There is an astounding article in Salon today by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The studies are conclusive: mercury in vaccines causes autism. Govt. and pharma work together to hide the results. Frist is in the forefront. (Don’t have time to figure out how to link or make a pretty box–sorry. You’ll have to cut and paste: www.salon.com, by subscription, home page as of 7:08 am, central, 6/16.)
…The disease was unknown until 1943, when it was identified and diagnosed among 11 children born in the months after thimerosal was first added to baby vaccines in 1931.
The number of vaccines the CDC has recommended for children has gone from a few to 22 in the last decade or so, with a corresponding rise in autism. Autism has been rising in the developing countries to whom we ship vaccine. In 2000, government and pharma made the conscious decision to bury the study that proves the link.
Olmsted scoured the Amish of Lancaster County, Penn., who refuse to immunize their infants. Given the national rate of autism, Olmsted calculated that there should be 130 autistics among the Amish. He found only four. One had been exposed to high levels of mercury from a power plant. The other three — including one child adopted from outside the Amish community — had received their vaccines.
If you’ve been able to stave off feeling like a guinea pig or a pawn or a cog; if you still have a fissure in your cortex hoping that your corporate government views you as anything but a consumer, this article will dispel your naivety.
Here’s the link. You’ll need to click on the day-pass if you don’t subscribe to Salon.
Here’s the sentence that gave me nightmares:
1 in 166 children? Surely that’s a typographical error?
Sorry for the unattractive diary. The HTML instructions here aren’t as easy as on Kos. I couldn’t figure them out quickly and I had to get to work. Thanks for making the link.
RFK is an impressive guy. I haven’t read his book(s?) yet. After this article, I will.
Your diary is fine it looks just fine. The comment above is the first I’ve ever done (either here or at dKos) with the famous BLOCKQUOTE. I didn’t know what I’d get when I put it down. And it was very easy: Just type:
<blockquote>Type what you want to say</blockquote>
And it will come out like this:
In the instructions they mention [TYPE] in the instructions, but it isn’t necessary.
katiebird,
Home from work, followed your instructions for pretty boxes. Thank you.
RFK Jr. works for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is fighting the good fight in attempting to limit the amount of environmental destruction by Dim Son’s administration.
My donations budget is small and stretched thin, but I try each year to send something to NRDC.
I believe it’s true. But then what do we do with the things we learn? Try to share it, but if it interferes with somebody’s profit opportunity – forget it. What fools we mortals be!
Well Frist looks pretty ugly on this. There’s one more tick mark against him. (Although it happened during Clinton’s presidency–the continuing coverup is BushCo’s.)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Sorry but the studies are NOT conclusive. You can spin all sorts of false consclusions from statistics and children die from the consequences of premature or deceitful claims.
The “increase in autism” may be a chimera. One really has to question whether the incidence of autism has increased or the number of diagnoses has increased.”The disease was unknown in 1943″ – is that because is did not exist or the name was not attached to the condition? Did Down’s Syndrome not exist before Dr Down identified it?
You also have to question whether those diagnoses are valid and even if they are, whether the criteria have been changed. I will give as an example Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or “middle class thick” as I disparagingly refer to it. I happen to be a governor at a local school in a mixed but fairly poor area. The incidence of children accepted by the local education authority in our school is considerable less than that in other areas of the Borough. My perception is that the diagnosis has been achieved by parents unwilling to accept their child’s lack of academic achievements when they are down either to the child being a spoilt brat or just not academically gifted.
My caution about the “mercury theory” is drawn from the experience here of the “MMR” (measles, mumps and rubella) multiple vaccine. One doctor came up with a statistical link between the vaccine and yes autism. After several years, a lot of research and re-examination of the original data, not such link was found. In the meantime parents had been scared off from having their children innoculated. Some were sold single vaccines for the components which turned out to be ineffective. With the usual shots being free under the NHS system, these parents were conned out of money and their children left open to infection. Others decided to just not have their child innoculated. The result is that the critical mass of protected children have not been achieved in many areas and children are getting, and dying or being permanantly injured by, these childhood diseases.
Assertions that apparent statistical links have been “proved” are both irresponsible and dangerous. Low level mercury poisoning is a plausible mechanism but so was the doctor’s theory about MMR producing too much of a challenge to the child’s immune system. You could proably establish a statistical link between the “increase in the incidence in autism” and the sales of McDonalds burgers. You could also probably establish a statistical link between the ownership of cellphones and AIDS in the US.
Most significantly the article contains this information:
Which means, if the theory is correct, no child born from 2005 onwards will be diagnosed with autism until 2016 when they first receive a vaccine possibly containing a mercury preservative. The incidence should already be falling as fewer children would have received the affected shots during the phase-out period. Is that the case?
Children also die from true claims that are dismissed as false or inconclusive. True conclusions can also be drawn from statistics. Are you a statistician or are you otherwise qualified to judge whether or not the studies are conclusive? Have you seen the Simpsonwood transcripts? Have you even read the linked-to Salon article?
No, that’s absolutely not what it means if the theory is correct. What it would mean is that fewer children will be born with autism. The article made it clear that thimerosal isn’t suspected to be the only cause of autism, it’s just strongly suspected to be a major one. Given that, it may be too early to tell whether the incidence is falling as the theory would predict.
I am not a statistician. FWIW, though, I’ve taken a biostatistics course and I work with bio-statisticians. I can’t judge this either way, but I sure as hell wouldn’t dismiss it, and it wouldn’t be at all surprising to me if RFK Jr’s take on the actions of the FDA and Big Pharma were correct. This sort of thing is hard to judge even when it’s not clouded by huge sums of money. (And also clouded, to be fair, by the understandable emotional reactions of parents and by the public’s generally poor understanding of science).
Thanks for this, Londonbear. Saved me from trying to muster the arguments when I’m not very fluent in epidemiology and medical stats.
I keep getting upset by the number of otherwise rational people I have met who are prepared to believe some of the anti-vaccination rubbish which is perpetrated by way-out religious types and by alternative-lifestylers. I guess you can excuse this a bit because most people’s initial reaction, when told that their child might suffer something horrible if they are vaccinated, is to say ‘Oh I don’t want that to happen to my child’.
Apart from questioning the statistical links, the key point you mentioned from my perspective is the critical mass issue. An epidemiological fact is that once the level of vaccinations falls below a point around about 85% of the population, the random interaction of individuals within the population is such that an epidemic of the particular disease becomes likely. So by not vaccinating an individual, you are contributing to the endangerment of the wider population. And I don’t for one minute believe that the dedicated public health professionals in the governments of all the advanced economies are part of a conspiracy with big pharma.
No disrespect intended, legadillo.
None assumed, but the report the article is talking about has been supressed. According to Kennedy, only a very few people have seen it, and people analyzing those studies done in contradiction of it find problems with them. The report needs to be made public. I find the article convincing.
From a Quackwatch article:
In 2003, a special master who presided over a case of alleged vaccine injury issued a report that severely criticized Dr. Geier’s analysis of a case. The ruling is especially noteworthy because the special master referred to him as “a professional witness in areas for which he has no training, expertise, and experience” and listed nine other cases in which Geier’s expert testimony was given “no weight.”
So he has a financial interest in finding a vaccine-autism connection. Doesn’t necessarily make his claims false, but upon examination they certainly appear to be. See this article at the American Academy of Pediatrics for analysis of methodological flaws in Geier’s interpretation of the CDC data from the VAERS database.
of vaccinations but you have to understand what it is like to raise an autistic child. My husband and I come from large families and there is no history of medical problems in our family with the exception of diabetes. We have 9 nephews and nieces that were born between the years 1976-1983. I am not sure if you know anything about autism but let me tell you, when you meet an autistic child, you know it. My son cannot even say his name when asked. It is horrible and terrible nightmare.
All I am asking for is to have open and honest studies as to how this can occur. Again, I understand the importance of vaccinations. What I would like to know is, why can’t we produce vaccinations that are not mercury based? Will it cost extra money? I think the health and happiness of my child is worth the extra money. I don’t buy the crap argument that children are just now being diagnosed. When a child cannot even say his own name, his handicapped would have been recognized in 1920 as well as in 2005.
Your comment:
I don’t for one minute believe that the dedicated public health professionals in the governments of all the advanced economies are part of a conspiracy with big pharma.
I don’t think they are either. I do think that the dedicated professionals are weighing the balance btwn the number of children who could die from measles, mumps, etc. vs the number of children with autism. What we need to is to find a solution so that both can be prevented.
I agree with HausFrau here. I do not believe there is any ‘conspiracy’ of the CDC, medical researchers and the like with big Pharma, none at all. I deal with these all the time (I’m a scientist and a teacher). I also believe that the research is not conclusive (for or against a mercury-link with autism), in fact from what I’ve read so far I’m a bit on the ‘no real link’ side and in that horrible but necessary ‘balance of pros and cons’ (vaccines have saved millions of lives from death and serious problems)…
but, as someone who has autistic children in his family (3 nephews) and has watched their parents and the children struggle with it, and as a parent who worries about even minor things,
I agree with HausFrau, wouldn’t the prudent and ‘middle-of-the-road’ solution to this be to create non-mercury based vaccines, spend the money and time to create them.
I for one have been very questioning in what vaccines my daughter has received (to our doctor’s eternal annoyance), asking and researching risks and benefits. As it is, I’ve only so far (she’s 3) refused the chickenpox vaccine of the general recommended and said no thank you to a flu vaccine (it was late in the season, turning out to be the wrong strain anyway).
but still, isn’t there room for caution?
This was done in the early part of the decade, and by 2002 there were few, if any doses given that still contained thimerosal. This was done in response to the fears of parents, and I’m glad it was done. But it wasn’t removed because the vaccine manufacturers decided it wasn’t safe.
It was removed from vaccines in Canada and Denmark in the 90s. There has been no decrease in rates of autism-spectrum diagnoses in these countries.
Hausfrau (I admire your choice of username, btw!!) I have to admit that I re-read the Salon article after I posted my comment, and I started to feel a bit nervous about my judgement on this issue. The story is quite persuasive.
I agree with you that we should be producing vaccines without mercury-based preservatives. Thimerosal (or Thiomersal as it is called here) is basically on the way out. The official literature in Australia about the danger from this preservative in vaccines is very soothing, but I see that a child in the US who received all the recommended vaccinations in the last couple of years would have been close to the recommended limit for mercury intake. I couldn’t agree more that extra cost is worth it to produce safe vaccines.
How old is your son? Does he go to school?
You may or may not understand autism. But you sure as hell don’t know ADHD.
I’m not an expert on autism. But I do know ADHD.
Intimately.
ADHD occurs among all ability levels. There are a fair number who are extremely gifted. There are average; there are slow.
Unfortunately, some people try to tell people that they don’t have ADHD, it’s just that their giftedness has not been recognized. Or whatever. The counter-explanations vary, but they all boil down to– discounting. Telling people that they don’t know what they are talking about–without bothering to first take the time to check their credentials.
ADHD is both OVERdiagnosed AND UNDERdiagnosed. Which sucks, as people who don’t need help are getting useless treatment, and people who need it badly are doing without.
Considering your willingness to spout off on ONE topic you don’t understand, I find myself compelled to doubt your credibility on the other.
Thimerosol may or may not be part of the autism problem. There is mercury in the air and water now–far more than 50 years ago. There are lots of other pollutants as well. We should not be quick to convict the accused here–we could waste years attacking vaccines when something else might be the true culprit.
We do know that vaccines save lives. They prevent crippling. And autism is still rare. For now, until more credible evidence data is in, I’d choose vaccination for my children.
I went back to check stuff and found it had posted already.
I’m getting kicked off my computer for awhile, so can’t get things checked now–
Anyway–the diarist didn’t write anything about ADHD–so (at the moment) I’m not sure whom I was replying to.
I may have expressed it badly but I agree with you point about ADHD being both under and over diagnosed. The point is that there is no reason why the incidence should be much higher in middle class compared to working class (UK meanings) areas.
The only difference is that middle class parents are more willing to “blame” their child’s behaviour or under achievement on a diagnosed “illness” (rather than inate ability or their own parenting skills) and far more able to articulate and demand resources for their children. This is to the detriment of those whose parents are not as articulate or persistent enough to get them help.
At “my” school we had precisely this problem of a child with severe and genuine ADHD who was unable to get proper assessment and treatment because of the middle class neurotic parents blocking the system. In the end the behaviour of this 6 year old became so violent that we were forced to throw him out the school so that his case would be expedited. Even the family, who were resisting the help he needed, were foced to accept he required residential schooling when he burned down the family apartment a week later.
My point in raising ADHD is that, like autism, it has become a “trendy” diagnosis so claims of increased incidence must be treated with caution. If we are talking diagnses you will find often that the “check lists” of symptoms to diagnose these conditions have frequently been devised by the drug companies (or doctors employed/research paid by them) which just happen to market the drugs used to treat those symptoms.
Out of the mouths of Bettleheim. My son is autistic because I’m a Lazy Mother or something???
Well since you know so much maybe you can explain to the group the diagnosis process my son went through.
Do you know that at first they thought he was DEAF?
He was first diagnosed Kanners side of the spectru. There wasn’t any guesswork he was seen by the best at UCSF. The label was not flippantly tossed at us or even sought.
Autism is NOT anything like ADHD or ADD.
and I don’t think it’s a damn trend.
My son works hard every damn day of his life and for someone to sneer at his challenges as being lazy, or just a trend… well… I’ll be respectful of Booman and others and not continue my thoughts on this.
Londonbear is not denying the reality of autism or ADHD. He is not denying your sons illness. He is talking about somebody else. Read it again. People who are looking for treatment for children that fall well within normal variability are using resources that could otherwise go to children like your son.
It might have been better if he had said autism and so on had become respectable reasons for middle class children to be troublesome. He’s not a spoilt brat, he has ADHD – he’s ill. It’s not my child-raising skills – he’s ill. This taints the illnesses, making it more difficult for children with real problems to get the treatment, help and tolerance they need.
Thanks for clairfying what I was trying to get over a lot better than I was able to – a combination of tiredness and anger at the situation of the misdiagnoed “epileptics”.
Oui’s article below on the previous view of the cause being “refrigerator mothers” rather makes my point. If, prior to 1964 a diagnosis of autism was a virtual accusation that the parenting skills were deficient, doctors would be less inclined to make it. As the cause is now put down to biomedical reasons, that implied blame is removed and both the doctor and parents feel happier (wrong word but you get my drift) about the diagnosis. Indeed the reassurance that “it’s not you, it’s the illnes” makes it an even more attractive false diagnosis.
LondonBear,
Bettleheim = refridgerator mothers. Bettleheim and bad mothers was ONCE thought as a reason… just like other poor medical theories we have grown away from. Believe it or not since my son is autistic I have read much, spoken with several doctors – including Rimland from ARI, several seminars… WE LIVE IT EVERY DAY.
I will not try to assure you that my son’s diagnosis is not part of a “trend” of parents wanting to soothe their guilt for lack of parenting skills.
I can only tell you that there is a HUGE difference between a lazy parent with a spoiled child and a person who is truly autistic.
Where were the autistics before you ask? Why not the diagnoses???
Most were put into asylums. Most were given lobotomies. Before that… they were accused of being possesed… some cultures called them shamans… but autism didn’t just arise out of nowhere like some have posted.
Illnesses and diseases and disabilities have always been around. Even autism. We just had different names for it and different “treatments”. Now we know of mental illness instead of calling people possessed etc etc.
I can understand that SOME parents/parent seek out some explanation for their childs behaviorial problems. ADD and ADHD dxs are indeed tossed lables sometimes especially when “dxed” by the shools.
But I can’t even begin to explain that autism is nowhere near anything like ADD or ADHD.
Blaming parents for something like autism or pairing them up with lazy parents who seek a medical cause for their lacking… it doesn’t get us anywhere.
My dear friend’s son, age 3, was fine untill he was accidentally given the MMR shots … TWICE. That very day he shut down. There is something happening to our children.
Pointing fingers at the parents and children has gone on long enough.
Compairng autism to ADD and ADHD doesn’t get anyone anywhere either.
I’d like to know why a perservative in vax isn’t widly understood or studies.
Some of the “investigations” were never completed. SO the “conclusive” findings is a worthless.
I will say it once more, I AM VERY WELL AWARE THAT ADHD AND AUTISM ARE DIFFERENT. My point all along has been that the increased reporting and diagnosis does not NECESSARILY indicate an increase in incidence.
I am also not denying completely that there may be some link between exposure to vaccines – whether the link is due to extra “challenges” from the number of vaccines or from preservatives. All that can be said is that the anecdotal evidence does not seem to be borne out by studies of a body of cases so there is no proven single cause. If it were a direct cause it would happen in every case. Clearly some children are either more prone to the condition or are exposed to other enviromental factors that add or replace the mercury exposure. Just as possible in view of the wide variety of cases even involving a co-inicdence with an MMR jab is the possibility that this is another infection csught at the doctor’s surgery introduced with the injection. If we are talking sensitivity to chemicals, could it be that the swab used to clean the skin prior to the injection in being carried into the bloodstream by the needle? Entirely speculative but perhaps just as plausible.
MMR or at least proper exposure to MMR has been extensively studied and there does not seem to be a connection. The British doctor who came up with it has been shown to be using faulty analysis methods. What has been demonstrated in court cases is that a doctor peddling single injections were using faulty vaccines that left the children unprotected. Also there are epidemics of mumps in the UK at the moment, mostly in adults who have not received MMR but because the critical mass of children innoculated has not been reached. Kids at the school where I am a Governor have been suffering chickenpox outbreaks for the past month or more.
The link between the mercury based preservative and autism looks equally dubious. Obviously there are causes but finding them are obstructed when egotists or those with vested interests come up with theories which are shown to be highly doubtful but are repeated over and over again. Funding and other medical resources are diverted into disproving a false or at best inadequate theory when it should be used to try to find the reals cause(s). The trouble is that those who devise or are determined to believe these flawed theories then come up with conspiracy theories to explain why their favorite one is being sidelined.
The risk from childhood diseases is real. The link of autism to vaccines is higly speculative and any risk smaller. I am sorry to have to say this but those who willfully ignore scientific evidence and continue to promote crackpot theories that have been shown to be inadequate (at best) and deter parents getting children protected must take responsibility for the deaf, brain damaged and dead children that result.
What is so upsetting though is that there is an increase in autism. Autism has indeed skyrocketed.
It’s been years and still there is no understanding whatsoever why our children are disabled and challenged.
No one really seems to care. Several years ago when some of us began demanding answers we were seen as hysterical mommies who were in denial for wanting their child to become a student…
I was a radical because I fought against the use of locked time out rooms.
So please pardon my “tone” and I will try to “tone it down” as it comes from alot of time spent defending my son’s basic rights. I had to protest in Sacramento just for Speech Therapy. I’m a bit ragged. 🙂
But… please know that autism isn’t a behaviorial “illness” – Beehaviors are just a symptom.
Take Hellen Keller for instance – she threw tantrums… but deafness isn’t a behaviorial disorder… the disruptions came from a lack of skills and communication – once she was taught all those tantrums subsided.
I do not think mercury poisoning (we’re not just talking vaccinations) is the end all. I think autism stems from environmental issues… ask me about military housing we lived in some time…it will curl your hair.
I just want people to start investigating why are children are autistic. The simple fact that children who are much older than the typical onset are “becoming” autistic is extremely unsettling.
Can we now clink the coffe cups together in partnership?
I may have expressed it badly but I agree with you point about ADHD being both under and over diagnosed. The point is that there is no reason why the incidence should be much higher in middle class compared to working class (UK meanings) areas.
I’m not sure about the UK, but seeing the public schools in the lower income areas and knowing the available resources (and time) to both the teachers and the parents in those areas,
I can see why a disease would go under-reported. These teachers and parents have a hell of a lot more to deal with like just getting the books they need or feeding their kids.
It might not have anything to do with ‘lazy’ middle class parents and everything to do with overworked low-income community.
Hopefully I wasn’t too snide.
People who “know” that ADHD is hooey are one of my hot buttons.
That mistake also served as a reminder that I hadn’t taken my meds today.
Ya, sure–I’m just addicted to those amphetamines!
I am not an expert, but every tragic story of autism I have read has had early onset, by age five. I have read many stories of normal, talking, relating kids, suddenly regressing in their development. But I have never heard of this happening as late as 11 years old. I guess if it starts happening to some 11 yr olds, it will be pretty obvious, what the cause is, then.
For those with an interest in learning about autism, and the politics of those who push the alleged thimerosal link, I suggest Neurodiversity.com
.
Most of those promoting the “mercury poisoning” hypothesis have strong financial or emotional reasons. Some make their income by things like being “expert witness” such as Dr. Geier who did the flawed re-analysis of the CDC data, or are selling “cures” based on pseudoscientific “detoxification” processes, such as chelation. There is a lot of academic dishonesty in much of what is written on the subject.
For those concerned, I suggest looking at more hard scientific evidence, and keep an open mind.
You will realise my comment about numbers and ages was somewhat sarcastic. Despite this the article itself implies that this is a main cause of autism and the proof of that theory will be a dramatic drop in numbers. Moreover, the reduction in use prior to stopping its use in infant innoculations should mean that we should already be seeing a reduction in diagnoses. Evidence from other countries as already stated seems to indicate that there is not a connection, or as direct a connection, with mercury that the article suggests.
My concern is that for the parent of an affected child, trying to attach blame to a specific cause is counter productive to getting proper treatment. Specifying this preservative as a main cause when the link is merely speculative also tends to take the pressure off finding if there are really environmental causes. So far the evidence would appear not to show a direct causal link between autism and this preservative or mercury in general. One would for example expect to see the first signs of deterioration to be associated with incidents linked to the innoculation.
As has also been pointed out the diaganosis is not simple and symptoms fall on a spectrum of severity from extreme to virtually “normal”. I think it is therefore legitimate to ask if the apparent increase in numbers is real, due to better identification or due to the diagnoses falling further to the “normal” end of the spectrum than before.
another thanks.
there are a host of reasons for the rise in autism, including the double edge sword of greater awareness (and overdiagnosis). There’s also more acknowledgement that DS children, and others who wouldn’t have been included before, are often autistic.
Correlation does not mean causation. Simple as that.
Which means, if the theory is correct, no child born from 2005 onwards will be diagnosed with autism until 2016 when they first receive a vaccine possibly containing a mercury preservative. The incidence should already be falling as fewer children would have received the affected shots during the phase-out period. Is that the case?
Well, if no mecury-based vaccines are sold and used in the US from 2005 and on, then yes.. if the theory is correct, the rate of autism should decrease (as long as exposure to mercury isn’t increasing in another front).
But you won’t see that for about at least 3-4 years. Though autism can be diagnosed almost as early as 18months, noticing problems and positive diagnoses take much longer in reality, usually by 3 or 4 years old at the youngest ( see the APA link about diagnosis
So any decrease won’t be seen till at least 2008, but probably nothing definitive till almost 2012.
1 out of 166 is NOT a typo.
Mercury is harming our children! Why can’t people see that?
Investigations??? The Federal Govt stopped the investigations when it got too close to Merck. Ask your leaders why the need to protect pharms in the Patriot Act. They have done everything to bury the studies and stories. The whole time our kids are becoming a part of an autism epidemic.
Fuck the government, the FDA and the CDC.
If anyone thinks for one minute that their safety, health wins out over the almighty dollar… then let them stick your kid child with mercury.
Thank you for the diary Legodillo!
Yeah, suddenly the protections in the Patriot Act regarding the drug companies makes more sense–well, you know what I mean.
I know what you mean. And again thank you so much for the wonderful diary.
My brother is a huge fan of RFK (and environmentalist) and recently was a book signing. He’s been aware of the mercury poisoning for years.
It’s sad that if one is a “mommy” and their child is autisitc… others won’t listen to what you have to say or your concerns. They think any work I do is “based in denial” or the real kick in the ass… that I’m “too close to the subject/issue”.
What a pantload that is. 🙂
IT’s like saying all those who are American shouldn’t vote because… they are too close to the issues because outcomes affect them.
I can’t see or think straight.
I just got back from a “scene” with the Special Ed director at my son’s school over a laptop and assistive technology issues…
Try reading my posts without the hysteria. I do not confuse ADHD with autism, merely give the example as has been made clear, that both conditions are under and over diagnosed. What makes it difficult for parents of children with both conditions is that these are some parents actively seeking a diagnosis in order to explain away behavioural or attainment difficulties with other causes. In doing so they take away resources from those who should be properly diagnosed as having those conditions and delay them getting treatment for it.
Some child psychiatrists and psychologists are also either complicit with this or are insufficiently trained to be able to properly diagnose them. The situtation is in some ways worse for those children wrongly diagnosed as having these conditions who are then prescribed powerful drugs to “control” them. As in your son’s case, a diagnosis of autism may be appropriate but other possibilities like deafness should be ruled out before labelling the child.
Let’s not pretend doctors are immune from pressures to make an incorrect diagnosis from drug companies and to a lesser extent parents. Parental pressure may be more accute here where such a diagnosis is a gateway for the receipt of extra educational resources. Both diagnoses and treatment methods follow fashions in medecine. Inappropriate treatment is undeniably common for many children in the USA, particularly when there are emotional or behavioural problems.
Even without such pressures there is the real possibility of misdiagnosis. A current case has just been resolved in the UK which involved epilepsy rather than autism or ADHD:
Not described in this link but in the TV report was the case of a young man with dyslexia who was wrongly diagnosed with epilepsy. As a consequence he was in a drug inducced state which lost hiim 10 years of his childhood. His problem may well have been exacerbated as at the time dyslexia was the “disorder du jour” among parents to explain underachievement and was often dismissed because of this.
I have a nephew who was diagnosed on the autism spectrum (pervasive developmental disorder). He was born in 1989, which the article indicates was a key date with respect to the thimerosal concerns. No family history of autism.
There certainly wasn’t an overeager diagnosis where he was concerned. In fact, when my sister told her pediatrician that something was wrong with her son (he wasn’t communicating and screamed when touched, among other things), the pediatrician told her that it was a discipline issue–that he was just a brat, basically.
Fortunately, she found a PDD specialist who made the diagnosis, and she got him into speech therapy and other early intervention.
At 15, he’s a great kid with a wicked sense of humor. If my sister had listened to that jerk of a pediatrician, I doubt things would have turned out nearly as well.
Your sister and nephew might also find interest in autism information at Neurodiversity.com. It is respectful of those with autism spectrum disorders and their families. The title page says “honoring the variety of human wiring.”
I’ll pass it on.
I have an almost 5 year old, and so far we’ve dodged a bullet, but I should have been more proactive about this. Maybe not at birth, but certainly by the time he was two, there should have been thimerisol-free vaccines available, and I should have asked about it. Our pediatrician back then was very rude and condescending when I refused a fairly new vaccine that was optional at the time (i.e. not required when he went to school.) This was shortly after the rotovirus vaccine was pulled off the market, and he’d already had mild reactions to the DPT shots. I like to think of myself as being pretty demanding about the quality of my medical care, but just like my parents before me, I did as I was told by the doctors, like a sheep. Bah. He’s due for the MMR and DPT boosters later this summer. I’ll be asking more questions this time.
It is outrageous that your pediatrician should not be willing to give you all the information you needed to give properly considered consent. I agree it is extremely difficult to make such decisions without this.
If I take the example of MMR, it would be reasonable for a doctor to state “Currently there are no studies that definitely show any link between the multiple vaccine and autism. Some show there is no link but the risk cannot be ruled out entirely. What we do know is that separate vaccinations are more distressing for your child and leave them more open to infection as they have to be given over a period. If you chose not to have the vaccination at all, you lay them and others open to the full infections which have the following possible outcomes….” and then go on to give a proper assessment of the risk of getting those illnesses.
The trouble is that if your doctor is not willing to be entirely open with you, scare stories like Kennedy’s produce the opposite of “informed consent” which is “ill informed refusal”. People need to make an assessment of relative risk which currently seems to boil down (in the case of MMR) to a small and hotly disputed risk of autism from the vaccine to a real and greater risk of brain damage or death from the illness itself. Equally it is not unreasonable for parents to be able to eliminate any possible mercury connection by being given access to vaccines without this preservative, as they are currently Are however parents currently being told the new batches do not contain the preservative and is the exact injection being recorded on the child’s record?
Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, subject of RFK’s article has written the following here in April of 2004. I urge you to read the entire thing.
Emphasis added.
Additionally this, from January of this year:
Meaning more study is required before conclusions can be drawn.
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Wikipedia — Rimland’s book, Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implication for a Neural Theory of Behavior (1964), is credited with changing the prevailing view of autism, in the field of psychiatry, from an emotional illness – caused by refrigerator mothers – to the current recognition that autism is a biological disorder.
Dr. Rimland’s 1964 book, was responsible for challenging and changing the long-held belief that autism was an emotional disorder caused by poor mothering. Autism is now recognized as a biomedical disorder. Rimland has devoted himself tirelessly to conducting and disseminating the results of research on methods of diagnosing and treating the full spectrum of autism. These treatment modalities, once considered radical, are now gaining wide acceptance as the news spreads about formerly autistic children who have been reclassified as normal.
Dr. Rimland’s determination was spawned by his own son’s diagnosis of autism, at age two, in 1958. After this discovery, and convinced by his research, Rimland fought hard in the 1960’s to advance the cause of early behavioral intervention, commonly known as ABA. While most mainstream professionals rejected it, today – four decades later – they fully accept its value. Rimland and his colleagues, who believe drugs too often cause more harm than good, are pioneering the use of laboratory tests to identify problems in children’s metabolism. These can be corrected through the use of diets, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other safe and natural substances normally present in the body.
By 1995, the beginning of what is now widely recognized as an epidemic of autism was evident. Recent studies show an 800% increase in cases since 1985. ARI was in the forefront of calling attention to the coming epidemic. Today ARI maintains the world’s largest databank of autistic individuals with over 37,000 detailed case histories of autistic children from 60 countries, and is a major source of information on the epidemic and its potential causes.
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I believe there is more to autism than mercury. I also believe the huge number of vaccines “required” by law are outrageous and that those shots are a contributing factor to autism. Whether it’s the mercury or the overload of the immune system (or some combination of the above and other things), I do think there is a connection between vaccinations and autism.
I have three sons. The oldest was born in ’94–just as the rumors snowballed. I was told to start vaccinating him the day he was born. I refused. It made no sense to me to give a newborn a shot. As we went in for his monthly checkups I continued to be pushed into monthly vaccinations. California’s list of vaccinations had reached 22; all to be given before the age of 2 years. I refused.
None of my sons got any vaccinations until they were over a year old, then only those chosen for need.
I consider the decision to not vaccinate on schedule to be one of the best parenting decisions I’ve ever made.
When my daughter was born in 1991, I researched the vaccine issue for myself. I recall reading that in the UK many vaccinations were postponed until after kids were 2 or more, but that in the US policy was to require them to take place in the first 6 months of life — so that people would be more likely to get them, given that we have no national health care plan, etc. The timetable appeared to have been decided for the profits of the companies marketing the vaccines and the convenience of bureaucrats, rather than for actual public health reasons.
My stupid state required infants to get vaccinated at birth against hepatitis. What an assault on the sensitive system of a very new arrival! This regardless of the fact that infants rarely share needles. I avoided this by giving birth at home.
It’s not just that there’s thimerosal in them; the general use of vaccines is often short sighted. For example, many diseases that are pretty safe in childhood become quite dangerous in adulthood — about the time the MMR or chicken pox vaccine wears off (if it even works to begin with) and your child becomes pregnant, for instance…
Having easily survived mumps, measles, chicken pox, and the like as a child, I think we would be better off in most cases to let kids have them. The fatalities from these diseases, from what I have read, are mostly connected to malnourishment. To me it looks like we as a culture would rather give kids a shot than arrange to feed them properly (by eliminating poverty).
When my daughter got chicken pox, other parents purposely brought their kids over (saying “not a bad time for us to deal with it right now”) so they could acquire natural immunity.
My state also requires that any exemption from vaccination requirements be religious. If you have actual scientific objections based on research you can get in big trouble. My daughter’s dad made the mistake of mentioning to a doctor once that we had researched vaccines and decided against many of them. The doctor reported us to the police and we were investigated by the state for “medical neglect.” We were cleared of that charge, mostly because I kept reassuring the social worker that (although I am not a Christian Scientist) my objection to shots that could impair my daughter’s health was indeed “religious.” (Of course I think most mothers’ feelings about protecting our offspring could easily be considered “religious.” What is more sacred to us than our responsibility to do the best we can to promote our children’s health?)
“You plainly are capable of defending yourself in court if you had to,” she said — so I didn’t have to. Which makes me angry on behalf of thousands of parents who feel as I do but may be less able to be articulate about it under pressure.
I survived chicken pox, rubella, and mumps as a child, without complications, but not everyone is so lucky.
From an article at Quackwatch:
Here are some pictures of children with “harmless” childhood diseases. Click on the black and white photos to see the color version.
while I agree on the chicken pox – I’d much rather see my kids get it naturally –
these diseases also pose considerable threat to others in contact. Your 7 year old might survive whooping cough just fine, but it could kill the 7month old she comes into contact with.
Herd mentality only gets you so far.
I don’t know exactly what you are trying to imply with your remark about “herd mentality.”
Meantime, I would just like to point out that nothing is without risk. The diseases we are talking about are one kind of risk. Vaccinations often do not actually prevent the diseases they are supposed to prevent. Complications from vaccinations are also sometimes very serious, and we could, I am sure, trade heartbreaking stories and photos from each side.
A parent should be entitled to weigh the risks and benefits of each side, especially where reputable physicians disagree, as is the case with many vaccines.
I certainly agree that responsible parenting encompasses making informed choices about medical care, including vaccination. My children did not receive prevnar, both b/c the risks are fairly high and b/c extended nursing pretty much negated any potential benefits. If I could, I’d put off varciella until 12 or 13, but my state requires it for school and my son is entering kindergarten. I spent considerable time searching for an out, and short of finding an Amish kid with open sores really soon, it looks like we’re SOL.
Nor do I dispute that there can be harmful side effects to vaccination. In fact, that very point is one more argument I use FOR vaccinating my kids – the possibility that your child may not be able to get a vaccine, b/c of a health complication, is certainly a motivation for me.
Herd mentality is just that – common terminology in the vax debates, the notion being that if the “herd” is protected, one or two strays won’t be susceptible.
I know that people are killed and maimed by chicken pox, but let’s put it in perspective. In 2003 over 2500 children were killed in car accidents. Although some states can issue tickets for children not restrained properly, many do not. Many of the children killed were not restrained at all.
So, the State wants to force me to inject my child with a bacteria (dead, damaged or not), so my child can go to school, but I can drive around with an unrestrained child in my car with no penalty.
Put your money and time to saving the most children. And keep the State’s hands off my body (or, more specifically, my children’s bodies).
Before we moved to Maine I confirmed that there was a philosophical exception for vaccinations.
I do have a problem in that I selectively vaccinate. The school nurse threw a fit last year, saying that either I’m against all vaccinations or none. I guess parents aren’t capable of making decisions on a case-by-case basis.
One problem with many of those who promote a thimerosal -autism connection is that they frequently take studies done by others and twist the material presented there to fit their hypothesis. For example, in the article, they refer to this study published in April 2005, Comparison of Blood and Brain Mercury Levels in Infant Monkeys Exposed to Methylmercury or Vaccines Containing Thimerosal
In the article they say:
However, in a direct quote from the article (page 16) says:
It is this kind of misrepresentation that makes it so difficult for people who are unfamiliar with or have no access to published studies to evaluate the evidence for themselves.
Salon has apparently re-hashed an argument offered by many parents of kids with autism who, understandbly, struggle to find a rationale for why their particular child was affected by this disease. The rise in the number of vaccinations to which kids are exposed seemed to also be related to the increase in the incidence of the disease. Some have viewed this relationship as an inference about causation.
Unfortunately, the National Research Council issued a report a couple of years ago that found no compelling evidence to support this claim. I think what is known about autism — like many developmental disorders, is that a combination of genetic and environmental factors play a role. These environmental factors become complicated because they can occur either prenatally or post-natally.
Wow–my fist diary at BooMan made the recommended list!
I wish I could add cogent statistical argument from previous studies to the posts, but the Salon article is probably as much as I’ve ever read about autism at one sitting. The opinions of you guys who’ve done the reading and dealt with it personally are the point.
Because of the caliber of the article’s author and his sources, though, I’m inclined to believe that studies done that contradict the findings of the suppressed study are flawed; and that government/U.N./pharma could conspire to suppress evidence for what they believe to be the greater good, or for personal gain, or both. After 37 years of republican rule (with interregna) culminating in elections 2000 and 2004, I have no problem believing in far-reaching conspiracies born of greed and hubris (maybe excepting space aliens).
Which is pretty much what I said about a foot higher on the page. I’ve run out of argument.
Orac at Respectful Insolence tears apart the article in a great post. Here are a few quotes:
“In 1930, the company [Eli Lilly] tested thimerosal by administering it to 22 patients with terminal meningitis, all of whom died within weeks of being injected — a fact Lilly didn’t bother to report in its study declaring thimerosal safe.”
The patients had “terminal meningitis” in 1930 and died after injection with thimerosal? Imagine that. Given that penicillin had not been discovered yet, I would have been surprised if any of them lived.
Read the whole post if you have any interest in these issues.
LOL Janet I think we proably basically share a lot of the same concerns and were reacting to our individual circumstances – you with your experiences of fighting to get the best for your child and me with the frustrations of people swallowing dubious “causes” theories from people like Kennedy who should know better and seeing kids who are getting behind in their studies (luckily nothing more serious than that yet) because of preventable illnesses.
Let’s earnestly hope that the cause, proper preventative measures and a cure (or more widely effective treatment) can be found.
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GLASGOW – Sat 7 Aug 2004 — BABIES will no longer be given a vaccine containing mercury – amid fears of a link between the metal and the development of autism, it was reported today. The mercury had, until now, been contained within the whooping cough vaccine given to babies when they are eight weeks old.
But the jab – without mercury – will now be given to children as part of a new five-in-one vaccine. A Scottish Executive spokeswoman today confirmed an announcement on the vaccines would be made on Monday.
The move comes after recent research in the United States, which suggested that a mercury-based preservative used in some childhood vaccines, was linked to autism-like damage in the brains of mice. The Department of Health has always said there is no evidence of a link between mercury in vaccines and autism. The mercury was used in the whooping cough vaccine as a preservative.
Confirming that mercury was being removed from childhood vaccines, health minister John Hutton said: “Childhood immunisation has been extremely effective in protecting children from serious, life-threatening diseases. We are continually looking to improve this programme as more effective products become available.”
GP Dr Richard Halverson welcomed the changes, “Mercury is totally unnecessary in the vaccines we use in this country. For years now we have had safe and acceptable alternatives”.
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan Tribune and add some cheers!
also in the US. I’ve asked at my children’s well child checkups, and honestly, you would have to really try hard to get dose with mercury anymore.