes for all of us, services need to be for the life span.

[torsienj]

Thank you as always David, for the work you do. I hope this can also serve as a wake-up call to the autism advocacy community. My daughter is 21 and "graduated" out of the educational system in New Jersey this month. We are trying to cobble together a day program, and were thrilled with Autism Speaks vocal support for state legislation that will mandate private insurers pay for ABA, speech, PT and OT. Thrilled until we read the legislation and saw the mandate only lasted until the person turned 21! The wave is coming, and advocates who have children who benefit from educational advances hard fought for by older parents, need t.

[CamJam]

My one twin son, Cameron, who's about to turn 6 years old dx'd with regressive Autism in Aug 2007 will surely be part of that. My son, ( the blonde haired blue eyed boy) and his classmates will all be part of that "tidal wave" one day...
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/8619/cameronskclass20082009c.jpg

I worry not only for our Cameron and his future, but for our country.

[CamJam]

And speaking of "Tidal Wave" I also meant to add this link below - the song used for this video is called: "Life is Like a Boat" sung by Rie Fu.

The video is called
"Growing in My Garden... a few flowers, weeds, Twins, and a bit of Autism"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZYf_d57JSA