Autism

Misery loves company, and so do controversial journalists.

As someone who has come under, shall we say, "sniper fire" for refusing to concede that there is no link between vaccines and autism, I now have a semi tongue-in-cheek response to my once and future critics: "Go tell it...

If autism has always been with us in the same high numbers that we see today -- as some scientists and academics contend -- then we should be able to identify the 1 in 150 adults currently living with autism in places like the US and UK.

With all...

In February, I leaked news of the Federal government's admission that vaccines had triggered autism in a little girl named Hannah Poling. The stunning revelation, though still reverberating around the world, was roundly downplayed by US officials, who insisted that Hannah had an extremely rare, genetic case of "aggravated" mitochondrial...

The candidates are all talking about it, but when Hillary Clinton said it, I cried.

"We will tackle everything from autism to Alzheimer's, cancer to diabetes, and make a real difference," she said, in her Pennsylvania primary victory speech. Later, looking at that one sentence in the light of day,...

We have new health insurance. It's just like our old health insurance. A lot of money for very little return. Let's see, we've had "Aetna, If you have autism we'll forget ya." We've had "InHumana." We've had "Useless Healthcare." And now we have "Stigma."

Are we trying to score...

No matter who wins in Pennsylvania today, the next President of the United States will support research into the growing evidence of some link between vaccines and autism.

Senator John McCain has already expressed his belief that vaccines and the mercury containing preservative thimerosal could be implicated in what he...

No proof, but there is evidence that polycarbonate baby bottles which contain bisphenol A (BPA) have a "hormone-like" effect on the reproductive system. The CDC has issued cautions and now the Canadian government will be banning this toxic substance.

There are a large number of substitutes and

In this segment, Firstgiving CEO Mark Sutton shares a conversation with Marc Turgeon, a father who is using the Firstgiving Web site to raise funds for Friends of LADDERS, Inc. an interdisciplinary program designed to provide services in the evaluation and treatment of children and adults with autism, pervasive developmental...

I wrote last week about meeting Hillary Clinton in October, and speaking with her about autism (the cause closest to my heart). Yesterday I had a chance, thanks to friends who were hosting another Northern California Democratic fundraiser, to meet Barack Obama. My goal for this event was exactly the...

When I watch Jenny McCarthy on CNN or when I read the blogs (and comments) on autism, I keep wondering: What is this debate about? Yes, the parents of autistic kids are more "emotional" than the aloof doctors before them. But why are they met with anger, rather than compassion?...

On Wednesday, CNN's Larry King hosted Jenny McCarthy, myself, and several others to discuss the growing evidence of a link between childhood vaccines and autism. The CDC refused to send someone to appear on the show. Instead, on Thursday, the agency issued a statement meant to reassure the...

When I wrote recently about the Judge Rotenberg Center -- the facility for autistic kids and other children with "behavior problems" that uses electric shock to gain compliance -- I asked rhetorically what it might take to shut it down. If the latest incident doesn't do it, I simply...

When American scholar Warren Bennis said, "Bureaucracies are beautiful mechanisms for the evasion of responsibilities and guilt," he might well have been speaking of the current state of affairs inside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Once revered around the world, hardly a month passes without another...

I'm getting old. I can see gray hairs hiding in my tangle of brown curls. My laugh lines don't seem to vanish when I stop chuckling. And while my bustline isn't truly sagging (I never could take that pencil test) it does seem to be a bit, well, diminished. If...

The following letter was delivered to Mr. David Shipley, Op-Ed Page Editor of the New York Times, in regards to the essay by Dr. Paul Offit In today's paper:

Dear Mr. Shipley,

There are many inaccuracies in the Op-Ed today by Dr. Paul Offit.

For example,...