AGE OF AUTISM

ABC News to Cover Extreme Sports Camp for Autism

Dear Friends of Extreme Sports Camp,
 
We are pleased to announce that ABC News will be airing segments on Extreme Sports Camp this upcoming week. Our contact at ABC says they are likely to air on Monday night on ABC World News and ABC Nightline. The World News piece will be shorter, a few minutes, while the Nightline piece is longer, about 9 minutes. The crew filmed the camp during the week of August 10th.
 
We are very excited about these shows, and appreciate the time and interest on the part of ABC to feature our summer program. If we receive word that the program time changes, we will let you know.
 
Thanks for all your support and help in making Extreme Sports Camp the success it is. We had a fabulous summer and can't wait to announce our upcoming winter and summer line ups. 
 
To learn more about Extreme Sports Camp, please visit our website at http://www.extremesportscamp.org.

Regards,

Exterme Sports Camp

How Thoughtful House and Drs. Wakefield, Krigsman and Jepson Helped My Son

By Katie Wright

My son Christian would still be living in horrible pain if not for the wonderful doctors at Thoughtful House. After  enduring 2 years of nightmarish, non-stop diarrhea and traveling all over the country meeting doctor after doctor who pronounced Christian “autistic but fine” or “he’s autistic, what do you expect?” or “he definitely isn’t autistic but we don’t know what’s wrong” Christian finally got the medical help he needed at Thoughtful House. Dr. Wakefield, Dr. Krigsman and Dr. Jepson were the ONLY physicians with the courage to address the autism/ GI disease and help kids like mine. While the AAP and the rest of the medical community turned their backs on our children for fear of uncovering why so many children were regressing into autism with GI disease, TH opened their doors and actually treated our kids. This determination came at great personal and professional cost and I know I speak for so many parents when I saw we are infinitely grateful.

Katie Wright is a Contributing Editor to Age of Autism. She has two young boys. Her oldest son, Christian, is severely affected by autism. He developed normally; smiling, talking, walking; only to lose every skill and every word by the age of 2 and a half.  Upon the advice of medical professionals Katie and her husband were advised to pursue only high quality behavioral therapy, speech and OT for Christian. It had no meaningful impact on Christian until his parents sought help from DAN! doctors who treated the underlying causes of Christian's descent into autism. Christian has improved but still has far to go. He has Inflammatory Bowel Disease, the measles virus in his gut and an immune system akin to a late stage AIDS patient. Christian does not have a psychiatric disorder. Before autism, Katie Wright was the Clinical Director of Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Stamford Connecticut. Katie is proud to serve on the Boards of NAA and SafeMinds.

From SafeMinds: How to Help Stop Two Sources of Mercury Poisoning

By Scott Laster

This week, a study involving more than 6,000 American women suggests that blood levels of mercury are accumulating over time, with a big rise noted over the past decade (US News HERE).  The current presidential administration is working to negotiate an international treaty to phase out man-made mercury, and President Obama had a history in the Senate of introducing bills to phase out mercury pollution from man-made sources.  Yet there are still entrenched corporate interests, and their friends in Washington, that are actively working to continue out-dated practices that are major sources of mercury poisoning.  Two organizations, Consumers for Dental Choice and Oceana, are fighting mercury pollution and could use the help of our community right now:

1) Consumers for Dental Choice (HERE) have been campaigning for ten years to raise awareness of the risks of mercury in dental amalgams and to eventually ban these dental amalgams in favor of newer, non-mercury-based dental fillings.  After making significant progress towards these goals with the FDA, this campaign experienced a setback in July when the FDA unexpectedly declared amalgams to be safe for the general public (including children and pregnant women).  Further, the FDA stated that amalgams only need to carry a warning of risk to persons who are allergic to mercury.  An investigation by Consumers for Dental Choice has uncovered evidence that the current FDA Commissioner has close ties to the top amalgam manufacturer.  Consumers for Dental Choice has filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Inspector-General requesting an investigation (HERE), and is asking the public to:

• Write the Inspector-General (HHSTips@oig.hhs.gov) with your views about the need for such an investigation; 

• Write or telephone your Representative to ask that he or she request an investigation of FDA and the amalgam rule (https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml, House of Representatives switchboard at 202.224-3121 or 202.225-3121)

Dr. Bernadine Healy Implies Hubris on Part of Docs Who Deny Vaccine Autism Possibility

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Dr. Andrew Wakefield on Dateline NBC: More Stories at Age of Autism

As a follow up to the NBC coverage of Dr. Wakefield, Age of Autism, the nation's first daily web newspaper of the autism epidemic (Dan Olmsted, Editor, Kim Stagliano, Managing Editor and Mark Blaxill, Editor-At-Large) now includes a category titled "Dr. Andrew Wakefield", so that readers can easily reference the posts about Dr. Wakefield.

Please comment below on the Dateline NBC coverage. Our comment guidelines are also located on the left sidebar.

Click HERE to scroll through the Wakefield category posts (the list will be complete on Monday, or look for the category called "Dr. Andrew Wakefield" on our left sidebar. Below is a sampling of our coverage.

Age of Autism 2008 Galileo Award to Dr. Andrew Wakefield 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.

Dr. Wakefield Writes On the Poisoning of Young Minds  "Like it or not, there is an unrelenting debate about whether vaccines have poisoned the minds of some children. That vaccines may do so is acknowledged  (by, among others, autism expert Professor Sir Michael Rutter ) and is not actually the debate at hand; the real questions are, which children and how many? The base of the tsunami that is the autism epidemic – one sustained hitherto, by competing arguments for the rising number of diagnoses and those invested in non-environmental causes – is no longer able to support its top.  In accordance with simple wave mechanics, the tsunami’s slope is too great and breaking is inevitable. Breaking, for the purpose of this metaphor, extends to the shoreline’s horizon, from the child to the family, to schools, to the state budget, to public confidence in healthcare infrastructure, and beyond."

Smoke and Mirrors: Dr. Andrew Wakefield and the Richard Horton Affair ‘If we knew then what we know now we certainly would not have published the part of the paper which related to MMR, although I do believe there was and remains validity to the connection between bowel disease and autism.’ From the moment Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, spoke these words on the BBC evening news of Friday 20 February 2004 Andrew Wakefield’s career lay in tatters.

Dr. Wakefield Introduces Recovering Boy at Autism One

Paul Offit on Dateline NBC: The $29 Million Vaccine Man?

By Kim Stagliano

Below is a "best of Age of Autism" post called, Voting Himself Rich about Paul Offit, who has made a career out of  becoming the national spokesman for vaccines. Dr. Offit is the face of a new autism organization that has openly declared that while they do not know what causes autism, they know it's not vaccines. He doesn't treat children with autism in his practice, but he wrote a book telling parents what treatments do not work for autism. APP and Dr. Offit refer to "Many Studies" as proof that vaccines do not cause autism. You can read about the studies for yourself at the site "Fourteen Studies."

By Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill

Dr. Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) took home a fortune of at least $29 million as part of a $182 million sale by CHOP of its worldwide royalty interest in the Merck Rotateq vaccine to Royalty Pharma in April of last year, according to an investigation by Age of Autism. Based on an analysis of current CHOP administrative policies, the amount of income distributed to Offit could be as high as $46 million.

Brian Deer Interviewed by Matt Lauer on Dateline NBC Dr. Wakefield Program

The Dateline NBC program on Dr. Andrew Wakefield featured UK journalist Brian Deer. You can read more about Deer at  Age of Autism, the nation's first daily web newspaper of the autism epidemic (Dan Olmsted, Editor, Kim Stagliano, Managing Editor and Mark Blaxill, Editor-At-Large) throughout the category title, "Dr. Andrew Wakefield" HERE. 

Link to the Film "Selective Hearing" In bringing the case against Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Professor Simon Murch and Professor John Walker-Smith, the General Medical Council in the UK listened to the Sunday Times journalist Brian Deer and excluded the views of  hundreds of parents of vaccine damaged children. Who is Brian Deer: vigilante for truth or front man for Big Pharma?’ Selective Hearing’ introduces Deer’s part in the heartbreaking betrayal of vaccine damaged children by the British government. View the complete film at www.cryshame.co.uk.

NBC's Matt Lauer To Air Program on Dr. Andrew Wakefield and Thoughtful House

Managing Editor's Note:  From Thoughtful House treatment center for autism:

August 25, 2009

Dear Friends,
 
As some of you may have already heard, the NBC television network is producing a special on Thoughtful House and Dr. Andrew Wakefield.  We are sending along this note to make you aware of the extent of coverage on various programs and the scheduled broadcast date.  First, though, we thought it was important to help everyone understand our decision to cooperate with the reporter, Matt Lauer, and his producer, Ami Schmitz.
 
In our estimation, there has not yet been any fair coverage in the mainstream media of Dr. Wakefield or the work of Thoughtful House.  While we have a large community of supporters that know Dr. Wakefield’s credibility and the accomplishments of Thoughtful House and our excellent physicians and clinicians, including Dr. Bryan Jepson, Dr. Arthur Krigsman, and Kelly Barnhill, CN, CCN,  many of us in the Autism Advocacy Community spend most of our time communicating with people in similar situations.  Our challenge has always been to reach out to a greater population that might not know or understand what is happening with regard to the autism epidemic and the lack of government research into potential causes, which includes looking at vaccine safety.  We thought that if we ever were able to communicate with a fair-minded journalist working at a media outlet with both credibility and reach then it was likely to be worth the risk trying to tell our story.

To read more click HERE.

 

Why SafeMinds Declined Interview with Dr. Nancy Snyderman of MSNBC

SafeMinds received a request from MSNBC to be interviewed on the H1N1 swine flu vaccine late Tuesday.  The interview was to take place live on Wednesday and in the form of a panel discussion “moderated” by Dr. Nancy Snyderman on her show On Call.  The producer shared with us that Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIH’s Director of the National institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and an unnamed vaccine manufacturer were also invited.   After much deliberation, SafeMinds declined the interview due to concerns with regard to Dr. Snyderman’s ability to objectively “moderate” this panel discussion. 

Concerns regarding Dr. Snyderman’s objectivity center around her historically adversarial demeanor on the topic of vaccine safety. In point of fact, as recently as Tuesday morning Dr. Snyderman stated on MSNBC’s Morning Meeting, "This is one time, forget the conspiracies. Listen to our government agencies. These guys are telling the truth.  You know there's no conspiracy here folks, just get your damn vaccine!" 


 
(Or go to YouTube HERE to watch the 34 second clip of Dr. Snyderman's plea.)

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

We first ran this post on 12/31/08.

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.