AGE OF AUTISM

Live From The Pediatrician's

Bella and I are at the doctor's for a quick check. There are THREE ads for flu shots in this teeny room. Two posters and one flyer from the "flu queen." KS

Ask Wolf Blitzer To Question Obama: CALL TODAY!

Angela Warner just sent us this: Wolf Blitzer is interviewing Obama today at 4pm Eastern. We'd like Blitzer to ask Senator Obama to clarify his position on selection vaccination. You can help!

Call CNN and ask for Beverly Obanion (Wolf Blitzer's personal assistant) at 202-898-7900 today. Stay on the line or press 0 for an operator.

Script: "I am calling from (Your State), and I believe vaccines injured my child.  I am deeply concerned about Senator Obama's statements that he does not believe in selective vaccination. I firmly believe it is a parent's choice.  Can you please ask Senator Obama to clarify his position on the show today?"

You can send a fax too! Fax Numbers 202-898-7923 OR 202-898-2263.

New Jersey To Mandate Cradle Past Grave Vaccination!

By Kim Stagliano

New Jersey announced today that a new vaccine will be mandated for all corpses in order to fight Halloween's frightening disease, InBOOenza. Created by doctors at Chop-you-up Hospital in Killadelphia, in conjunction with researchers from Die-zer Pharmaceuticals, the new vaccine, called BooCryRin, is made from 100% formaldehyde.  Die-zer is happy to report that in an effort to protect the neurological health of dead people, from infants to the elderly, this new vaccine will be Thimerosal free.

The American Academy of Skeeviatricians is on board as saying, "See? We love children. Even the dead ones." The American Dreadical Association states, "Cradle past grave vaccination is a gift from God, with whom, by the way, we are negotiating for this vaccine to be adminstered as a requirement to admittance into heaven. The devil is in the details."

New Jersey and Autism Perfect Together!

By Katie Wright

Deirdre Imus organized and moderated an amazing vaccine forum last week at Hackensack University Hospital. To my recollection it was the first time staunch defenders and architects of our infant and toddler vaccination schedule have spoken to the public and taken uncensored questions from parents of vaccine injured children. It was exactly the kind of event, promoting open discussion between doctors and parents that Autism Speaks should be facilitating. We all know that Deidre and Don Imus have been huge advocates for kids with cancer and chronic illnesses, like autism, for decades. What many people do not know is that the Imuses have helped create one of the most child friendly, progressive and greenest hospitals in the nation at Hackensack.

New Jersey recently made the flu shot mandatory for every school age child and baby in daycare over the age of six months. Given that an astonishing 1 in 64 boys in NJ is autistic it is both reckless and insane for New Jersey to mandate yet another vaccine for infants and toddlers.

Examiner Online Allows Parents to Speak Out on Vaccination Choice

Examiner Online in the Allentown PA/New Jersey area has run several letters to the editor regarding vaccination safety and choice.  You'll recognize some of the names as "friends of ours" to borrow from La Famiglia. Funny, it seems New Jersey is using mob tactics on parents right now too. They can make any offer they want - we'll fight for our right to refuse.

The most heavily vaccinated are the most sick

Bob Moffit: I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for your editorial regarding a parent's right to have vaccine choices.

I am the proud grandfather of a lovable 9-year-old, nonverbal boy who regressed and was diagnosed autistic just prior to 3 years of age. More...

Parents everywhere need more vaccination choices for children

I'd like to commend you for your excellent editorial of Oct. 23 titled "Parents fight for vaccination choice." I am the father of Alex, 21, who has autism, is nonverbal and hyperactive, measures 6 feet 3 inches and is over 200 pounds, but is athletic.

Keep On Self-Incriminatin'

Managing Editor's Note:  At the end of this piece is the email blast sent out today by Wyeth funded "Every Child By Two", the vaccine promotion group that uses actress Amanda Peet. You can read about them HERE.   

By J.B. Handley

Yeah, yeah. Whatever.

I really didn't want to watch it. But there it was -- the Today Show's piece on Paul Offit's book as covered by NBC's pharma-whore in residence, Nancy Snyderman, up on the Today Show website (HERE). So, I watched.

I was wincing, waiting for the blood to start flowing and the anger to start stirring as I had to look at Offit's narcissistic mug one more time, telling the world how he's actually a saint.

And then it hit me, and I started to smile. This guy is on tape. He's on national TV. So’s his pal, Nancy Snyderman. They're both on tape, and the tape's not going anywhere.

David Kirby: What I Said at the Vaccine Forum

By David Kirby

Several people have asked me about an article that appeared in the Newark Star Ledger which quoted me as saying that thimerosal was no longer the “smoking gun" in autism.

The article, about the recent vaccine forum sponsored by Deirdre Imus in New Jersey, went on to say that, “Several national studies have found no connection, and a California study found that, even after thimerosal was removed from vaccines, diagnoses of autism continued to rise.”

The term “smoking gun” comes from Sherlock Holmes and it refers, of course, to the person found holding a still-warm firearm at the scene of a murder. To this writer’s mind (though interpretations may vary, I am sure) the term means the “one and only cause,” since only one person can pull a trigger.

Olmsted on Offit: In Newsweek!

Editor's Note: We're coming up on the first anniversary of the launch of Age of Autism, and we got an early gift when Newsweek mentioned our site HERE and quoted us on Paul Offit's new book. You may remember I started my AOA review HERE this way: "Paul Offit is the Philadelphia Cream Cheese of the autism debate -- he smears so effortlessly."

In other words, under the thin veneer of pure science lurks a McCarthyite instinct to attack the good will, motives and common decency of everyone else (like: reminding us Bobby Kennedy Jr. was busted for drugs 25 years ago. Wow, that's such a pure scientific rebuttal, Paul). Then he turns around and says everyone's attacking him -- if his medical specialty was in psychiatry, he'd know this is called projection. As I also pointed out, personal threats are way out of bounds and we reject them. On the other hand, robust disagreement on the issues is what the First Amendment is all about -- in fact, what democracy is all about. People write mean things about me, too -- including that I should be lined up and shot -- and I don't write books about it! (BTW Offit was the subject of a Nancy Snyderman Today show puff piece Thursday. Nancy was hyperventilating about how the science against vaccines is so strong it's not even controversial. Matt Lauer was clearly taken aback by her denial of the obvious and hyperventilation. Good for Matt. These folks are making the case against themselves better than we can!)

Here's my quote about why parents react so strongly to Offit.

Since When is US Medicine "Law?"

Managing Editor's Note:  This is from the backyard of the CDC. Blaming unvaccinated children for the "alarming rise" in measles outbreaks.  Didn't Julie Gerberding say the AAP vaccination schedule is "flexible?"  When did that translate into "law?"

Autism Speaks ran this piece on their in the news page.(HERE) So, does AS have an opinion on this controversial topic or is vanilla still the flavor of the day over there?

Vaccinations' benefits proved; enforce the law
By Mike King mking@ajc.com

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
(Link is here.)

Unfounded fears about vaccines are causing too many parents to forgo
getting the shots their children need to stay healthy and not spread
dangerous diseases among their playmates.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month that
measles cases in the United States had reached the highest level in
more than a decade, an alarming rise in a disease thought to be
eliminated in the United States eight years ago. The spike is directly
linked to parents refusing to get their children inoculated against
the easily spread disease.

Autism Is Political: Bob Wright and a UK Perspective

By Lisa Blakemore Brown

The panel from the "Are we ambitious enough about autism?" event at the TreeHouse School.  From left, Bob Wright, panel moderator and TreeHouse patron Jon Show, Anya Ustaszewski and Virginia Bovell

Bob Wright, ex Head of NBC and co-founder of  Autism Speaks  Autism Speaks, speaks out in UK about vaccines and autism in answer to comments made by Lisa Blakemore-Brown, UK Psychologist Specialist in Autism and related disorders.

"I agree with everything you said" responded Mr Wright in a debate at TreeHouse's   Inaugural Lecture (HERE) at City Hall London during the evening of October 22nd 2008 after I raised various issues and said that the reason autism was taking a back seat in terms of it's understanding and funding, was entirely political and it was political because it was largely to do with the vaccine issue.