Reports of autism cases per 1,000 children grew dramatically in the US from 1996 to 2007. Source: Wikipedia.
It’s hard to imagine more chaos in the world of autism than what we see happening right now. Autism is more and more in the public spotlight. The numbers are huge and no one can explain them. Since 2009 we’ve been told that one percent of children have autism. Among boys alone, it’s almost two percent. Mainstream medicine can’t explain the stunning increase in a once rare disorder. For years health officials gave doctors credit for all the autism everywhere. They said it was the result of “greater awareness” and “better diagnosing.” Children who were mislabeled as something else were now correctly called autistic. The criteria for diagnosing autism was laid out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and a child with symptoms would be placed somewhere on the autism spectrum, as it came to be known. This included very high functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome all the way over to the other end of the spectrum to those with severe intellectual impairment and all the signs of classic autism.
Between 2007 and 2009 the autism rate went from one in 150 to one in every 110 children and even health officials had to admit there was more going on here than just better diagnosing. It looked like lots more kids really did have autism. To address this, groups like Autism Speaks poured millions of dollars into studies looking for the gene/genes that cause autism—with no conclusive results. Studies did turn to the environment, since if the explosion in autism was real, genes alone couldn’t possibly explain it. We were regularly told about studies linking autism to older dads, older moms, siblings too close together, lack of vitamin D, living too close to a freeway, low birth weight, and the list continues to this day. The one thing that officials continually denied was any link to the ever-expanding vaccine schedule. After seeming to study the possible connection in depth, the agency that runs the vaccine program gave their vaccines a clean bill of health. (And after delivering the coup de grace to the vaccine-autism link, the last head of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Julie Gerberding, became the head of the vaccine division at Merck.)
Meanwhile, autism became a real public health issue. News stories about the number of affected children and the cost of educating and treating them were common. Almost as an aside was the line, “Autism has no known cause.” There was nothing doctors and health officials could actually tell us about autism except that we should look for signs of the disorder in babies and young children because early intervention led to the best outcome. Officials didn’t seem concerned that no one was able to find a comparable rate of autism among adults. Since many experts still adamantly claimed that there was no real increase, someone somewhere should have been eager to find the misdiagnosed/undiagnosed 40, 50, and 60 year olds out there with autism, especially those with classic autism whose symptoms are undeniable. This was never done.
With more and more children being diagnosed with autism, more attention was given to the disorder. Autism Speaks, the biggest advocacy group in the U.S., was started in 2005 and Congress set up the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee in 2006. It appeared that whatever could be done about autism would be done, with millions of dollars thrown into the mix.
The problem is that not much has been learned about this disorder in the last six or seven years, except that the numbers continue to grow and the controversial link to vaccines isn’t going away. In fact, with growing concern over autism, more and more parents have stopped vaccinating. Despite the endless promotion of vaccines as safe by people like Dr. Paul Offit, himself a vaccine developer, questions continue to be asked. While the federal government has long claimed that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has never paid out for vaccine damage that included autism, last year it was revealed that dozens of children with autism have received millions of dollars in compensation. This followed the news in 2008 that Health and Human Services had conceded the case of Hannah Poling, the young Georgia girl who regressed into autism after being vaccinated.
Officials were under increasing pressure to come up with answers. Why did so many parents claim that their children were born healthy and were developing normally until they suddenly lost learned skills and regressed into autism, often directly after receiving routine vaccines? The one in 110 rate came out in 2009, but it was based on studies of children who turned eight years old back in 2006. Those kids are teenagers now. Why didn’t the CDC update the autism rate?
The Big News
With the ball clearly in their court, experts are finally doing something about autism. Last week we learned that when the American Psychiatric Association puts out the DSM5 in 2013, the proposed revised definition will make autism into a whole new disorder. Gone will be the wide spectrum of autism. It seems that the proposed changes will eliminate many of those with mild autism, namely Pervasive Developmental Disorder, high functioning, and Aspergers as well those with severe intellectual disabilities. Culling through the autism epidemic like this is guaranteed to dramatically reduce the numbers. The news reports tell us parents already struggling to provide for their children are understandably concerned. They need to know if their children will be suddenly cut off from critical services as shown in these reports.
New York Times (opens if you subscribe) Jan 20, A Specialists’ Debate on Autism Has Many Worried Observers
“A study reported on Thursday found that proposed revisions to the American Psychiatric Association’s definition would exclude about three-quarters of those now diagnosed with milder forms of autism called Asperger syndrome or “pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified,” also known as P.D.D.-N.O.S.”
“The proposed revisions, which would take effect in 2013, are likely to have practical implications for those who would once have qualified for services that experts say can improve an individual’s abilities to socialize, learn and ultimately live independently.
“‘We have to make sure not everybody who is a little odd gets a diagnosis of autism or Asperger disorder,’ said Dr. David J. Kupfer, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and chairman of the task force making the revisions.”
The Times made it clear that those working on the DSM changes weren’t stopping at just the high functioning. “Catherine Lord, the director of the Institute for Brain Development at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and a member of the committee overseeing the revisions, said that the goal was to ensure that autism was not used as a ‘fallback diagnosis’ for children whose primary trait might be, for instance, an intellectual disability or aggression’.”
On Jan 20, ABC News ran the story, New Autism Definition Could Exclude Many. ABC quoted Lori Warner, director of the Hope Center for Autism at Beaumont Children’s Hospital Center in Royal Oak, Mich., who said, ‘Really, in a lot of states, you need that diagnosis in order to have treatment covered. If you don’t have that diagnosis, you’re going to try to pay out of pocket or you have no access to these services. It could be devastating for a lot of families.’ However, on one video, Dr. Robert Besser of ABC told parents that the change in the DSM is “a very good idea,” and he assured parents that if their child loses their diagnosis they’ll still get services based on need. “The good news is, before any change would go in the definition, we have time to address that problem.” Likewise on a CBS affiliate in North Carolina, a local doctor in Kinston told parents that their children would get help even if they’re not called autistic. Dr. Susan Boutilier, who works with autistic children, said, ‘For the most part children and adults who receive services receive them because they need them not because they have a label, but based on their actual physical disabilities, their mental/emotional disabilities.’ The way around the loss of autism as a label is easy according to Boutilier, ‘There are other diagnoses that could be applied to them such as a learning disability, sometimes even a mild mental retardation that could be applied to some kids that would get them equal services without necessarily fitting the criteria for autism.’
Growing concern over the DSM5
So why exactly is the APA changing what we call autism? How is this going to benefit children?
In the last 20 years, we’ve seen a 600 percent increase in a serious neurological disorder. No one at the APA is able to tell us what causes autism, how to cure it, or how to prevent it, but they seem happy to again play with the definition. We need to ask why this is happening.
The truth is, many people want the autism epidemic to somehow disappear and changing the definition is one way to do that. Duke University psychiatrist, Dr. Allen Frances just has a piece on Huffington Post he gave us ten reasons why there really hasn’t been an epidemic increase in “psychiatric illness” (i.e. neurological/developmental disorders) among our children.
Insurance companies are now legally required to cover autism therapy in over half of the states. Schools have to provide costly services when a student is autistic. And we’re on the brink of a generation of autistic teens aging into adulthood where they’ll become dependent on the taxpayers for their support and care. All this looms over our country like a tsunami. Thomas Insel head of the IACC has said that 80 percent of Americans with autism are under the age of 18. He warned that we’re going to have to prepare for a million adults “who may be in need of significant care.”
Temple Grandin, probably the most well-known figure with autism in the U.S., was on NPR Jan 20 with John Gilmore and NY Times reporter Benedict Carey talking about the DSM changes.
Grandin called it like it is. “I think one of the things that’s putting pressure on this is funding issues. There are laws on the books that children with autism get treatment. … “
NY Times reporter Benedict Carey: “The task force group thought, let’s try to clarify this picture. There’s no blood test for autism. There’s no blood test for any psychiatric diagnosis. These are judgment calls made by therapists. In recent years, the rate of diagnosis has been going up very quickly. I think there’s some concern there too. Not just for funding issues. Make sure we know what we have. Is this definition clear enough? I think that’s partly what the work group is trying to do is to be clearer about what defines this diagnosis. What is autism or autism spectrum and what is something else? A sort of social awkwardness-whatever you want to call it.”
Grandin: “I think is some ways they’ve made the definition less clear because originally for autism, you had to have speech delay. Now the whole speech delay thing is just kind of hazy where with Asperger’s you have the social aspects without the speech delay. I think a lot of the Asperger’s is going to be called Social Communication Disorder. I some ways I think they’re making it less clear.”
John Gilmore: “This is a really, really serious issue and the way I look at it, there are three main things you have to consider here. Probably the biggest burning issue with autism for the last 20 years is has the real rate of the number of people with autism been the same or has it been going up? By redefining autism you just eliminate the last 20 years of epidemiology to try and decide this issue. And this is a crucial, crucial question. Just in the last couple of years, there’s enough data, enough solid diagnostic work to give indications that yes indeed it really is going up. If we redefine it, we basically start from square one. That’s a huge problem.”
John then talked about having to RE-evaluate every person out there who currently has an autism diagnosis to see if they fit the new criteria. The result is going to be, according to John, that “tens of thousands of people are going to lose access to services in the educational program that they have and they’ll also lose access to their health insurance. We’re been fighting here in New York to get adequate insurance coverage for people with autism. And the key to that is that you meet the criteria.”
John admitted that his son might no longer qualify for services. “Anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of the people with an autism diagnosis also have an intellectual disability. Intellectual disability is completely removed from the criteria. The result of this is going to a huge chaos and I can’t see any tangible benefit for anybody in doing this. It’s also going to be eventually expensive. It costs about $3,000 in New York to have a full autism walkup.”
All this really means that the doctors who gave us “better diagnosing” were wrong. Instead they were responsible for misdiagnosing and over-diagnosing. We’re now told it’s time to change all that. Experts are preparing to UN-diagnose a generation of disabled children. The impact of this DSM change will be massive. If autism becomes a disability with a very narrow diagnostic criteria, gone will be the one in 110 rate and any updating of that statistic will have no relevance. If they come up with lots of new names for the symptoms of high and low end kids on the autism spectrum (like “social and communication disorder” as reported by the NY Times), there wouldn’t be any reason to conduct a comparison study of vaccinated and unvaccinated children to see if never-vaccinated kids also have a one percent autism rate.
And the word autism wouldn’t be in the headlines like it is now. But these children aren’t going away regardless of what we call them. Stories about the devastating cost of special needs students will still be there. Reports of abuse in our schools will keep coming out. The demand for answers isn’t going to go away either And there will also be lots of very angry parents who rightly feel that their children mean nothing to the medical establishment whose only aim is to make them disappear.
Anne Dachel is the media editor of Age of Autism where this post first appeared.
Categories: Uncategorized
Hey There. I discovered your weblog the use
of msn. That is an extremely smartly written article.
I’ll make sure to bookmark it and return to learn extra
of your helpful info. Thanks for the post. I’ll
certainly comeback.
My weblog
The flurry of comments a week or two ago rather belatedly alerted me to your comment. Regards your opening remark has (excuse the brevity, I have very limited time, sorry I haven’t time for the rest of what you’ve written):
– the generally results don’t *conflict* with one-another in the sense of one *opposing* the others, they just don’t point at one single or small group of genes.
– Disorders that are common often (typically) involve many genes, which is what seems to be the case for autism; this isn’t especially surprising.
– When taken together they point at genes associated with neuronal (nerve cell) activity.
You might wish to read, for example:
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1002556
The author’s summary reads:
“Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental syndromes with a strong genetic basis, but are influenced by many different genes. Recent studies have identified multiple genetic risk factors, including rare mutations and genetic variations common in the population. To identify possible connections between different genetic risk factors, we constructed a network based on the expression pattern of genes across different brain areas. We identified groups of genes that are expressed in a similar pattern across the brain, suggesting that they are involved in the same processes or types of cells. We found that the genetic risk factors were enriched in specific groups of connected genes. Of these, the strongest enrichment was discovered in a group of neuronal genes that are involved in processes of learning and memory, and are highly expressed during infancy. Further study of this group of genes has the potential to reveal a more detailed picture of the neuronal mechanisms leading to ASD and to provide knowledge required for developing diagnostic tools and effective therapies.”
Your reply tells me that you did not actually read the decision. So you commented on the decision with your own biased thoughts.
So tired of your boring commentary.
Said the man who wants to get his facts straight.
Ken. You are so misinformed of the actual decision of JWS.
But most Pharma nazis are.
Your opinion is your opinion, read the decision. Then think about it the next time your paycheck comes in from Pharma.
Wayne’s celebration over the “vindication” of Mr.Wakefield is not well founded. The UK judge concluded that Walker-Smith didn’t deserve to have his reputation ruined just because he was bamboozled by Wakefield. If Wayne could stop being St. Andy’s fan boy for two seconds, he would understand that the judge’s decision actually makes it less likely that Wakefield can win on appeal. Walker-Smith was given a second chance because he was a good doctor who let Wakefield fool him. How does this make Wakefield any less culpable?
http://news.yahoo.com/dr-andrew-wakefield-co-author-controversial-lancet-mmr-211616202.html
Did you file an claim in vaccine court?
When you’re scraping bottom, everything looks high and mighty.
Kazuki, I understand where your mother is coming from. My husband is a nurse and we never gave much thought to the vaccine/autism link either. Until we walked in with a perfectly healthy child, who was on target or advanced on every developmental milestone and was talking up a storm. And within 15 minutes of her vaccine, she had a severe reaction, her whole face swelling up, high fever, and a long list of other symptoms and within that 15 minutes all of her speech was gone. She also lost the ability to chew food. And she had all of the signs of autism. All of them. Within 15 minutes. Trust me when I tell you that an experience like that would change your mother’s mind too. I pray no one experiences it, but it does happen in some cases. It really does. Over a year of hard work and therapy later my daughter still cannot speak like she could right before those vaccinations.
I thought the whole show was very connusifg and borderline hysterical (as in out of control, not funny ). Audience members were shouting over the doctors. Dr. Oz said that on one hand, there is NO evidence vaccines cause autism, but on the other hand, he chose to space his kids’ vaccinations (wild applause from the audience), but of course, if you’re too busy or dumb to figure out an alternative vax schedule, you can just follow the AAP schedule. What??! My mother is a speech pathologist at a major university with more than 35 years of experience. She did her Masters Degree on autism and has worked with hundreds of autistic children and adults. She doesn’t think there is a link between vaccines and autism. I think the show did a huge disservice to parents.VA:F [1.9.10_1130]please wait…
Stay on topic, Wayne. You made a blatantly false accusation that I “secretly recorded” a conversation with an autism parent. Electronic eavesdropping is a felony in Illinois, so that’s a pretty serious lie you just told. I presented you with verifiable facts, and you responded by … changing the subject?
Grant. Good grief. Get a life and stop being so high and mighty with everyone.
Ken. Talk about in excluding inconvenient truths. Just take a look at what Paul Offit has been doing in public discussions. He will not entertain opposing questions. He calls those who ask questions, stalkers and asks the event organizers to remove those people from the event instead of facing scrutiny.
Your version of events, which I’ve heard before, is contradicted by some inconvenient truths. First, the conference organizers granted me media privileges for the 2008 conference. I arrived on Thursday morning, video camera in hand, and filmed all day and the next. I made no “secret” of the video camera, and in 2008 there was no policy against videotaping. I wasn’t alone – I saw dozens of parents filming. On Saturday I attended a Q&A with Jon Poling. During that session I asked a question. I was polite and respectful, and the question was reasonable. Five mins later I was surrounded by hotel security. The conference organizer, Teri Poling, said I was not registered. I was. She asked me to leave the hotel, but promised to check the computer registration files for me name. If I was registered, she assured me, then she would call me on my cell phone and I could come back. Of course the call never came.
I still have the confirming email from Ed Arranga, sent to me months earlier, saying I was cleared to attend as media.
Like I said, the anti-vaccine movement does little to encourage free and honest discussion. It’s almost cult-like, wouldn’t you say?
But all that is an aside, because I was referring to other reporters who had been kicked out of AutOne. A Chicago Tribune reporter was ejected in 2009 because organizers didn’t like what she had written about Boyd Haley, a chemist who repurposed an industrial chelating agent as a diet supplement for autistic children. In 2010 organizers ejected a Chicago filmmaker who had paid his entrance fee, and didn’t even have a camera on him. In 2011, another Chicago Tribune reporter was escorted out by police soon after he arrived at the conference, and checked in with conference organizers. Nothing secretive about that.
Wayne,
I think you miss the point about attacking others – no-one will really stop you but! – doing that won’t help you or your cause. Scientific matters are resolved over the science, not pointing fingers, making accusations, misrepresenting others and so on. (You’ve done a little of this to me in your reply above – I’ve no interest in replying in kind, as I indicated earlier. It’s just not helpful.)
“You take that word like it is gospel.” – the comment you are replying to made it clear that I consider criticism of research part of normal practice.
“The truth is that we really do not know.” The truth is a large number of studies have been done to test if there is a link and have found no clear link. If there is a link it is either very weak or occurs only in a small subset of people with autism.
Regards the seizure issue, two points.
Firstly, that one event occurs before another does not, in itself, mean the first caused the latter. (One of the reasons controlled studies are needed is that they try to eliminate (control for) alternative causes and thus test if a link exists for one particular cause. Anecdotes by contrast are open to all possible causes and are unable to distinguish which of them might be the actual cause.)
Secondly, you might want to read about Dravet Syndrome and other causes of early childhood seizures. (I have been hoping to write about Dravet Syndrome, but have not yet found time to cover the research literature I want to read first.)
Ken, let me correct you. You were asked to leave the conference by the organizer because of your actions to trying to secretly record a conversation with the father of a child with autism that won a case in the Vaccine Court?
The conference is not an ant-vaccine conference. It is a conference about autism, quality treatments for behavioral therapy, bio medical treatments for the underlying medical conditions such as inflammed gut, suppressed immune systems.
Grant. Sorry to pop in at this segment of the thread but there was no other place to reply to your comment.
As far as attacking people, we will continue to do so where they continue to spread untruths or misrepresent the facts. I will do so for both sides of the debate.
As far as science is concerned. You take that word like it is gospel. Science is not exact nor is it correct a lot of them time. Take for example the quotes from those who say there is no link to autism with vaccines. The truth is that we really do not know. But you have those who say there are studies that prove there is no link. Yet each of the “so called 14” studies have all been discredited due to poor design, lack of controls, too small of a sample, etc.
Science is evolving. What many of us who do know of vaccine injuries is that vaccines are not safe for all. There are many and depending on the vaccine, large subgroups that should not be expose to a certain vaccine. As recent evidence, Merck is now having to answer for why they did not inform of large subgroup of girls that should not recieve the Gardasil vaccine because of underlying medical conditions.
And for those medical doctors who enjoy complete immunity for any vaccine administered, stop with the chatter that any serious reaction is just a coincidence. Perfect healthy boy receives the MMR at 13 months and 1 week later starts developing major seizures. And there was no history of seizures with the boy or the family. Please spare me.
Wayne Rohde,
I’ll leave this back’n’forth to you two (it’s not my style!) but I can’t help noticing you seem to be focusing on attacking people, rather than what the science says.
Opinions of people don’t matter much in scientific issues – it’s what the research shows (or doesn’t) or any flaws in the research, etc., that matter.
You write as if “criticizing some research that has been peer-reviewed” (your words) is unusual. It’s not – that is the *usual* thing.
Scientific papers when published are not ‘final’, but an argument for a case, that researchers interested in that area of science will consider. If they think it has flaws, they’ll say so.
Peer review for publication does not mean the research is ‘right’, but that it has meet some basic standards that reflect the particular research journal it is published in. (Smaller journals are often more lax than the big-name publications. Occasionally peer-review will slip up; in that you might find remarks to the effect that the paper should not have been published.)
Ken, here is the article of Dr. Paul Offit criticizing some research that has been peer-reviewed. So much for open and honest debate for the Pro-Vaccine crowd.
http://www.vancourier.com/Responses+vaccine+paper+problem+free+scientific+inquiry+expression/6073466/story.html#ixzz1kygFVrof
Just wanting to get my facts straight. We will have to disagree with vaccine causation but we can still have an open discussion about this. I was reading some of your comments about the so-called “antivaxers” who do not want to have a discussion.
Recently, Paul Offit and Seth Mnookin have been hiding behind event organizers or calling peer-reviewed papers that disagree with their viewpoint as dangerous or calling people stalkers. Several of us have been guests on radio and local TV programs with the original intent of having a back and forht discussion with another person that represents the medical community. But they are cancelling because they do not want to be included in a balanced debate. Just want to have a one-sided biased program. This is the case in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta recently.
I’ve never been on the AAP’s payroll. Why do you ask?
AutismNewsBeat. Is that you Ken Reibel? Are you still under the payroll of the AAP?
Thank you, Grant, for moving the conversation forward. Children are better served by facts than fallacies.
Those warnings are based on reports of adverse events that occurred after the vaccine was given. I’m sure you understand the problem with assuming causality.
Should add, for ‘shift in diagnosis’ you can also add ‘increased awareness leading to increased diagnosis’.
Julie,
Allow explain why what your have written is inaccurate.
“the increase is real” – does not say what is the cause of the increase, just says the counts are higher. The cause of higher counts can be a shift in diagnosis as others have pointed out. There are indications that this is dominant reason.
“a large environmental component” – this is exaggeration. There is an environmental element, but it is quite a bit smaller than the genetic component. That there is an environmental component does not ‘take away’ or ‘replace’ the genetic component.
“that it is largely environmental in nature” – this is not correct.
“But when a child is developing normally and then regresses at a certain point in time, that is not genetic.” There are quite a few genetic disorders, even ones that are entirely genetic, that don’t start until later in life. One reason is that some genes are not used until later in life. Autism, by contrast, starts very young. There are some indications it may be prenatal.
“That is what has been to “genetics is the gun, environment is the trigger.”” – this is not the only way ‘environmental’ effects can interact with genetics. Note, by the way, what you are describing is where the genetics is the underlying cause; in this situation people without the genetic difference never get the disease. This model is over-played by advocates for some causes to try ‘shift the blame’ to environmental effects such as toxins.
“And with the toxins in our environment, most of us are probably slowly having genetic mutations take place and then passing those down to our kids.” – in order to pass down a mutation to your children, a toxin would have to cause a mutation in your germ cells (eggs/sperm). This would be unlikely (we all experience mutations, even in ‘normal’ life, but our germ cell are protected from most things) and I would think fairly easy to identify it were the case.
(A different issue is so-called de-novo mutations, perhaps related to having children at an older age.)
“There is no such thing as a genetic epidemic in the course of one generation.” – correct. (With a few technical exceptions we can ignore.)
“Something has caused it, and environment is the only thing that makes sense.” – it’s not the only possible cause, a shift in diagnosis is another.
“It’s just not as glamorous as genetics.” – a shift in diagnosis isn’t very glamorous either. The reason some researchers look at genetics is that for them this is where the evidence has lead.
How can I get more specific? You stated: “Nobody seriously suggests that vaccine injury never happens.” I am telling you that yes in fact it does happen, regularly, and has been said directly to me many times.
Most parents aren’t even aware of the hearing loss warnings printed right on the paperwork they are handed when their child gets an MMR vaccine. It is very sad how uninformed much of our population actually is. They think if the government is doing it, it must be safe. But there are risks to anything.
“Yes, people not only “suggest” but blatantly state that it doesn’t happen. I’ve had it said directly to me many many times.”
It? Can you be more specific?
My comments to you were about you acting as if that side of the argument is not well-represented, when it is. I never claimed to know what a TV show, producers or guests wanted (as you claim to know).
Yes, people not only “suggest” but blatantly state that it doesn’t happen. I’ve had it said directly to me many many times.
And “one more time” there is a known association between vaccines and autism. It’s silly to say it isn’t “known” when there are families getting compensation for it happening. It is “known”. It might not be “known” by you. But it is “known” by those of us whose children were injured.
I already answered your question about reporting.
If you never saw the show, then how do you know the producers didn’t want a debate? Are you just assuming facts not in evidence?
Nobody seriously suggests that vaccine injury never happens. The point, one more time, is there is no known association between vaccines and autism.
Did you file a VAERS report?
AutismNewsBeat, I didn’t see the show that you speak of, so I can’t give an opinion on the show itself.
To answer your questions:
“Who doesn’t think your child exists?”
– Everyone that says that there are not children like her, who were 100% developmentally on target, or advanced, and then had an allergic/adverse reaction to vaccination and *immediately* had all of the symptoms that led to an autism diagnosis. That’s who.
“How am I not accepting your daughter?”
– I feel that those in the autism community who deny my daughter’s existence are not accepting of her. Those with the bitter attitude toward the vaccine injured, tend to say to us that either our child didn’t get sick the way that we know that they did, or they say “Well if your child does actually have these medical issues, it isn’t really autism, so you are not a part of this discussion.” Even though our children have the same symptoms as others with autism. That is what I mean. Most of what you have stated in your various comments sounded to me, like you are one of that crowd. If I am wrong in that, I apologize.
“We’ve never met, have we?”
Your name is not on your posts, so I have no idea who you are or if we’ve met.
“If you want an investigation into your child’s loss of skills, all you have to do is file a claim in vaccine court. Of course then you would have to make your child’s medical records available to the court. That ‘s not for everyone who makes the same claim as you.”
– I’m not sure what you mean by “that’s not for everyone who makes the same claim as you.” I’m not sure what you are saying there. All I can tell you is this, ever since October 2010 everything we have done as parents has been about helping our daughter. I have not considered filing a claim for a lawsuit. My thoughts have been about things like, “How can I get her to look at me again? Will I ever here MaMa again? How can I get her to eat properly again? How can I get her to chew food again? How can I make her happy again? How can I teach her new ways to communicate?” These are the things that are on my mind, every minute of every single day. And we’ve achieved some of those things, and we are fighting hard to get the rest back for her. I have not considered any lawsuit claim. Personally speaking I don’t think I have the energy to spare to put into something that (from what I’ve heard) is a waste of time most of the time anyway in a court that is from what I’ve heard, is mostly about denial. My focus is my daughter. I don’t have anything to hide in her medical records. We were told that her adverse reaction was reported. And I received a call from a supervisor with the health department who apologized for what happened to her, and said that she was reporting the incident as well. What happened after that on their end, I am not sure. As I said, my focus has been on my daughter and helping her – moving forward, not looking back to a past that I cannot change.
I would like to say that I DO see a difference between situations like my daughter’s and some of the others that claim to be vaccine injured. There are kids like my daughter who walked in fine, and literally left the room autistic. I think cases like that are very clear that their autism was triggered by their allergic/adverse vaccine reaction. However, it seems like many that are involved in the anti-vaccine movement, have a child with autism that developed symptoms over a long period of time and they are looking back and trying to find a reason, and they blame vaccines. They could very well be right. But, I think in those cases, they might be wrong too. There is no way, with the knowledge we have now, to know for sure. For me, as a parent whose child had an immediate and severe reaction (swelling of her face, inability to stand, inability to eat solid food, lack of eye contact, loss of all verbal skills) that happened *immediately* and in my opinion is not the same thing as trying to look back months or years later and find a cause.
I wish that people could be more open-minded. So that we could study cases like hers and find out what is going wrong. I truly believe that it could be beneficial for all children in the long run. But saying it doesn’t happen, does nothing to help anyone.
Right, because whenever one frames a solid, evidence-argument against vaccine rejectionism, it is always countered in a similar fashion.
I’m sure that will happen real soon.
I watched that show. There was a debate between the TV doctors and the anti-vaccine guests. The point is the show’s producers would have been happy to have let the AAP on, but then McCarthy would have cancelled.
It’s against my better judgement but I’ll ask: Who doesn’t think your child exists? How am I not accepting your daughter? We’ve never met, have we?
If you want an investigation into your child’s loss of skills, all you have to do is file a claim in vaccine court. Of course then you would have to make your child’s medical records available to the court. That ‘s not for everyone who makes the same claim as you.
“Conversation” implies dialog. All I’m seeing are unsubstantiated claims and a refusal to answer reasonable questions.
How about that graph? How does it show an autism epidemic?
Aaaand, the conversation just deteriorated to prove the point I was making earlier.
Somehow in the way things got posted, it looks as if my last comment is directed at Debbie. I hadn’t read her post when I wrote that comment. It was directed at AutismNewsBeat.
I couldn’t agree more. I’m just saying that one group doing things that shut down the conversation, whether it be censoring or calling names, doesn’t imply permission or even necessity for people who disagree with that group to do the same. (And I’ve also heard stories about censoring on pro-vax blogs, people being expelled from an AAP convention…the accusations from both sides are endless and constant.)
And we absolutely should point out when people are making false statements or censoring. I just feel the issues surrounding autism are muddied enough (which is part of the reason people are so upset about the proposed DSM changes, which, whether justified or not, will complicate the picture, at least for a while). Precisely for that reason, we all ought to be really careful how we approach the debate. Otherwise, we end up with “camps” who will never believe anything other “camps” say, no matter how true it may be. That is an extraordinarily dangerous situation, and we need to do better than that by our children.
“AutismNewsBeat”, Perhaps they were trying to have a TV show, not a debate. It’s not as if those that say my child does not exist don’t get PLENTY of press. It’s children like my daught