AGE OF AUTISM

Wackosphere's To Do List:

Curious as to what the Wackosphere* is doing tonight?

1) Polish Starship Federation badge from 1983 convention (Spock sneezed on it, remember?)

2) Organize Hotwheels collection by engine size, horse power and slip differential

3) Order Saved By The Bell, The College Years DVD set (Screech rocks!)

4) Crash Generation Rescue Change.gov Autism Question (led by the one eyed king)

*Mark Blaxill wrote about the group of usually anonymous bloggers in a world he called, "the Wackosphere." See below.  Click HERE to read the Age of Autism post on GR's message to Change.gov that provoked the Wacko's to action.

Age of Autism Awards 2008 Galileo Award: Dr. Andrew Wakefield

From the Roman to the Wakefield Inquisition

By Mark Blaxill

As the year draws to a close, all of us at the Age of Autism are very pleased to honor Dr. Andrew Wakefield. As we’ve reported here many times during the past year, Dr. Wakefield has been the subject of a remarkable and unprecedented campaign to discredit his work and character, most notably in a show trial that is still underway in London, in hearings of the General Medical Council. In the face of extraordinary attempts to silence him, Wakefield has stood up to these attacks with grace and determination and has continued his research and clinical work on behalf of children and families suffering from autism. That makes him our first Age of Autism Galileo Award recipient.

Like many of our awards this year, this wasn’t a difficult decision. In fact, this may be one of those unusual cases where the recipient of an award in some ways outshines its namesake. To understand why that might be so, you need to understand a bit more about why we chose to name the award after the Italian scientist Galileo, what he represents to the history of science and how his experience compares with Wakefield’s.

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy in 1564. And while he was a physicist and mathematician of some note, Galileo was as much a practical mechanic as he was a grand theorist; indeed it was his tinkering with convex and concave lenses that gave him the tools to leave his lasting mark on the world. As a skilled inventor of early working telescopes, he did not design the world’s first telescope, but he was the first to make them powerful enough for scientific use. In fact, the word telescope (derived from the Greek roots skopein, “to see”, and tele for “far”) was coined in 1611 to describe one of Galileo’s first instruments. For the accomplishments that flowed from his pioneering work, he has been described by many as The Father of Modern Physics; Albert Einstein even went so far as to name him The Father of Modern Science.

But Galileo is celebrated today not as much for his engineering talent as for the suffering he endured in support of an unpopular scientific theory. Because it was Galileo’s work with telescopes in the early 17th century that lent critical support to the theory of heliocentrism, the idea that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around. As with his telescope technology, Galileo was not the first to propose the heliocentric theory: that distinction belongs to Nicolai Copernicus. Yet Copernicus, a Polish mathematician, was well aware of the personal risk of disseminating his ideas and delayed their publication for many years. Copernicus’ major work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, was published only shortly before his death at age 70 in 1543.

New York Times Reports Death of Pharma Kotchkes

Managing Editor's Note: See the lovely syringe pens to promote the Pediarix vaccine? Please keep reminding yourself. Vaccines are exempt from the vagaries of pay to play. Vaccines are exempt from the vagaries of pay to play. Vaccines are exempt from the vagaries of pay to play.  I was in the promotional products industry for fifteen years. I sat at a Celebrex marketing meeting in Indianapolis where I presented diamond earrings for the doctors to give their wives as part of the promotional plan.  I made Coach leather Rx pads with gold monograms for doctors. I go to confession a lot.  Kim

...Last year, besides giving away nearly $16 billion in free drug samples to doctors, pharmaceutical companies spent more than $6 billion on “detailing” — an industry term for the sales activities of drug representatives including office visits to doctors, meal-time presentations and branded pens and other handouts, according to IMS Health, a health care information company.

The industry code also permits drug makers to pay doctors as consultants “based on fair market value” — which critics say means that companies can continue to pay individual doctors tens of thousands of dollars or more a year.

“We have arrived at a point in the history of medicine in America where doctors have deep, deep financial ties with the drug makers and marketers,” said Allan Coukell, the director of policy for the Prescription Project, a nonprofit group in Boston working to promote evidence-based medicine. “Financial entanglements at all the levels have the potential to influence prescribing in a way that is not good.”

Read the full article from the New York Times HERE.

Generation Rescue To Change.gov on Autism and Healthcare

Managing Editor's Note:  Kelli Ann has kindly supplied all the info you need to vote if you'll please scroll through the post. If you have your own change.gov letter, please run the link to it in our comments so readers can consider voting for it too. I know many of our readers are actively engaged in the process. Thanks. KS

By Kelli Ann Davis

Vote to Promote Change in 2009

Yesterday morning, I received an e-mail from John Podesta at “Change.gov: The Office of the President-Elect” encouraging me to join with others in submitting and/or voting on questions I thought important for the Transition Team to address: “We recently launched a new feature on Change.gov called Open for Questions. Thousands of you responded, asking 10,000 questions and voting nearly a million times on questions from others. Now that we've answered some of the most popular ones from the last round, we are open for questions again. Ask whatever you like, and vote up or down on the other questions to let us know which ones you most want the Transition to answer.”

The latest outreach project “Open for Questions: Round Two” follows closely behind two other initiatives undertaken in recent weeks by President-Elect Obama – “Your Seat at the Table” and “Health Care Community Discussions” (HERE).  Apparently, his administration is moving towards greater transparency and public involvement and evidently it is working; twenty-seven hours later, 39,000 questions have been submitted and 2,000,000 votes have been cast!

Recently, Generation Rescue hand-delivered the following document to the Transition Team (Read it HERE) outlining our high priority issues for autism.  We also requested a formal meeting with the new administration in order to discuss the key issues in detail. 

Age of Autism Awards 2008 Journalist of the Year: David Kirby

By Anne Dachel

It is my great privilege to name David Kirby, Age of Autism's Reporter of Year.  I know that for many of us in the autism community, that's an understatement.  David should be receiving a lifetime achievement award for what he's done.
 
I'm qualified to write on this, not because of any degree in journalism, but due to my years of dealing with members of the press who report on autism, especially the topic of vaccines and autism.  Many other parents do the same thing.  Our earnest hope is that they'll report both sides of the issue honestly.  It's rare that this happens, however.  Most in the media are content to give the last word to the medical community and to federal health officials who adamantly deny that vaccines could be causing autism.  Even though I always send the facts--the science that disputes the tired mantra of "studies show no link," few reporters take notice, even when what I send directly contradicts what they've written.  Sometimes, someone will write to tell me that they'll save my email, "in case I ever write on this topic again."  Even worse, is an email from a reporter saying, "Please don't send me any more information on autism; I'm no longer covering this issue." 

Deborah Kotz of US News on AAP and Dr. Paul Offit

By Kim Stagliano

Lord, the AAP and Paul Offit are painfully transparent. Deborah Kotz of US News certainly sees straight through their agenda when it comes to managing the health of American children versus mainlining the steady stream of vaccinations per a rigid schedule. (We'll post more about this at Age of Autism soon.)

...Along with this policy statement and numerous research papers, the journal contains a "special article" that quite frankly shocked me for its one-sided treatment of a very important issue with regard to vaccinations. Unfortunately, instead of allowing a pro-and-con debate about the benefits and drawbacks.  ...What's worse, the lead author, Paul Offit, who heads the vaccine education center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, clearly has a conflict of interest. Read the full US News blog entry HERE.

The AAP and Dr. Offit are in full court press mode to counteract the forthcoming book The Autism Book: Diagnosis, Treatment, Recovery, and Prevention from Dr. Bob Sears (see his post about vaccinations and how to create a flexible schedule for your child at Age of Autism HERE.)

The AAP doesn't give a rat's ass about children with autism.

Dr. Bob Sears: Smart Vaccine Decisions for Families with Autism

By Dr. Bob Sears

(Excerpted from Dr. Bob Sears’ upcoming work, The Autism Book: Diagnosis, Treatment, Recovery, and Prevention coming in April 2010 from Little, Brown.)

With the alarming rise in autism over the last 15 years, parents and doctors continue to search for causes and contributing factors.  Is it genetics?  Environment?  Toxic exposures?  Infectious agents?  Prenatal factors?  A mix of various causes?  At (or near) the top of the list of suspects in the minds of many parents are vaccines.  Mainstream science and research continue to show there is probably no connection.  Yet, some vaccine research in the world of alternative medicine (but not accepted as legitimate by the mainstream medical community) shows some possible connections to autism.  So who are parents to believe?  What are parents supposed to do when the CDC, AAP and virtually every doctor and academic medical institution in the country says, “You have nothing to worry about – continue to vaccinate according to the regular schedule,” but a friend, neighbor, or alternatively-minded doctor says “Wait – my child (or patient) regressed into autism 3 weeks after the one-year shots – don’t do it!” What do you do when you hear that story over and over and over again? 

As a pediatrician and DAN! doctor, I’ve wrestled with this decision in my practice.  Much of my day is spent as a general pediatrician, doing checkups, seeing sick kids, and, yes, giving vaccinations.  Part-time I treat kids with autism using the DAN! protocol.  So I see all kinds of families with many different views on vaccines.

Age of Autism Awards 2008 Couple of the Year: Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey

By Kim Stagliano

It's my great pleasure to honor Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey as our Age of Autism 2008 Couple of the Year.

Jenny was smart enough to disbelieve the doctors who told her that Evan's lot in life was cast when he was diagnosed with autism. She roared into action, saying what so many of us have said over the years, "F you, I'm taking care of my son. Get out of my way." (I figure in a post about Jenny I can kind of drop the F bomb.)  Then she got busy recovering him.  But she didn't stop there. She started a crusade to educate parents, doctors, teachers everywhere that autism is treatable. That kids are making great progress and even recovering.

Somehow she found the time to write two amazing, best selling books to empower other parents; Louder Than Words and Mother Warriors, produce a line of DVD's called Teach2Talk, speak at several autism events and appear on national television and in the press.

Meanwhile, Jim Carrey was busy starring in Horton Hears a Who and his new movie Yes Man. (Have you seen it yet? Go already. You deserve a break.) 

Age of Autism Awards 2008 Mother of the Year: Katie Wright

BY Mary Webster

If the true measure of a gift is determined by the sacrifice required, Katie Wright has given us the greatest of gifts.  Despite her obviously close, loving relationship with her parents, she was willing to risk a public rift to share her son's struggle with autism and her beliefs about what caused it.  Considering Bob and Suzanne Wright's tireless efforts as founders of Autism Speaks, Katie's willingness to take a public position on such a controversial issue created a situation that would have, undoubtedly, challenged the bonds of even the closest of families. 
 
Katie could have chosen to quietly seek treatment for her son, Christian, while privately working to affect change, but she didn't.  She was the first to appear on the Imus in the Morning show and wave her son's vaccine chart in the air as she chastised the medical community for not taking these children's illness and their parents' concerns seriously.  She was the first to sit on Oprah's stage and challenge a physician "expert" who stated that vaccines don't cause autism.  In telling her story, Katie is as direct, open, and honest as Dr. Tom Insel is cautious, qualifyingly calculated, and deflecting.  

Age of Autism Awards 2008 Child of the Year: Hannah Poling

By Kim Stagliano

Managing Editor's Note: I just learned that today, 12/27 is Hannah's 10th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Hannah.  And we're having some difficulties with commenting today - perhaps due to end of year maintenance at the blog company. My apologies.

Age of Autism honors the beautiful Miss Hannah Poling as our 2008 Child of the Year. 

From CNN last Spring, ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The parents of a 9-year-old girl with autism said Thursday that their assertion that her illness was caused by childhood vaccines has been vindicated by the federal government's decision to compensate them.

"We are very pleased with the government's decision," Hannah Poling's father, Dr. Jon Poling, a neurologist in private practice in Athens, Georgia, told reporters Thursday. "It has been eight difficult and heartbreaking years since our daughter's injury."

A federal program intended to compensate victims of injuries caused by vaccines concluded last November that Hannah Poling's underlying illness that had predisposed her to symptoms of autism was "significantly aggravated" by the vaccinations she received as a toddler and that her family should therefore be compensated.