AGE OF AUTISM

McCain or Obama: Who Will Reform Vaccine Safety?

Disclaimer: THIS PRESS RELEASE IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT AN EXPRESS OR IMPLIED ENDORSEMENT OF EITHER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE.  The organizations listed below do not favor or oppose any candidate for public office.  We are committed to alerting our community and the public about how the new administration and policymakers plan to address issues affecting both autism and vaccine safety concerns.

San Diego, CA, October 27, 2008 - Parents, scientists and clinicians met this weekend in San Diego to discuss the current state of autism research.  Organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of voters nationwide, are calling for Senator McCain to state his policy position on vaccine safety publicly and for Senator Obama to officially clarify comments made earlier this fall by noon October 30, 2008 so voters can make a final informed decision for their candidate of choice.

South Carolina's $21 Million Cut Affects Autism Services

Managing Editor's Note: Many of us are familiar with autism advocate Maurine Meleck. Her letter to the editor about the pending $3,000,000 in budget cuts for autism services in S. Carolina follows this brief intro to the news article in the Augusta Chronicle.  Maurine, thank you for speaking out for our children. It's ironic that S. Carolina is considering slashing $21,000,000 for people with disabilities at a time when disabilities are at the forefront of political conversation. If anyone has more to share about these budget cuts in S. Carolina, please comment.

...Mr. Sanford's vetoes would return cash to agencies. That could bring pressure for him to veto items such as the $21.5 million cut from the state's Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, including $3.3 million for care of children with autism and $2.3 million to help families cope with spinal cord injuries.

Child Warriors: Duncan and Jayden

Meet Duncan and Jayden, today's Age of Autism child warriors, so named for Jenny McCarthy's book, Mother Warriors. Autism is about real children and adults, not numbers in a study or epidemiological herds.

Is that a snake in that case, Jayden?  I'll sit with Duncan on the porch!

CNN "Advertises" Offit's RotaTeq in The Crawl

By Kim Stagliano

Now this makes my skin crawl, CNN's crawl says (I'm paraphrasing, I saw the second half of the crawl) "RotaTeq vaccine dramatically lowers diarrheal disease in children." No mention of the twisted intestines and death from RotaTeq.  Do children in the third world die of diarrheal disease in droves? Yes, because the don't have clean water.  Do they need protection?  Yes. The risk/benefit is there.  In America? Not to the same degree given our potable water, access to healthcare and more sanitary living conditions overall. And yet, RotaTeq is now on the mandated AAP schedule.

Obama Team on Disability Responds To Palin Speech

By Kim Stagliano

Kareem Dale, National Disabilities Vote Director for the Barack Obama campaign sent out this letter yesterday.  I will add that he has taken time to email many of us within the autism community and is listening to our concerns.  Thank you, Kareem. 

Please keep your comments relevant to the information in this post. While we need to inform our readers of the information coming from both campaigns, we don't need to lose our sense of community by getting ugly with each other. We will delete comments that sound like if you were speaking in person, your face would be red and you'd be poking your finger into someone's chest.

I promise you that there are many within the biomedical autism community working hard to make sure both candidates understand our unique perspective on disability and our need to protect and care for our children. I think the Autism One interview with Heather Bruce is a prime example of the benefit of the groundwork by parents and advocates for our kids. We are on the radar screen. And we're not going away. Thanks, everyone.  Here's the letter:

As advocates for, and parents of, children with disabilities, we appreciate the visibility that Governor Sarah Palin has brought to our community.   We understand that it will take strong leadership to build a world free of unnecessary barriers and discrimination for people with disabilities.

However, falsely attacking Senator Barack Obama’s policies and unfairly suggesting that they will hurt families who have children with disabilities is not leadership.  It is nothing more than an attempt to divide people and exploit a serious issue for political purposes.

The Doctors TV Program 10/28

The Doctors is airing a program that involves autism, vaccinations and ADHD this Tuesday, October 28th. From their site HERE:

Measles are making a nationwide comeback. Are parents who refuse* to vaccinate their children contributing to the problem? Or, are the vaccinations more dangerous than the disease? And, are we overmedicating children who have ADHD?

The program will be interesting.  Feel free to comment here after the program airs.

Check for your local listings HERE.

*If you have a medical exemption, is that still considered "refusing?"

Help Lend4Health Win $10,000!

Managing Editor's Note: Tori Tuncan is a Mother Warrior. And she's trying to help other parents via microloans for biomedical treatments for autism.  Please take a moment to vote for  Lend4Health so she can win $10,000. (That would buy a lot of products from our sponsor OurKidsASD!)

Update 10/25.  Lend4Health is in 5th place in the finals! Your vote will help Tori lend $10,000 to families using biomed treatments.

To vote for Lend4Health, click HERE.

By Tori Tuncan

Lend4Health, my online micro-lending platform for biomedical autism treatments, is in the FINALS to win $10,000 on Ideablob. The winner gets the $10,000. The losers are out of the running for future months.

Special Needs Kids: The New Squeaky Wheel

Never before have children with special needs been in the political spotlight to this degree. 

Governor Sarah Palin spoke in Pittsburgh today about the McCain administration's plans to assist families with special needs children. You can read her remarks HERE. If you attended the event please tell us about it in the comments section.  Click HERE for the Yahoo news story on the event.

On October 21, Kareem Dale, the Obama campaigns National Disability Vote Director wrote a blog entry on why Obama is the best candidate for people with disabilities. You can read that entry HERE.  The Obama campaign discusses disabilities HERE on its website.

The countdown to the election is on - it's encouraging to know that our kids are an important part of the political debate. It's good to be a squeaky wheel.

Autism Yesterday at the Orlando Film Festival

Autism Yesterday has been accepted to the Orlando Film Festival and the film will premiere Saturday, November 8th at 4pm at The Gallery at Avalon in downtown Orlando. Admission to the screening is free, so please plan to attend if you live in the Orlando area or happen to be in town.

From the Orlando Film Festival website HERE:

The 2008 Orlando Film Festival will hold its third annual event November 5th - 9th in Orlando, Florida. Festival events occur in and around the heart of the City, where our patrons are able to enjoy great films in exciting venues while experiencing Orlando's Downtown lifestyle.

Are you interested in being on a panel after the movie as either a parent or a doctor? If so, please contact Generation Rescue: info2@generationrescue.org

Flu Vaccine: Right To Know!

By Jim Thompson

Our SD delegation in congress sent their staff to hear David Kirby and Mark Blaxill at Rep. Maloney’s office.  Next they received all the follow-up information including: David Kirby’s slides; a response refuting Rep. Waxman’s Dear Colleague letter; a request to the IACC to post warnings about the risk to pregnant women and children from mercury in flu shots; and several emails about mercury toxicity with references from the USEPA, FDA, and AAP.   

So while congress works on a national solution, and except for those 5 or so states that already ban it, do we just sit by and watch the massive continued use of Thimerosal in flu vaccines for pregnant women and children?  No!  The next step is to talk and inform people within arms reach in our own communities. 

During the past week after talking to a nurse, special ed teacher, parish priest, UPS driver/mom, plumber, and employees at five retail stores – and asking if they knew about their right to know about mercury in vaccines and the right to ask for mercury free vaccines the response was “No.”  But for all those asked to please post a one page bulletin with that information - the answer was an enthusiastic “Yes!”