The autism numbers
There's an information vacuum on autism, and where there's a vacuum, people tend to rush in with theories, wild or otherwise. No one knows why the numbers of autism cases have risen over the past two decades, and in the absence of well-researched theories, there's been plenty of space for the vaccination notion to grab attention.
But another thing that happened during this big increase was that diagnosis changed, as well as the definition of autism, which was expanded in ways that were certain to make the syndrome more "common." For example, in some of the most severe autism cases, there's also mental retardation. A generation ago, doctors would diagnose the retardation and ascribe social and communication problems to that. Doctors and researchers know this is a big part of the picture, but they suspect it's not the only one.
These days, there's also some purposeful misdiagnosis that tends to boost autism's numbers: Parents of children with severe developmental problems seek an autism diagnosis because, as a recognized disability, it's a ticket to social services. There's no doubt the kids need the services, but there are some skewed numbers here. One researcher said that when his institute re-examined children who had been diagnosed with autism, they found the condition had been overdiagnosed about 15% of the time.
It's also unclear whether autism rates have continued to climb since 2000, but they're at least holding steady.
Subscribe to this Blog What is RSS?
Of course vaccines and the mercury in them do not cause autism. Autism is simply a term from the psychiatric DSM-IV manual. There are now 11 published papers which identify the underlying medical condition of autism as neuroinflammatory disease. My favorite is " Neuroglial activation and Neuroinflammation in the Brain of Patients with Autism". This was published by John Hopkins University. Now, do you want to debate whether mercury, a know neurotoxin, added to childhood vaccines at levels 250 times higher than what the EPA identifies as hazardous waste, causes neuroinflammatory disease? Do you want to debate whether brain damaged kids behave in a way so that some psychiatrist can label them as somewhere on the "spectrum"?
Posted by: Pete | April 29, 2008 at 12:26 PM
The situation in California is that the majority of diagnosed autistic kids getting services are in the wealthy areas of LA, followed by the less wealthy areas of LA, followed by the Bay Area, followed by the more rural areas of California. In other words, the places with the most toxins don't have the highest rates of autism. Autism is instead correlated with access to clinicians and money, money, money.
African American kids and most other minorities are more likely to be diagnosed as mentally retarded and in LA, MR kids who are white are likely to be labeled as autistic when they are not.
I have a ton of information on the problems with California and the epidemic that never happened on my blog. I have tried to communicate it to the LA Times and been ignored. Maybe because the Times is complicit in spreading the "epidemic" nonsense to begin with, espeically via their taking Rick Rollens at his word in many articles. Rollens is a very well paid lobbyist and paid to get money for the Regional Centers which benefit from his spreading nonsense about an "epidemic".
Your paper can email me if they want more info.
Posted by: Ms. Clark | April 29, 2008 at 12:31 PM
It isn't that there is a vaccum. The problem is that there is a lot of really bad data out there. People keep leaning on the CDDS data as though they are epidemiological. They aren't. The same thing goes for education data.
Add to this a huge amount of disinformation thrown out by politicians, alternative medical groups and ex-celebrities.
It is very difficult to sift the quality information from the junk science in autism.
Posted by: RD | April 29, 2008 at 01:25 PM
Nice fact free commentary all around. First, spinning parents who want vaccine safety improved (like the Polings) as anti vaccine. They aren't. Second, a fact free post from someone spinning the parents seeking out and autism diagnosis garbage. Pathetic. Check out your own California Task Force Report for some facts on the growth of this disorder. Yes, they use the "epidemic" word. Because it is one.
http://senweb03.senate.ca.gov/autism/index.html
Posted by: Really? | April 29, 2008 at 01:51 PM
The reason the "task force report" uses the word "epidemic" is because Rick Rollens is on that task force.
Duh.
The California DDS numbers show, precisely, exactly, concisely that there has been no epidemic if you take the time to look at what the number REALLY say. And guess what. It's not hard.
http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/2007/07/lovaas-and-epidemic-epicenter.html
http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/2007/07/malibu-and-compton-compare-and-contrast.html
http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/2007/07/california-autism-epidemic-gold-rush.html
http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/2005/10/californias-changing-diagnostic_20.html
http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/2005/12/pertussis-killed-7-babies-in.html
http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/2007/07/californias-unequal-distribution-of.html\
The racism and classism shown by the California DDS numbers is
S T A G G E R I N G
Like, hello, it's time for more race riots in California maybe because the rich kids, who are mainly white kids are getting all kinds of freebies including horseback riding lessons on the bill of the California tax-payers while kids with the same level or worse level of disablility whose parents don't live in Malibu or Santa Monica, who are poor and don't realize what they are supposed to be entitled to if mommy has a lawyer... get
Z E R O
Nothing. Not a stinking thing. Zip. A goose egg.
It's true.
It's a massive scandal. And it's all out there, easy to prove, but is being ignored.
Hey LA Times, how about if you redeem yourselves for your part in promoting antivaxism and the non-existent epidemic????
Posted by: Ms. Clark | April 29, 2008 at 06:48 PM