Today the CDC announced a 72% increase in the diagnosis of autism over the past four years. One of every fifty children aged six years to 17 years has an autism spectrum diagnosis.
Ten years ago, the number was 1/150.
The previous two decades saw a 600% increase in autism diagnosis and experts have said that 200% of that could be attributed to better diagnosis and more awareness of autism but the other 400% was caused by changes in genetics and environmental impact on genetics.
• The rise in autism parallels the rise of the chemical age after World War II and the use of untested chemicals in manufacturing, our food supply, house cleaning products, and our personal grooming products.
• It is no longer a leap to say we can prevent autism. Even mainstream medicine recognizes that the environment affects genetics. The science of epigenetics--"on top of genes" --studies what changes gene expression or what causes certain genes to turn on or off.
• At Stanford University, 192 pairs of identical twins were studied in which one twin was autistic and one was not. Scientists found that genetics accounted for 38% of the risk of autism and environmental factors 62%.
• Our definition of autism has expanded from a genetic disorder originating in the brain to a possible interaction of immune and neuro-inflammatory disorders with genetics. Developing nervous and immune systems -before and after birth--are vulnerable to the thousands of toxins that surround us.
• Of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use today, only 3,000 have been tested for their harmful effects.
• The rise in autism parallels the rise of the chemical age after World War II and the use of untested chemicals in manufacturing, our food supply, house cleaning products, and our personal grooming products.
• The NIH has begun The National Children's Study, a $6.5 billion study of a generation--a 21 year long study of 100,000 children to determine how the environment affects development from before birth to adulthood. We cannot let an entire generation be at risk. We have to do something now.
April is Autism Awareness Month.
Follow Jay Gordon, MD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JayGordonMDFAAP
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This comment has not yet been postedHowever, those scientifically literate people who are complicit in helping the government to lie about cannabis, how can they expect those who are not scientifically literate to believe what is said about vaccines, when the medical professions abuse trust by lying about cannabis?
Stop lying about cannabis, or a significant minority will not believe what you say about vaccines.
The Chicago Tribune series does a good job of proving that fire retardant chemicals aren't effective in preventing fires. A prestigious doctor, David Heimbach, a retired Seattle doctor and former president of the American Burn Association, was very active with promoting fire retardant chemicals with blatantly false testimony.
A quote follows from the section entitled, "Testing shows treated foam offers no safety benefit".
"We did not find flame retardants in foam to provide any significant protection," said Dale Ray, a top official with the Consumer Product Safety Commission who oversaw the 2009 tests at a laboratory outside Washington.
Since fire retardant chemicals aren't effective at preventing fires it would be best to ban them now without waiting for years & years of studies to conclusively determine that fire retardants are causing autism, cancer or other forms of serious illness. I think health research into flame retardants benefits the chemical manufacturers because it gives them a long time to keep selling fire retardants while continuing to spread confusion & falsehoods. It's a mistake to think we don't already know enough to ban them.
Yet more evidence, on the back of the dozens of other similar studies, that the 2 are not linked.
http://www.jpeds.com/webfiles/images/journals/ympd/JPEDSDeStefano.pdf
http://www.jpeds.com/content/JPEDSDeStefano
Read Dr. Brian Hooker's critique here:
http://healthimpactnews.com/2013/can-we-trust-the-cdc-claim-that-there-is-no-link-between-vaccines-and-autism/
I posted a figure for autism rate from 2009 of 1 in 28. The most recent figure is 1 in 8 within the Somalian refugee community in Minneapolis.
This is believed to be due to receiving multiple vaccines at one time upon entry to the US and/or doubling up of vaccines having already received some in the refugee camps.
http://www.kare11.com/news/article/984700/396/Autism-program-expands-to-meet-growing-need-in-West-Metro
Yes vaccines do cause autism.
Previous post:
A few years back 2009, it was found that Somalian refugees entering the US had very high rates of autism. In Mineapolis it was 1 in 28. The refugees were doubling up on vaccines in refugee camps and upon entering the US.
www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/minneapolis-and-the-somal_b_143967.html
Another alarming number is in New Jersey 1 in 49 autism rate but 1 in 29 if you happen to be a boy.
This is vaccines and environment - but this is not new. 1 in 50 could well be an under reported figure.
Come on people at what point are the politicians going to do the right thing??
This is really all about damage limitation now - nothing else makes sense !
Its no longer for the greater good its tending towards the greater harm.
http://sanevax.org/andrew-wakefield-md-speaks-to-association-of-american-physicians-and-surgeons/
A brief video showing how a life can be changed with proper treatment of GI issues. This English boy with autism and bowel disease could not get treatment in England due to the suppression of this medical science. English pediatricians had continually declared that there was nothing wrong with this boy. He was flown to New York where he was treated by Dr. Arthur Krigsman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa4wDqyfIqY
See Brian Deer here, and hear what parents have to say:
Brian Deer and The GMC, Selective Hearing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id_AxZ3zHAc
Parents express support for Dr. Wakefield:
Lancet 12 Parents Respond to Brian Deer BMJ GMC Allegations
http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/01/lancet-12-parents-respond-to-brian-deer-bmj-gmc-allegations.html
No Parent Ever Complained to GMC: Public Statement from Lancet Families Supports The MMR3
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/02/no-parent-ever-complained-to-gmc-public-statement-from-lancet-families-supports-the-mmr3.html
See the movie The Greater Good here:
http://www.greatergoodmovie.org/
And see their list of research here:
http://www.greatergoodmovie.org/learn-more/research/
Books:
Evidence of Harm by David Kirby
Callous Disregard by Andrew Wakefield
Vaccine Epidemic edited by Louie Kuo Habakus and Mary Holland
Changing the Course of Autism: A Scientific Approach for Parents and Physicians
I hate to Goodwin, but I could quote others who are similarly so.
Dan Olmsted's series here on AoA: An Elaborate Fraud Series: Brian Deer, BMJ, Murdoch, Dr. Andrew Wakefield
http://www.ageofautism.com/exclusives.html
"Articles of Interest" here:
http://www.wesupportandywakefield.com/
Parents read from the book "Silenced Witnesses"
http://www.cryshame.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=123&Itemid=228
The Cry Shame web site also has a lot of info such as detailed accounts of the GMC hearings.
EBCALA statement about the court's decision clearing John Walker-Smith:
http://www.ebcala.org/areas-of-law/vaccine-law/co-author-of-lancet-mmr-autism-study-exonerated-on-all-charges-of-professional-misconduct?utm_source=Elizabeth+Birt+Center+for+Autism+Law+&+Advocacy+List&utm_campaign=9f11ed7488-Wakefield_Colleague_WalkerSmith_Exonerated3_7_2012&utm_medium=email
Full text of the decision:
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2012/503.html
Mary Holland's article in Chapter 25 of the book Vaccine Epidemic, available online here:
http://vaccineepidemic.com/images/vech25.pdf
and footnotes here:
http://vaccineepidemic.com/images/vech25.pdf
Brian Deer's commentary was peer-reviewed and published by the British Medical Journal. He is an investigative reporter who exposed a significant fraud. We should all rejoice.
Before Deer, began investigating Wakefield's "study", Deer received accolades for his excellent investigative articles into some of the questionable tactics of the world's
largest pharmaceutical manufacturers.
For those posters who are interested in Deer's previous investigations...
http://briandeer.com/
Why did Wakefield sue Brian Deer for libel three times, in the U.K.?
Why didn't Wakefield prevail?
Have you read the scathing opinion of Wakefield and his tactics by Mr. Justice Eady, of the High Court of Justice, regarding Wakefield's 3 libel suits against Brian Deer?
Why was Wakefield required to pay Brian Deer's legal costs, after Wakefield asked for a discontinuance?
http://briandeer.com/wakefield/eady-judgment.htm
It's important to note that Dr. Wakefield was one of thirteen authors of that paper. Ten of the authors retracted the "interpretation" of a possible link to the MMR. But all of the authors stood by the paper's data and findings.
Retraction of an interpretation
"...The main thrust of this paper1 was the first description of an unexpected intestinal lesion in the children reported. Further evidence has been forthcoming in studies from the Royal Free Centre for Paediatric Gastroenterology and other groups to support and extend these findings.2, 3 While much uncertainty remains about the nature of these changes, we believe it important that such work continues, as autistic children can potentially be helped by recognition and treatment of gastrointestinal problems.
"We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient. However, the possibility of such a link was raised and consequent events have had major implications for public health. In view of this, we consider now is the appropriate time that we should together formally retract the interpretation placed upon these findings in the paper, according to precedent.4"
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(04)15715-2/fulltext#article_upsell
Even Walker Smith threw Wakefield under the bus when i came to saving his own reputation.
"I was actually stunned by what I saw," Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood,
citing the staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal
and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism. Since 1991,
when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced
with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of
birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteen fold, from one in
every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.
Read Robert Kennedy Jr. report: Deadly Immunity at: http://thinktwice.com/Kennedy.pdf & Rolling Stone. Also read:
The truth behind the vaccine cover-up; Russell L. Blaylock, MD
Website: www.russellblaylockmd.com or http://www.medicalveritas.com/manBlaylock.pdf
-they make plain why the meeting was held in secret: the conclusions would have destroyed the public’s confidence in the vaccine program, and more importantly, their faith in vaccine authorities. When the results of this study were published three years later in the journal
Pediatrics, the “problem” had been fixed, in that by adding another set of data from a third HMO, reorganizing the criteria for inclusion and restructuring the patient groupings, a less than statistically significant link was demonstrated. In my analysis I discuss the more outrageous statements made
during the meeting and how accepted experts in the field of mercury neurotoxicity were excluded from the meeting.
Simpsonwood Conference in Norcross, Georgia 2001. http://thinktwice.com/simpwood.pdf
In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a
meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Ga. Convened by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention..The agency had issued no public announcement of the session --only private invitations to 52 attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC
and the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the World Health
Organization in Geneva, and representatives of every major vaccine manufacturer,
including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur. All of the scientific data
under discussion, CDC officials repeatedly reminded the participants, was strictly
"embargoed." There would be no making photocopies of documents, no taking papers
with them when they left.
The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a
disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a host of
common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young children. According to a
CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive
database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based
preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic
increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children.
If you read the history of vaccines starting with the Polio vaccine you're see this is not a conspiracy, it's business as usual.
CDC - 2007: South Korea free of measles due to MMR vaccine. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5613a3.htm
Measels were eliminated but..CDC - 2011: South Korea - 1 in 38 children has AUTISM
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20110509/south-korea-autism-prevalence-rate-study-110509
The man hired to do a study on MMR falsified the study and bolted out of the country:
POUL THORSEN, 49, of Denmark, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of wire fraud and money laundering based on a scheme to steal grant money the CDC had awarded to governmental agencies in Denmark for autism research. http://www.justice.gov/usao/gan/press/2011/04-13-11.html
"Vaccines Don't Cause Autism" is like saying "Pushing someone off a cliff won't hurt them; It's the sudden stop." Or as one woman wrote on a blog what her son's Dr said when her child had a fever, seizure, coma and than died within a few days of the MMR, it wasn't the MMR shot that cause his death it was the fever that caused the seizure and that caused his death.
And yes the CDC have never really addressed the issue of their crooked MMR Researcher Poul Thorsen. Amazingly his research has not been retracted !
http://www.justice.gov/usao/gan/press/2011/04-13-11.html
It Just Wont Go Away email from CDC:
Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests unearthed the famous "IT JUST WONT GO AWAY" email. Dr Thomas Verstraeten in late 1999 was lead researcher on the CDC study on the incidence of autism resulting in children exposed to various levels of mercury in Thimerosal containing vaccines. In a Dec. 17, 1999 email (entitled “it just won’t go away!”) to his colleagues in the NIP, Verstraeten reports that all the damage is done in the first month of life. In “Generation Zero” of his data analysis, it can be seen that the children that receive the highest dose of mercury in the first month are 7.62 times more likely to get an autism diagnosis. This study went through 5 more data iterations, using stratification methods and statistical “Olympics” designed to obfuscate the 7.62 number.This took over 4 years as the final paper was not published until 2003. Even then, Verstraeten himself said that the study was “neutral” and did not exonerate Thimerosal, but indicated that more study was necessary (as recorded in his 2004 letter to the editor of the Journal Pediatrics.
If you mean Thorsen, I think I missed the bit where you provide evidence that the papers he worked on were "falsified"
But perhaps your comment above is about Wakefield? We do know for definite that he was hired by lawyers to do his MMR study, that it was fraudulent, and that he bolted out of the UK to take refuge in Texas.
Is that who you mean?
" Experts also reacted cautiously to the new report because of its methodology, in which researchers randomly dialed landlines and cellphone numbers, interviewing parents.
By contrast, a study released last year by the C.D.C.’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network looked directly at school behavioral assessments and clinical reports of children who were 8 years old in 2008 and applied a standard checklist of criteria for the diagnoses. While that study found a 78 percent increase in autism spectrum disorders from 2002 to 2008, it said the likelihood of a child receiving such a diagnosis was 1 in 88.
Because the methodologies were so different, as well as the age range of the children themselves, it was difficult, experts said, to draw conclusions about prevalence or diagnoses, not least because clinicians themselves use different assessment tools. A diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder can change as a child grows older. "
But I guess acknowledging the facts and methodological flaws of the statistics you point to might get in the way, huh? Guess that's why you publish at HP and not in the Lancet.
Did this parents "self-diagnose" the condition?
Exactly. No way to also determine if the ASD diagnostic criteria were equally applied to all of the children.
" Despite the somewhat accusatory nature of the final part of your comment"
It is a reasonable accusation, given the above litany of points the author is trying to make. The drama, and urgency, of his comment specifically relies on the assumption that there has been a dramatic increase in autism prevalence since the most recent estimates were determined. Acknowledging the facts, most specifically the flaws of the estimate, would significantly hamper the drama of his posting.
That is why the links between vaccination and autism have been exhaustively checked. I can't help it if the link was found wanting, as an independent observer and scientist I just accept the facts, and move on.
However, the antivax bloggers and commenter, who *think* they know science, and operate in the vaccuum of arrogant ignorance, keep distorting science until they arrive at the foregone conclusions they seek.
For those people undecided, keep reading and asking the obvious questions.
http://www.omsj.org/corruption/vaccines-autism-mixed-signals
If you're undecided about the HIV causing AIDs and convinced that every health problem is part of a grand *Big Pharma*, *Big Gubmint* conspiracy...then Baker's your man.
I think you also perhaps forgot to watch the movies - Which are incidentally are about the thousands of autism families lined up to access the Vaccine compensation fund.
Yes, vaccines do cause autism.
He can be very funny, too.
The posters on Orac's Respectful Insolence blog are no slouches, as well. Most of them are professional licensed health care providers and scientists/researchers working in other science fields. The "civilians" who post on that blog are extremely well educated in all the sciences associated with vaccine development, vaccine safety and infectious diseases, who post from all over the world.
Orac, whose "day jobs" are breast cancer surgeon and director of a breast cancer research center does not heavily "moderate" anti-vaccine anti-science comments, which is not the way Age of Autism operates. He has a particular penchant of blogging about individuals and groups who spread Fear Uncertainty and Doubt to scare parents away from immunizing their children. Rest assured if you engage in those tactics and post on RI, you will be asked for proof to back up your inane fact-free and citation-less junk science opinions.
Dr. Gordan has been the subject of some of Orac's blogs, because his feeble attempts to justify his opinions of vaccines and the possible link the onset of autism, is not based on science or based on the recommendations of the AAP, that Dr. Jay proudly proclaims he is a member of.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/editorial-staff/david-h-gorski-md-phd-managing-editor/
since last summer. Dr. Gordon has a valid concern about the 80,000 mostly untested chemicals. More new chemicals are continually being added. This RI blog regularly treats concerns about environmental chemicals with ridicule. It seems to me that the RI denial of rising rates of autism helps maintain RI complacency with increasing levels of environmental chemicals.
I also appreciate that Orac does not have a restrictive "moderation policy" as Age of Autism does.