AGE OF AUTISM

BOB AND SUZANNE WRIGHT (BUT NOT KATIE) IN WESTPORT MAGAZINE

By Kim Stagliano

Addendum, Katie Wright just sent us a copy of the letter to the editor she sent to Westport Magazine.  It appears she was never asked to participate in the article.  Makes it rather hard to "decline an interview" if you weren't asked.  You can see her letter at the end of this post. She questions whether someone at Autism Speaks declined on her behalf, without her knowledge.

Bob and Suzanne Wright are featured in the February issue of Westport Magazine.  Westport is a well to do community in Fairfield County Connecticut. Paul Newman and many other celebrities live in Westport.  The Imus' are nearby too. I live up the road, er, on the other side of the tracks..... 

Here's a taste:

Despite the Wrights’ optimism, there have also been bumps in the road. Relations have been strained between Bob and daughter Katie, who declined to be interviewed for this article. Katie, Christian’s mother, has said that Thimersol, a preservative in mercury-based vaccines, causes autism and defends alternative treatments, which she says have benefited Christian. She has also criticized Autism Speaks for not supporting more families who believe likewise.

Her parents and the organization are reserving judgment on vaccines, saying they have yet to see scientific proof that they are behind the rise in autism. “We’re the 500-pound gorilla,” says Bob, “and we’re doing all of this research work and worrying about genetics, and she’s saying, ‘I’ve got a little sick boy here, and I’m only interested in dealing with him right now.’ That’s okay. I understand that.”

HERE's the entire article.  And Katie's letter is below.

WHY WE'LL WIN

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Did it escape anybody’s attention that at the bottom of the full-page ad placed by Generation Rescue in the Tuesday, February 12, 2008 issue of USA Today that Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy were thanked for their generous support?

There comes a time in any successful campaign when a tipping point is reached.  I think that might have happened this past Tuesday.

Consider the people who’ve come over to the side of the angels in the past twelve months.

FLU VACCINE 60% FAILURE RATE: STILL PUSHED BY DOCS

Doctors, including pediatricians, (are they still docs or have they been downgraded to pharmaceutical reps?) continue to push the flu vaccine, even though it has greater than a 60% failure rate this season. Read the full article HERE.

The flu vaccine is not now, and has never been, a sure bet against preventing flu. And yet now it's being given to children as young as 6 months of age, (not to mention the unborn) even though studies have shown an efficacy rate of 17% in children under two.

The flu vaccine is a money maker. It brings people into stores and pharmacies and doctor's offices. It fills the seats and encourages additional purchases at the retail center.  Looks to me like it's also what's known as a "loss leader."  The loss being your potential health. 

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The flu season is getting worse, and U.S. health officials say it's partly because the flu vaccine doesn't protect against most of the spreading flu bugs.

The flu shot is a good match for only about 40 percent of this year's flu viruses, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

The situation has even deteriorated since last week when the CDC said the vaccine was protective against roughly half the circulating strains. In good years, the vaccine can fend off 70 to 90 percent of flu bugs.

Infections from an unexpected strain have been booming, and now are the main agent behind most of the nation's lab-confirmed flu cases, said Dr. Joe Bresee, the CDC's chief of influenza epidemiology.

ME AND MY SHADOW

By Cathy Jameson

I’ve waited a long time to see my son become a functional part of our family. A flood of memories came back as my husband found a picture of Ronan as a baby.  The photo sits on my desk now to remind me of what once was. I see a very happy, bright-eyed, responsive and healthy child. I love this particular photo—taken two months before Ronan’s 9-month check up—because it reminds me of such a simple time in our family’s lives. I want to get in a time machine and go back to the scene in the photo, grab that fat, happy baby and be a carefree Mom again. 

AAP WAGS THE DOG: FIND US SOME SICK KIDS PRONTO!

Internal American Academy of Pediatricians email reveals panic and new low in “media planning.” (Full email at end of post.)

By J.B. Handley

Dear Ms. Martin:

I understand you are the Director of Media Relations for the American Academy of Pediatrics. I read your email of February 13th to medical practitioners (that I have included below in its entirety) describing a nationwide search for parents that, in your words, fit one of two profiles. First:

“Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders who support immunization and who do not believe there is any link between their child’s vaccines and his or her autism.”

Second:

“Parents of children who suffered a vaccine-preventable illness. This could be a parent who declined immunization, whose child became ill before a vaccine was available, or whose child was ineligible for immunization.”

Apparently, you are trying to establish connections with these families because:

“The anti-vaccine groups often have emotional family stories on their side. The ability to offer a reporter an interview with a similarly compelling parent who is sympathetic to the AAP’s goals is a powerful tool for our media relations program.”

PODCAST WITH DAN OLMSTED

Editor's Note: Earlier this month I was interviewed by Coy Barefoot on his Charlottesville, Va., radio show. Coy is the parent of a child with autism and a strong advocate of the approach embraced by Age of Autism. In this conversation we touch on everything from the earliest cases to the continuing rise in the California numbers to -- of course -- the launch of the Age of Autism. Here's the link to the podcast, which is about 15 minutes long.

Audio by CPN - Player by ODEO

IT'S NOT NICE TO FOOL MOTHER NATURE!

By Harry Hofherr

A few years ago there was a series of commercials for a brand of margarine. The point of the vignettes was that a brew of synthetic chemicals whipped up in an industrial laboratory, with a long list of unpronounceable words with eighteen vowels and poly moly wolly attachments to them could fool Mother Nature into thinking this chemistry experiment was her very own natural butter. Of course she got pissed off when the ruse was uncovered and raised the rain and clouds and announced thunderously, "IT'S NOT NICE TO FOOL MOTHER NATURE". 

Around that time, Modern Medicine was getting a shot in the arm as the federal government began pumping billions of dollars into healthcare through Medicare, Medicaid, and my personal favorite, the Veterans Administration.

HANDING OUT WHITE CANES AND GUIDE DOGS

By ANNE DACHEL

I watched the news video and read this report from ABC 30-TV in Fresno, CA. Autism: PLAY Project (Click here.) It's all about productive play for young autistic children starting at 18 months up to five years.  I noted the phrase, "the number of cases are growing at an alarming rate," yet with no explanation for why this might be happening.

We hear lots of exciting things about Dr. Rick Solomon, Autism Expert, and his play therapy which can turn non-verbal, unresponsive children into ones who speak and interact. This is the best Dr. Solomon can say about why we have all the affected kids everywhere: "There's no doubt that it's gone from being recognized from one in 10,000 to one in 150. And among boys it's one in every 88. So something seems to be going on."

So what is Dr. Solomon telling us here?  The word "recognized" brings up the "better diagnosing-greater awareness" myth, as if we finally figured out what was really wrong with these kids. Then he says "Something seems to be going on."  SEEMS TO BE?  Could we be more specific?  New parents or parents-to-be have got to be worried.  Could my child be next? Why isn't everyone scared to death?  What if kids were going blind at this sudden increased rate? Would we just be teaching them to read in Braille and handing out white canes and guide dogs?

That's what we're doing with autism.
--
Anne Dachel is Media Editor of Age of Autism

DAN OLMSTED: OBSERVATIONS FROM RECENT DAYS

By DAN OLMSTED

On flu shot kids: A pediatrician who treats a large number of kids with autism tells me she has started to detect a new pattern. Most of the very youngest children are what she calls "flu shot kids." Their mothers got mercury-containing flu shots when they were in utero. The kids got the shots right on schedule starting at 6 months.

She emphasized this was only an impression, not a study or even a survey. But this is someone who has been very astute about the autism epidemic since the early days – she first began noticing something amiss with the kids in her practice starting in the mid 1990s. They were just plain sicker. Too many allergies, too much asthma, too many with juvenile diabetes. Too many with autism.

Too many, too sick. So I think what she says about the flu shot bears repeating and watching.

LARRY KING LIVE TONIGHT (Post Poned)

Wed. 2/14 Update: A commenter named Julie pointed out that John McCain has bumped the autism program to "coming soon." Too bad we couldn't get McCain on the autism show.

Larry King Live is running a new program about autism tonight. 

The show will feature the young man known as "J-Mac", whose basketball prowess catapulted him from the bench to the spotlight.  And check out his book called, The Game of my Life: The True Story of Challenge, Triumph and Growing up Autistic.

Check out JB Handley's piece below about the email sent by the CDC trying to offset the impact of this program. Sniff, sniff, sniff....... Do you smell fear?

"ALL HANDS ON DECK!" CDC BRACES FOR LARRY KING LIVE

By J.B. Handley

Can it get any sillier? First, the AAP tries to get ABC to pull a fictional episode of Eli Stone off the air because the show addresses the vaccine-autism controversy.

Now, the CDC issues a “warning” that Larry King Live will be airing a show on autism tomorrow night (February 14th) that may not align with the CDC’s wildly biased, ill-informed, and self-protectionist point of view on autism.

The email, circulated to health care professionals far and wide, states:

“We have been informed that the Larry King Live show will be about on autism on Tuesday, February 12 [Note: date is wrong, actually airing on 2/14]. The panelists for the show will include Jenny McCarthy, Holly Robinson, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel (author of the introduction to Jenny McCarthy's book) and others [Note: List of panelists is wrong, will actually be Robinson, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, Doug Flutie, and Jason McElwain.]

Recently, we distributed a timeline of key events related to thimerosal and vaccines. We are sending that to you again.

WOULD THE REAL SCHIZOPHRENICS PLEASE STAND UP?

by Julie Obradovic

I think Autism and Schizophrenia really might be more related that I originally thought. Reflecting on the last ten years made it glaringly obvious that someone here is indeed experiencing a case misdiagnosed schizophrenia.

I had my first child in 1998. To put that in perspective, Pottery Barn Kids had just launched, and only one maternity store existed as a chain. Cute, stylish clothes for moms-to-be didn't really exist, and the only real place to shop for your baby was the brand new Babies-R-Us. Compared to what's available now-a-days, it seems like eons ago.

There weren't very many good medical books about motherhood and pregnancy either. I suppose that's why the recently published What to Expect While You're Expecting was so popular. It walked you through every month of pregnancy with great detail. I loved that book and read it like my Bible. I was a good mom who wanted to do everything right for her new baby.

YOUR CHILD'S LIFE ON A WAIT LIST

By Kim Stagliano

Why do we try so hard to improve the lives' of our children with autism? Why do we devote our lives to treating their symptoms, spending every red cent we have? Why do we shuttle them from therapy to therapy; fight with our schools for services; demand answers from doctors on prevention and further treatment?  Because today's adorable tots will soon be tomorrow's adults, and we'd darn well better get them as far along as we can, for their sake. 

I need my beautiful daughters, who will be gorgeous women, to be able to say, "No!" and "Help!" and to understand the need to defend themselves. (Let's get real, you think the reality for disabled women is pretty, easy or safe?  I don't.)  I want them to be able to read for entertainment and safety, cook or prepare a meal, keep themselves clean, cross the street safely. What better gift could I bestow on my children then the ability to survive in this world?

AUTISM TODAY: CHARTING THE RISE

Check out these links provided by Dan Hollenbeck and posted at Fighting Autism, now part of Thoughtful House Center for Children.

  1) Latest Autism Prevalence Data Graphs

  2) Autism State Rankings

  3) New Jersey Autism Prevalence

NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION PROGRAM OUT OF CONTROL

Road to Nowhere: The National Immunization Program is out of control: who will restore sanity?

By J.B. Handley

In A User-Friendly Vaccine Schedule, perhaps the most enlightened work ever written by a doctor regarding immunizations, Dr. Donald Miller, a professor at The University of Washington writes:

“The schedule states, "Your child can safely receive all vaccines recommended for a particular age during one visit." Public health officials, however, have not proven that it is indeed safe to inject this many vaccines into infants. What's more, they cannot explain why, concurrent with an increasing number of vaccinations, there has been an explosion of neurologic and immune system disorders in our nation’s children.”

We try to make similar points with a full page ad in USA Today that asks what we consider to be many reasonable questions like, “Given the unabated rise of autism to epidemic levels, isn’t it time for the scientific community to seriously consider the anecdotal evidence of so many parents?”

Isn’t it?

AGE OF AUTISM: OUR STORY SO FAR

By Dan Olmsted

This week marks three months since Managing Editor Kim Stagliano and I launched Age of Autism at the National Autism Association Convention in Atlanta. In that time, we've come quite a distance – with well over 100,000 "hits" (visits), several hundred "posts" (articles) and a couple of thousand comments.

None of this was on my radar when I left United Press International last summer after three years of writing The Age of Autism column, but as a friend of mine said at the time, "I think this is a blessing in disguise, and not much of a disguise." That quickly proved true as several autism organizations coalesced to sponsor this site. In fact, our biggest achievement is simply this: providing a common forum for the enviro-bio community – people who believe autism is an epidemic and therefore primarily an environmental illness and, as such, it is treatable.

DR. ANDREW WAKEFIELD'S RESPONSE TO BAIRD G. ET AL

Thank you to Dr. Andrew Wakefield, of Thoughtful House Center for Children for sending us this important piece:

Response to Baird G. et al. Measles vaccination and antibody response in autism spectrum disorders. Archives of Disease in Childhood. Published 5th February 2008.

In a case-control study of 10 to 12-year-old children with either autism, special-educational needs, or normal development, the authors examined measles-antibody responses (plaque reduction neutralization assay) and the presence of measles virus in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction). The study apparently sought to identify autistic children relevant to the original MMR/autism hypothesis, i.e., those who regressed and those with bowel symptoms.

The study is severely limited by case definition in the context of the crucial ‘possible enterocolitis’ group. For inclusion in this group they required the presence of two or more of the following five current gastrointestinal symptoms:

• current persistent diarrhea (defined as watery/loose stools three or more times per day >14 days),
• current persistent vomiting (occurring at least once per day, or more than five times per week),
• current weight loss,
• current persistent abdominal pain (3 or more episodes [frequency not specified by authors] severe enough to interfere with activity);
• current blood in stool;
plus:
• past persistent diarrhea >14 days’ duration, and excluding current constipation.

BUY ONE OF THESE TOMORROW!

On second thought, buy TWO. Trust us.

CDC = "C-ancer D-oesn't C-ount?"

Last month we shared a STORY about FEMA and the formaldehyde-filled Hurricane Katrina trailers.  Seems the folks at CDC are involved in the potential coverage up of health dangers too. 

A congressional committee is investigating whether the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suppressed information about cancer dangers in trailers housing Hurricane Katrina victims and if the agency retaliated against the scientist who sought to make those risks public.

Sounds alot like what many of us having been shouting about vaccines, doesn't it?

Read more HERE.

ACTUALLY DR. ORR, PARENTS HAVE BIG WORRIES

By Anne Dachel

In his opinion piece "Parents have no need to fear kids' vaccines" in the Eagle Tribune, North Andover, MA, Dr. Brian Orr dismisses the claim that vaccines like the MMR and mercury-containing ones have anything to do with a child developing autism.  He's got the usual official studies to tell us about.  He writes, "In fact, there has never been a verifiable research study supporting an autism-vaccine link. Many international medical groups have conducted research using vaccine data and have continually concluded that vaccines do not cause autism. There is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism nor between mercury in vaccines and autism. Yet, the rumors regarding vaccines continue."

The reason the rumors continue is because all these official studies are not proof that vaccines are safe.  Dr. Orr needs to realize that this is not about pure science.  It's about who'll be held responsible if it is clearly shown that through complete oversight failure, a generation of children has been exposed to dangerous and damaging vaccines.  Lots of individuals, agencies, and organizations have everything at stake in denying a link.

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY WINNERS

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Okay, I’ll admit I made a big mistake on Sunday.

I left my brother’s house with my lovely family in tow with about three minutes left to go in the game.  I didn’t expect the New York Giants to make their amazing comeback with 35 seconds on the clock.  I know I missed seeing one of the most unforgettable moments in sports history.

I couldn’t have cared less.

What I did care about was the fact that we arrived at my brother’s house about five hours earlier as a full and intact family with my lovely wife Linda, our normally developing seven-year-old son Ben, and our nine-year-old daughter Jacqueline who has autism and seizures.

WORDS WIN WARS

By Ed Arranga

-- “To write or speak is to communicate. To communicate is to share meanings, make them ‘common’ to all participants in the discourse. (The etymological root of communication means ‘common.’)” – Robin Lakoff

Why do mass media, mainstream medicine, federal agencies, along with the U.S. Congress and countless others refuse to honestly analyze the evidence that points to a possible autism-mercury connection? Why do the same groups discount, out-of-hand, recovered children?          

What we are witnessing and are actively engaged in is a struggle of utmost importance now and for the future. The context question is: Who speaks for autism? Who defines autism? Who are our meaning-makers?

PHYSICIANS BECOME MORE EFFICIENT

By Barbie Hines

Recently I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.  Imagine that.  A mother with an autistic son has an autoimmune disorder!  Shocking? Not at all.  How the doctor responded, now that is somewhat shocking.

I explained all of my symptoms.  He asked many questions, all of them good questions.  I was prepared for the diagnosis, as the days of walking into a doctor’s office and trusting he would give me accurate advice and treatment are long gone for me.  I had been researching my symptoms for weeks.  I knew what was coming.  I was aware of the absolutely hateful drugs they are now using to treat the symptoms.  I knew they were not even trying to treat much less find the underlying cause of rheumatoid arthritis.  Sound familiar?

WHILE MINSHEW SHRIEKS, AUTISM SQUEAKS

By J.B. Handley

Nancy Minshew, M.D. sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of, you guessed it, Autism Speaks.

Autism Speaks drives me nuts. On the one hand, they often represent themselves as speaking for our community. On the other hand, no one at Autism Speaks ever seems to speak up for anything that might help our kids today.

Let’s take a pause and look back at Autism Speaks’ moment of shining glory: the passage of the Combating Autism Act (which actually took Don and Deirdre Imus to push through). Bob Wright went down to Washington and addressed the Senate of the United Sates and here, from an Autism Speaks press release, is what he said:

“The public health crisis posed by autism requires an extraordinary response. With every new child diagnosed with autism costing an estimated $3 million over his or her lifetime, we cannot afford to rely on standard, ‘business as usual' practices,” stated Wright in his testimony. “The autism crisis demands a focused, coordinated, and accountable response by our public health agencies, similar to the federal response to the AIDS crisis in the 1990s, with line-item appropriations for autism intervention, surveillance and research tied to a strategic plan.”

A crisis? Similar to the response for AIDS? Wasn’t/Isn’t AIDS an epidemic?

MMR AND THE SIMPLE TRUTH ABOUT AUTISM

By Dan Olmsted

Does the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine cause autism? I vote yes.

Of course, that’s just one man’s opinion – but one who’s spent the last three years listening to parents and enlightened pediatricians and combing through adverse events reports and just generally trying to think for himself.

Right below this post is yet another study seeming to exonerate the MMR. That sure sounds familiar – the CDCAAPFDAIOMETC have already given it multiple clean bills of health. And manufacturer Merck says no studies show any link to autistic regression.

DR. MINSHEW: TODAY'S AUTISM IS YESTERDAY'S SCHIZOPHRENIA

By Kim Stagliano

Dr. Nancy Minshew says that in the "old days" autistic people were called schizophrenic, because the two conditions are so much alike.  Today they are called autistic. Et voila! There's your epidemic!

Does your child, or do you (if you are an adult with autism) appear schizophrenic*? Has any doctor or therapist ever uttered the words schizophrenia and autism in the same sentence to you?

This declaration of Dr. Minshew's is repulsive and offensive to all people with autism. All people with autism, regardless of what you think of cause or treatment.

THE SHAMING OF THE MINSHEW

By Kim Stagliano

Studies raise questions about increase in autism cases

I am nauseous reading this article.  I have three daughters with autism. No epidemic? Just a genetic blip that happened to hit us? You couldn't miss us from 5 paces. Strangers on the street whisper, "Do they have autism?" They know. The lack of speech. The gorgeous eyes turned away. The lack of sociability.

On Saturday night we took the family to a local restaurant. We had to wait in line for a bit. Two families came in behind us with girls who couldn't have been more than three years old. Within seconds, the girls were trading dolls and chatting amiably. One said, "Can you eat with us?" And they looked at my three girls with funny faces. They could tell within seconds my girls are different. And it freaking broke my heart. Damn. Now I'm crying and about to puke.

Read the article here.  Here's an excerpt from our friend Nancy Minshew.

Nancy Minshew (Read about her HERE) the director of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Excellence in Autism Research, said last week, "I used to think there were more cases [than in past years], but I don't think so any more." She is now convinced that the higher numbers are "not an increase in the number of cases, but are an improvement in recognition."

The epidemic deniers are now at the highest echelons of the "autism experts."   Meanwhile, they rake in the money from the epidemic that doesn't exist.  Disgusting.

Kim Stagliano is Managing Editor of Age of Autism.

PIG BRAINS, AUTISM AND THE DISPARITY IN TREATMENT

By Kim Stagliano

The NY Times REPORTS that a handful of people who blow pigs brains' out of the skull in a Minnesota pork processing plant contracted a neurological disorder. Panic ensues. Tests run. Specialists called in. State epidemiologists on high alert.

Read this! "Steroids did nothing for Ms. Kruse, so doctors began to treat her every two weeks with IVIG, intravenous immunoglobulin, a blood product that contains antibodies. “It’s kind of like hitting the condition over the head with a sledgehammer,” Dr. Lachance said. “It overwhelms the immune system and neutralizes whatever it is that’s causing the injury.”

Sound familiar my autism friends?

MMR & AUTISM: NO LINK! WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER 9 SHOTS

A study that found no link between MMR and autism just happened to hit the press less than a week after the Eli Stone debacle for AAP. Read the abstract here. Read a FOX News report HERE.

The 2008 AAP vaccine schedule shows up to 12 vaccinations could be admininstered at a child's 15 month well visit. One of those is the MMR. The others include: Hib, Pneumococcal, Polio, Varicella, Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hep A, and an extra Influenza, depending on time of year and whether child got a flu shot at an earlier visit.  Count the shots for yourself HERE on the schedule.

Tomorrow you're going to have a headache. Heck, you might have one right now. You'll take a Tylenol or a Motrin or a Bayer aspirin. Would you take all three at once? Or could that combination perhaps cause harm?

Whaddya think, Age of Autism readers?  Is MMR off the hook?

THE GONG SHOW: GENE GENE AND AUTISM

By Harry Hofherr

In the mid 70's there was a popular TV program called The Gong Show.

It was a Chuck Barris production and it was an earlier and better version of American Idol.  If you don't know who Chuck Barris is, look him up. His TV shows were legendary at the time.

Chuck was the MC and there was a panel of "celebrity" judges to keep it all in some sort of perspective. And it was a very loose fitting perspective for the day.

The aspiring idols performed short acts of varying talents and abilities. The judges' job was to bang a large gong when the acts were bad and ugly while awarding the good acts a couple hundred bucks or something as a prize.

A recurring performer on the show was a stagehand who far exceeded his fifteen minutes, but was worth every second of it. I'm talking about "Gene Gene The Dancing Machine".  Gene Gene would come on every few shows and do he same improvisational dance, never get gonged, and leave the stage with tremendous applause ringing in his ears.

In the mid 90's, my son was born. The modern miracle of medicine, vaccines, bestowed immunity on my son from childhood diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, diphtheria, polio, dengue fever, malaria, rickets, beriberi, Ebola fever, restless leg syndrome, and ED. When we had him baptized I figured we had covered all the bases.

I never imagined my son would end up a recurring contestant on today's version of The Gong Show. And I certainly never imagined "Gene Gene The Dancin' DNA Machine" becoming the new star of stage, screen, TV commercials, and nightly news.

SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE VACCINE FRIEND.....

By Kim Stagliano

This REPORT from SUNY Buffalo reports that scientists are working on vaccination via the mucus membranes, in this case, the nose. This application makes sense in outlying areas of the globe, given lack of sanitation, refrigeration and potable water. But having watched enough of Scarface to know that sniffing/snorting/spraying stuff into your nose can affect your brain I have to wonder about the ramifications of snortable vaccines. I'm sure FDA will make sure they are perfectly safe though.

"If I want to immunize somebody in Uganda with a vaccine that must be injected, for instance, I have to bring needles, everything must be sterile and everything must be kept cold, which means we need refrigeration.

"But if I can vaccinate through the nose, all I have to do is dry the antigen and my adjuvant. When I get to the middle of Uganda, I boil some water, pour in the antigen and adjuvant, stir it up, put it in an atomizer and 'sniff.' The mixture doesn't even have to be sterile, because the nose isn't sterile."

When they figure out how to put Gardasil onto tampons, I'm leaving the country.

Kim Stagliano is Managing Editor for Age of Autism.

DR. NANCY MINSHEW & ME: WHO'S CRAZY?

By J.B. Handley

Dear Dr. Minshew,

It’s my understanding that you are a child neurologist and that you have been a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine for the past 22 years, and that today you run one of the NIH’s nine Centers for Excellence of Autism.

I took the time to read this 100 page presentation you gave on autism, which helped me understand your perspective on my son and what ails him. To summarize from your bio on the ASA’s website, you have developed a “model of autism as a disorder of brain connectivity and constrained information processing accounting for many of the manifestations of this disorder.”

The reason for my email today, which I’m also posting on a public blog I write for, isn’t really about my son, it’s about me. You see, after reading many of the things you have written and said, I find myself in a real funk, a state of angst and confusion.

HOLLAND SHMOLLAND MARS

By Cyndi Kershner

Maybe having a child with special needs is like landing in Holland.
In my experience, having a child on the autism spectrum is like
landing on Mars.

Welcome to Mars.

Your family was recruited by the government to participate in
groundbreaking new research about life on other planets. You were
initially very excited about the trip, convinced you were doing the
right thing to be of service to your country.

You were told your trip would be extremely safe, and that there was
lots of research to back that up. In fact, try as they might, the
government could find nothing unsafe about traveling to Mars, and
their research even pointed to the fact that the trip could be
beneficial to the health and well-being of your family! Nothing to
worry about!

DAN OLMSTED: "ATTACKING" MY AMISH COVERAGE

With enemies like this, who needs friends?

By DAN OLMSTED

A blogger who posts at Autism News Beat has set out to demolish my reporting over the past few years about the Amish and autism –- and believes he’s come up with pretty damning evidence. Toward the end of the piece he asks, rhetorically, “So what’s up with Olmsted? Did a UPI reporter fabricate a story, then pass it off as true?”

Now that can really hurt a guy’s feelings, especially one like me who tries to pass himself off as a non-fabricator. Mr. Beat (the blog is not bylined –- see Mark Blaxill’s piece about the Wackosphere for more about that approach) is referring to my attempts to find autism in the Amish community.

IS THE AAP LOSING CREDIBILITY WITH PARENTS AND PEDS?

Dedicated to the Health of All Children… Is the American Academy of Pediatrics losing credibility with parents and pediatricians? (Note, this piece was originally run in Mothering Magazine. The author allowed us to reprint it given the timely nature of the topic of AAP and our children.)

By Bobbie Manning

As the battle lines continue to be drawn between parents and professionals in the debate over the use of mercury in children's vaccines, a new level of activism emerged on October 8th, as parents descended on Washington DC to appeal directly to the prestigious American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Following a day of marching and meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, parents turned their attention to the DC Convention Center, where the AAP was holding its 75th Annual Convention.

TRIPLE THREAT

By Cathy Jameson

Things usually happen in threes, so I’m told. You hear about a death of a famous celebrity and before week’s end two more keel over. With autism, the three things that made me go ‘hmmm’ was learning about the gut-brain-immune system relationship. In those early days of wondering what happened to my child, I realized that Ronan had a messed-up gut, lived in a brain fog daily and went between hyper- and hypo-immune responses.  Initially, I would read almost three hours each night and finally the day came when I linked my son’s issues to his vaccine injury.  It was the triple vaccine, the DTaP, which contributed to the roller coaster ride from hell we’ve been on the last three years. Add Hep B and the flu vaccine, and well, there you go, that’s three environmental triggers, the shots that wounded Ronan and blindsided us.

AUTISM, SERIOUS SCIENTISTS AND THE WACKOSPHERE

NOTE: In keeping with the content of this post, we will not allow additional comments that are anonymous or use a pseudonym from another blog. We welcome those of you who would like to post under your own name. Thank you.

By Mark Blaxill

A recent episode of the popular television show CSI:NY made the entertainment news headlines with a novel plot concept. In a clever (and probably lucrative) cross-promotion with the online game called Second Life, the show’s writers devised a story line in which a conflict between characters in the so-called “virtual world” of Second Life spilled over into the real world resulting in a sequence of murders and high speed chases that criss-crossed back and forth between the virtual world of Second Life and the real world of downtown Manhattan. As a fictional murder-mystery about a virtual world, it was fun to watch (I confess to being a CSI junkie myself). But the plot line stuck in my head for a different reason; in their ever-voracious search for catchy plotlines, the episode had an eerie air of prophecy about it. The main point was this: out of control game players in the virtual world killed real people. After a point, their fantasy life was no longer a game. It crossed the line into irresponsible behavior.

ANOTHER LOOK AT HOW IP AND WONG WENT WRONG

By Mark Blaxill

DeSoto and Hitlan’s paper (see accompanying article above) does a thorough job of analyzing the corrected data, but out of professional courtesy, they are somewhat circumspect in detailing the full scope of the errors committed by the Hong Kong University team. Since the journal editor, Roger Brumback, was gracious enough to publish the raw data he obtained from Wong (assuming, of course, that she got it right this time around), an interested observer can check all of Ip et al’s revised calculations for themselves and compare them line by line with the original.

DAY EIGHTEEN AUTISM OMNIBUS PROCEEDING

Day of the Doctors – Day Eighteen of the Autism Omnibus Proceeding – Snyder v. the Secretary of Health and Human Services

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Do you remember how in those cheesy science fictions movies you watched as a kid there were always those scientists who caused the problem and those trying to fix it?

I bring up the science fiction comparison because I’ve spent a good deal of my life trying to understand what makes for a compelling story.  The various genres, from the western, the romance story, the crime saga, the war story, all remain vital because at some level they reflect reality.  Adversity reveals character as my screenwriting teacher used to say.

You start with some dramatic event, say the Nazis invade your country, and try to figure out who would take to the forests to become a partisan?  Who would become a collaborator?  And who would simply sit on the sidelines and let the war pass them by?

CHICKEN LITTLE THE BULLY, ELI STONE THE HERO

By Theresa Wrangham

I awoke with a smile this morning because victory is sweet.  Our community asserted themselves and foiled the usual suspects’ attempt to squelch ABC’s right of freedom of speech and giving the average Joe some food for thought while they were at it.  While the expectation of having an advocacy organization listed as a resource with the CDC to allow viewers an opportunity to learn about both sides of the real-life drama was not met, neither was the CDC given a prominent place before, or during the program.  They were relegated to quick flash at end of the premiere of Eli Stone.

This is a victory not lost on our friends in regulatory and vaccine policy positions, as they are busy spinning this into an anti-vaccine debate, which it has never been.

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF ELI STONE?

Did the sun come up today? Phew! 

So, what did you think of Eli Stone?  Tell us in the comments section.

Hey, AAP, need a doc?

The LADY doth protest too much, methinks.

SUPPORT YOUR PEDIATRICIAN, CONDEMN THEIR UNION

By Mark Blaxill

Everybody hates baseball’s new all-time home run king, Barry Bonds, for doing steroids, except of course in San Francisco where he’s a hero. But even in the Bay area, everyone knows that it’s the player’s union that stands in the way of the rigorous drug testing that will take drugs out of baseball. In most national polls, the approval rating for Congress is now down well below 30%, but in local elections voters still re-elect their own Congressman 98% of the time. Lots of people love to criticize lawyers as a group, but when you get into trouble your own lawyer is your best friend. In short, when professional people do their work well, it’s not hard to support the professional you know well even when their official representatives behave badly.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is the union of American pediatricians. Their job is to defend the commercial interests and reputations of their constituents regardless of what the larger social interest might be. One activity of the AAP is to lobby the Federal Government to spend more money to help pediatricians to make more money.

ELI STONE -- THE NEW PATRON SAINT OF AUTISM

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I wish “Eli Stone” a  long and successful run. 

Beginning life just after the season premiere of “Lost”, one of the most engaging shows ever put on television, I applaud the show for its exploration of science and faith.  Like “Lost” it ricochets back and forth between those things which are plausible, and others which seem downright crazy. 

It's also just so damned entertaining!