AGE OF AUTISM

David Kirby on HuffPo: Adults with Autism, Tidal Wave Coming

Please click HERE to comment on David Kirby's post at HuffPo on the tidal wave of adults with autism looming over us. You know the deniers will be there in force telling everyone to expect candy and flowers as our kids age out.  KS

“Tidal Wave” of Young Adults with Autism about to Flood Cash-Strapped California

By David Kirby

Broke California will begin the new decade with crushing debt and wholesale elimination of human services. Meanwhile, President Obama has rankled Congressional Democrats with plans to earmark millions of dollars in NIH funds to find the causes and cures of autism.

Are these two things related? You bet they are.

Barack Obama is not a stupid man. He sees the budgetary train wreck hurtling down the track towards the US Treasury. His Administration knows that the number of adults with autism in this country is about to explode. Parents can’t foot the bill, so taxpayers will have to. The price tag will be stratospherical.

Isn’t it better to earmark millions in autism research funds right now for NIH to identify the causes of autism – despite outcries from Rep. Obey, Sen. Harkin and others – in order to save hundreds of billions further down the road?

It’s called frontloading the budget, and if we don’t do it, the coming army of young adults with autism will march in and break the bank.

Charlottesville Podcasting Network Features David Kirby on Autism Research

Click HERE to listen to Coy Barefoot interview David Kirby about the latest in autism research on the Charlottesville Podcasting Network.

NY's Maloney and NJ's Smith Letter to HHS Secretary Sibelius for Vax/Unvax Study

Click HERE to read and comment on David Kirby's Huffington Post piece on a request for a vax/unvax study.

On Wednesday, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) called on HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius to dedicate between 1.6% and 6.6% of the $300 million in federal stimulus funds earmarked for the purchase and distribution of vaccines to fund a major study of health outcomes -- including autism -- among vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

The move comes just one week after the federal government's National Vaccine Advisory Committee also unanimously voted to recommend a feasibility study on conducting the controversial investigation.

Some federal officials have balked at doing a vaccinated-unvaccinated study, citing its high cost -- which Maloney and Smith said would fall in the $5-$20 million range...

HuffPo: David Kirby's Seven Studies to Watch

By David Kirby

Yesterday, I wrote that US officials had approved or recommended seven new studies related to autism and vaccination. I have listed them all here on one page, for readers who might want to share it with medical personnel, family members, elected officials, members of the media and anyone else who tells them that the vaccine-autism debate is over and done with.

Anyone complaining about parents asking for more research should direct their ire at the following US Government agencies and affiliated groups, who concur that many gaps in vaccine-safety research remain:

US Department of Health and Human Services
US Environmental Protection Agency
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
National Institute of Mental Health
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
National Vaccine Advisory Committee

APPROVED STUDIES:

1) The National CADDRE Study -- This 5-year project of the CDC's Centers for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research and Epidemiology (CADDRE) Network will "help identify what might put children at risk for autism," the CDC says. Among those risk factors: "specific mercury exposures, including any vaccine use by the mother during pregnancy and the child's vaccine exposures after birth." HERE

New NIH Autism Study - Nothing is Off the Table

Investigators seem to have thought of virtually everything they could possibly ask. Included on the list are prenatal exposures to medications and vaccinations, including the flu shot - which has not been studied for fetal effects, should only be given during pregnancy “if clearly needed,” and contains 25 mcg of ethylmercury, which for a 110 pound woman is five times over the EPA daily limit for mercury exposure. Researchers will also comb through each child’s medical records at different intervals, and look closely at vaccination history and other medications given.  “We absolutely want to collect data on vaccines,” Dr. Newschaffer said.

By David Kirby (This post is now on HuffPo - read and comment HERE.)

US Government officials are finally getting serious about studying all potential environmental factors in autism, and I for one applaud them heartily for leaving no etiological stone unturned.

Five years ago I wrote in the introduction to “Evidence of Harm” that “something in our modern world” was causing autism in a small number of susceptible kids. And though that book was mostly about vaccines and the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal, I also wrote that other environmental “triggers” should be considered, including “mercury in fish, pesticides, PCB’s, flame retardants, jet fuel, live viruses in vaccines or some as-yet unidentified virus, and even rampant cell phone use.”

Now, in one of the largest, boldest studies of its kind, researchers in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Northern California will begin collecting data on many potential risk factors, both prenatally and during early childhood – including vaccines, thimerosal, and heavy metals.

David Kirby on HuffPo: Top US Panel Agrees On Vaccine Safety Research

Click HERE to read and comment on David Kirby's latest HuffPo.

On Tuesday, the Federal Government's leading immunization advisory panel unanimously approved a sweeping list of vaccine safety research recommendations for the US Department of Health and Human Services, including several that are directly or indirectly linked to the vaccine-autism debate. The endorsement, from the highly influential National Vaccine Advisory Committee, will surely intensify the argument.

Proponents of continued research into possible relationships between vaccination and a wide variety of immunological, metabolic and neurodevelopmental disorders will be cheered by many of the recommendations, while their critics will take comfort in noting that the NVAC declared that the epidemiological evidence to date assured them there is no link between vaccines and autism, at least within "the general population."

David Kirby on HuffPo: Notes from the "Big Anti-Vaccine" Conference Autism One

Click HERE to read David Kirby's lates on HuffPo. Please comment over there too.

Last weekend, the Autism One organization held its annual conference in Chicago, attended by thousands of parents, doctors, educators and others, to discuss a wide array of autism-related issues. The New York Times labeled it an "anti-vaccine" conference and the Chicago Tribune portrayed it as a freak-show spectacle straight off the island of Dr. Moreau.

Yes, there was some discussion of vaccines - and some admittedly unconventional, and controversial, autism therapies. But there was so much more than that. Out of nearly 150 presentations, only a few dealt directly with vaccines at all. Most of the days were filled with topics such as "Creating Theater with Autism Spectrum Youth," "Epilepsy in Autism: An Overview," and "Perspectives from cell biology and autism risk factors and treatments," a fascinating talk by the forward-thinking Dr. Mark Noble, Professor of Genetics and Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Rochester.

My own remarks dealt with vaccines, and so much more as well, including environmental mercury, wild-type viruses, tainted food, air pollution, pesticides, arsenic, antimony, formaldehyde in household products, even pet shampoo...

Part 1 David Kirby's Autism One Presentation: Metals, Myelin & Mitochondria Pathways to Autism?

Managing Editor's Note: Click HERE to see the entire presentation in a printable Word doc. Due to the number of slides, we've broken the presentation into three separate posts to speed up loading the post onto your computer. This is part 1 of 4.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

By David Kirby

REMARKS AND SLIDE PRESENTATION BY DAVID KIRBY
2009 Autism One Conference, Chicago

I first want to say that this conference was described by The New York Times as “an anti-vaccine conference.” And, you know, when I read that I actually laughed out loud. And I thought, “What would you even do at an anti-vaccine conference, anyway?” And I know there are some people in this audience who are anti-vaccine, and they have that right. I just don’t happen to be one of those people.

Part 2 David Kirby's Autism One Presentation: Metals, Myelin, Mitochondria Pathways To Autism?

Managing Editor's Note: Click HERE to see the entire presentation in a printable Word doc. Due to the number of slides, we've broken the presentation into three separate posts to speed up loading the post onto your computer. This is Part 2 of 4.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

By David Kirby
Presented at Autism One 2009.

 
Now, that’s vaccine mercury. But what about environmental mercury? Like I said, we’re exposed through food, air, water. And air is one of the biggest sources. And there have been plenty of studies. There was this one, done out of Texas - the closer you live to coal-fired power plants, apparently, the greater the risk of autism in school districts. Coal obviously emits a lot of mercury.