AGE OF AUTISM

SICK MONKEYS: RESEARCH LINKS VACCINE LOAD, AUTISM SIGNS

BY DAN OLMSTED

The first research project to examine effects of the total vaccine load received by children in the 1990s has found autism-like signs and symptoms in infant monkeys vaccinated the same way. The study's principal investigator, Laura Hewitson from the University of Pittsburgh, reports developmental delays, behavior problems and brain changes in macaque monkeys that mimic "certain neurological abnormalities of autism."

The findings are being reported Friday and Saturday at a major international autism conference in London.

Although couched in scientific language, Hewitson's findings are explosive. They suggest, for the first time, that our closest animal cousins develop characteristics of autism when subjected to the same immunizations – such as the MMR shot -- and vaccine formulations – such as the mercury preservative thimerosal -- that American children received when autism diagnoses exploded in the 1990s.

RE-RUN: WE KNEW ALL ALONG? YES, WE REALLY DID.

BY DAN OLMSTED

Bernadine Healy's comments to CBS (and Imus) today are a landmark in the long, painful slog toward the truth about vaccine damage. Be excited -- be very excited. But believe me, it will take a while longer for the "mainstream" media to realize what a catastrophically mediocre job they've done -- and fix it. Too many egos (Dr. Nancy, Dr. Tim, "Dr." Harris...), too many careers, too much credibility are at stake. CBS's Sharyl Attkisson has been way ahead for a long time.

Meanwhile, I'm struck by Sharyl's remarks that brain injury from vaccines has been well documented since 1991 -- but that calling it autism has been a taboo.

Here's an article I wrote for UPI in 2005 about clear warnings to the CDC and FDA as early as 1991 from doctors linking autism and vaccines. Most chilling: The California doctor who reported in 1994 "there are currently 10 cases of autism in children who received DPT/OPV/MMR at 15-18 months." Isn't that a cluster? The response? Dismissive. In my view, most of the tens of thousands of autism cases since then are the responsibility of the CDC, the FDA, the AAP -- as well as Big Media for enabling them.

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: CDC triggers measles outbreak

By DAN OLMSTED

I'm starting to think we should rename the CDC the Centers for Disease Contagion. You've all seen the news that there are suddenly more measles cases in the United States and the CDC is blaming it in part on the increasing reluctance of parents to vaccinate their kids.

But it's the CDC's fault, and no other. Getting the "measles shot" means getting the MMR, and the MMR is "the autism shot" in the minds of many, many parents.

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: AMISH. VACCINATED. AUTISTIC.

BY DAN OLMSTED

Lisa Jo Rudy, the New York Times-owned about.com autism guide, wrote late last week that "if you read this blog regularly, you'll know that we've been having a very active conversation about the Amish and autism." No kidding!

I think that was more or less my doing, as I took exception to a piece she wrote – headlined "Do The Amish Vaccinate? Indeed They Do, AND Their Autism Rates May Be Lower."

But forget what Lisa said or what I said about what she said. That's not what this column is about. It's about what the Amish -- and those who know their ways and world -- have to say.

Look at the photo to the left, of a 9-year-old Old Order Amish child and her special ed teacher. This child's parents want people to know their never-vaccinated daughter was taken away from them at age 1, immunized at the Clinic For Special Children (more about them later), and returned a year later with full-syndrome, non-genetic, no-doubt-about-it autism (professionally diagnosed). That's why, contrary to Amish tradition, they let me take her photo. They are mad. They are heartbroken. This is not a study. This is not "a very active discussion about the Amish and autism." This is their child. And they believe vaccinations pushed her over into something they had never seen, something called autism. As people say: Get the picture? I'll show a video of her at Autism One, along with another Amish child whose parents believe she was vaccine damaged, but frankly I'm tired of the crap about how I make stuff up, get things wrong and never even visit the Amish, so the time has come.

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: LISA JO RUDY CHANNELS BRUNO BETTELHEIM

BY DAN OLMSTED

Over at the New York Times-owned About.com, "guide to autism" (HERE) Lisa Jo Rudy has taken me on over my coverage of the Amish and autism. That's fair game.

But please read these two paragraphs and tell me if you don't think our guide believes parents are making their kids autistic.

She starts by quoting someone she identifies as Rebecca at the Clinic for Special Children in Pennsylvania Dutch Country:

"There's more of an acceptance [among the Amish] of people for
being what they are, as they are. We certainly have children with
difficulty learning - and there are special education facilities for
children who have Downs, MR, and other issues. Most families have many
children, a high rate of communication, no television; and it's
important to be able to read. Communication is very, very important. I
guess I have wondered whether the autism out there is due to lack of
personal attention and communication to that child."

Then Rudy says: "I found Rebecca's insights intriguing.

EYE ON AUTISM

By Dan Olmsted

Lately I've been trying to make sense of savants. What is the relationship between autism and the extraordinary abilities that, in a small percentage of cases, accompany it? Rain Man put both autism and savant skills on the map and may have created a bias toward believing that they go together a lot more often than they do.

Read the full article in Spectrum Magazine's April/May issue about savants and autism HERE.

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: MADE BY MERCK, STARTS WITH V …

BY DAN OLMSTED

There it is, right next to the photo of the pope and the president, the lead story in USA Today: “Reports: Data on Vioxx misused.” Subhed: “Documents suggest risk was downplayed.”

In brief – USA Today’s specialty – it turns out that Merck “apparently downplayed evidence showing the painkiller tripled the risk of death in Alzheimer’s-prone patients, researchers report today. A separate analysis of court documents revealed that many Vioxx studies were prepared or written by Merck employees or paid consultants, not the doctors named as the studies’ lead authors, researchers say.”

One thing I can tell you from having worked at The Nation’s Newspaper is that it has a very good sense of the zeitgeist. I used to be in meetings where the next day’s lead story was discussed, and it had to be more than yesterday’s – or even today’s – news. It had to help readers understand what was coming next.

ONE MORE VOICE -- A BIG ONE -- SPEAKS OUT FOR COMMON SENSE AND DECENCY

By Dan Olmsted

More and more mainstream experts are standing up for the vaccine court and Hannah Poling and her parents -- and deserve our thanks and support. The latest is Dr. Bernadine Healy. Her bio from U.S. News & World Report, where the article we're pointing out is appearing in the current issue:  "Dr. Bernadine Healy is Health Editor for U.S.News & World Report and writes the On Health column. She is a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and has served as director of the National Institutes of Health and president and CEO of the American Red Cross."

Here's the beauty part from her column: "Pediatricians were concerned enough about mercury, which is known to cause neurological damage in developing infant and fetal brains, that they mobilized to have thimerosal removed from childhood vaccines by 2002. Their concern was not autism but the lunacy of injecting mercury into little kids through mandated vaccines that together exceeded mercury safety guidelines designed for adults."

So by definition, the former head of the NIH says people like Paul Offit -- who calls it a mistake to take mercury out -- and organizations like the CDC, the World Health Organization and their ilk who are keeping mercury in flu shots in the U.S. and in standard immunizations around the world ... the former head of the NIH says they're lunatic(s).

That's about as harsh as anything we've ever said, isn't it? -- Dan Olmsted

Read the US News and World Report article HERE.

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: THE HEAD OF HHS SAID WHAT?

BY DAN OLMSTED

One of the benefits of living around Washington, as I do, is that you hear the darnedest things – not because someone said them on C-SPAN or at a press conference, but because a neighbor chit-chatted in the produce section at Whole Foods with a senator's aide who said a little too much, or someone's wife let slip at a cocktail party something she didn't realize was that big a deal to someone who realized it was … and so on.

That's how I came across the following tidbit of hearsay – and make no mistake, that's what it is. But there is hearsay and then there is hearsay. None of it is admissible in court, but some of it simply feels more reliable, given the source and the circumstances. I think this falls in the latter category … but that is up to you, Dear Reader.

ON WORLD AUTISM DAY: A PLEA FOR BETTER JOURNALISM

BY DAN OLMSTED

Any journalist will tell you that the ickiest feeling in all the universe – far worse than just getting scooped -- is making a flat-out factual error. And the more pertinent it is to the point of the story, the more you want to run and hide.

Mistakes? I’ve made a few, especially in my younger and more vulnerable years at daily papers, where time pressure, lack of experience and the wide range of assignments can lead to disaster. One beaut was the time I was filling in for the courthouse reporter when the new tax assessment was announced for our Illinois county. Relying on my own calculations (bad idea!), I wrote the standard “taxes are rising yet again” story.

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: SUSAN JACOBY’S PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL JUNK

BY DAN OLMSTED

Facing a long plane ride recently, I was thumbing through the airport bookstore and came across a new book by Susan Jacoby titled “The Age of American Unreason.” Now there was a title to catch my attention, because I do think that the general level of education and discourse and shared values in this country is in decline, and not unrelated to the mess we find ourselves in concerning autism, the practice of medicine, the damaging mediocrity of the mainstream media, and so on. I looked forward to spending the next four hours agreeing with Jacoby.

CDC'S GERBERDING TO CNN: VACCINES CAN TRIGGER AUTISM SYMPTOMS

Here's the CDC's latest slide down the slippery slope to acknowledging what I've taken to calling So Effing Obvious: Vaccines can trigger "symptoms that have characteristics of autism" in susceptible kids.

Recall David Kirby's recent piece that mitochondrial susceptibility might be 1 in 50 kids. -- Dan Olmsted

JULIE GERBERDING, DR., CDC DIRECTOR: Well, you know, I don't have all the facts because I still haven't been able to review the case files myself. But my understanding is that the child has a -- what we think is a rare mitochondrial disorder. And children that have this disease, anything that stresses them creates a situation where their cells just can't make enough energy to keep their brains functioning normally.

Now, we all know that vaccines can occasionally cause fevers in kids.

So if a child was immunized, got a fever, had other complications from the vaccines. And if you're predisposed with the mitochondrial disorder, it can certainly set off some damage. Some of the symptoms can be symptoms that have characteristics of autism.

The transcript is HERE.

FROM THE PAPER THAT BROUGHT YOU THE IRAQ WAR ...

BY DAN OLMSTED

The New York Times' self-appointed role as guardian of the CDC's childhood immunization schedule continues apace this morning with a front-page story, "Public Health Risk Seen as Parents Reject Vaccines." It pretty much speaks for itself but allow us to point out three things.

One: "Recent news stories that a federal vaccine court agreed to pay the family of an autistic child in Georgia who had an underlying mitochondrial disorder has led some skeptics to speculate that vaccines may worsen some conditions. Again, researchers say there is no evidence to support this thesis." Unfortunately for "researchers" -- don't you love these monolithic anonymous categories? -- that's exactly what the government conceded in the Hannah Poling case. The Times gets it wrong by letting "the experts" shape the truth. Again.

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: HANNAH POLING AND RACHEL CARSON

BY DAN OLMSTED

Those of you who read this blog regularly know our core tenet is this: Autism is predominantly an environmental disorder, in the sense it is triggered by toxins coming from outside the body to cause mayhem within. (Genetic susceptibility? Sure. But toxins are the trigger.) We tend to focus a lot on one particular outside-in factor -- vaccines -- because the link between vaccines and the autism epidemic is so eff-ing obvious, but we do believe the environment more broadly defined – in the Inconvenient Truth, Silent Spring sense – is playing a major role. Our planet is so toxified and our kids carry such a body burden from birth that it takes less and less to tip them into autism, asthma, allergies, ADD, ADHD, autoimmune disorders … and that's only the A's.

THE AAP STILL DOESN'T GET IT -- AND NEVER WILL

Managing Editor's Note:  It seemed appropriate to run this post above the link to Jenny McCarthy's City TV APPEARANCE where she states yet again, that it is parents looking out for our kids, not the mainstream medical establishment. And certainly not the American Academy of Pediatrics.

By DAN OLMSTED

Want proof? Check out the American Academy of Pediatrics' updated Facts for Parents About Autism and Vaccine Safety HERE. They manage to turn the Poling case into some 1-in-6.5-billion anomaly featuring a mysterious and rare underlying mitochondrial disorder.

They drone on about better diagnosis and early identification. They even cite the 10-percent-genetic figure that Mark Blaxill recently demolished for Age of Autism. Remarkably, on March 7, the AAP had issued a release that said, "The recent Vaccine Injury Compensation Program case raised many questions for the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP leadership is seeking access to official documents in the case so medical experts can examine the science and consider whether it raises implications for other children."

FOR THIMEROSAL APOLOGISTS, PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL

By Dan Olmsted

Below is a link to my most recent column for Spectrum Magazine, done before the Poling case hit the news -- remember, that was a test case for thimerosal causing autism, and the government has now thrown in the towel. Comments like Art Caplan's and Paul Offit's below may someday be remembered  as the height of medical arrogance, just before the walls started  tumbling down.

7 reasons not to give up on the mercury/autism link.

January 28th, 2008

The people who believe vaccine mercury has nothing to do with the rise  of autism are really feeling their oats. Check out these comments by  Art Caplan, the noted University of Pennsylvania ethicist: "What must  it be like to spend a huge amount of time every waking day trying to  change public health practice - only to find out that you were wrong? That is precisely what has happened to the proponents of the theory that mercury in vaccines - contained in the preservative thimerosal, which once was used (and is used no longer) in vaccines - is responsible for a nearly 20-year explosion in autism and other neurological disorders among American children."

Now, that is harsh – and meant to be.

PAGING DR. GUPTA -- STAT!

By Dan Olmsted

As the fallout from the Hannah Poling case continues, several people have mentioned the same thing to me: They've noticed that Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN, arguably one of the most powerful arbiters of medical information in the world, has seemed honestly perplexed and cautious in his response to the case.

Unlike Gardiner Harris, Dr. Timothy Johnson, Dr. Nancy Snyderman and their ilk -- people whose careers are wrapped up in the defense of vaccines, and vaccine mercury, at all costs -- Dr. Gupta seems like a real reporter. What's the difference?

SO THERE ARE MORE HANNAH POLINGS WE JUST DON'T KNOW ABOUT? GOTCHA, JUDGE.

(Managing Editor's Note: Schafer Autism Report has just run this letter they received:)

We Were Compensated, too

      We were also compensated by the Federal Government in 2002.  Our child suffered the same diagnosis after her routine immunizations.  Encephalopathy with autistic like symptoms.  I am not sure why people think this is the first case?  Maybe they are just the first to go so public.  I wonder how many other families have been compensated for the exact same symptoms?  When we settled with the government I did not get the impression that we were that unique; quite the opposite as I spoke to the Special Master (the judge for the compensation program).  - Misty Hiatt  Read their story here.

By Dan Olmsted

Thanks to Michael Belkin for passing on this quite remarkable passage from an AP story (HERE) on the Poling settlement: "The case may not be a first," said Gary Golkiewicz, chief special master for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

He oversees the special 'vaccine court' which rules on requests for payments from the vaccine injury fund. 'Years ago, actually, I had a case, before we understood or knew the implications of autism, that the vaccine injured the child's brain caused an encephalopathy,' he said. And the symptoms that come with that 'all [fall?] within the broad rubric of autism.'

And there are other somewhat similar cases, Golkiewicz says, that were decided before autism and its symptoms were more clearly defined."

DAN OLMSTED FEATURED AT SPECIAL NEEDS CONFERENCE

EDITOR'S NOTE: The link below is an example from Olympia, Wash., of a heartening trend -- good local coverage of autism including a balanced discussion of parents' concerns about vaccines. By and large, as many of you know first-hand, local media do a much better job than the national media. I believe that's because they know the people they write about and their role in the community and are respectful of their first-hand experience, whereas national media know the "experts" and are convinced by their data and their dogma.

This story features the Fultons and their recovering son, Grant, who I wrote about as part of my Pox series. I'm speaking at a conference there on Friday. As a sidebar to the article puts it: "Vaccines and autism: Three speakers will address the topic of vaccines and their link to autism. Speakers include a geneticist and the former editor for United Press International, who has researched autism since 2004 and authored the series The Age of Autism, which included interviews with Olympia families who link their children's regression into autism to vaccines." The paper promoted me from former senior editor to former editor, but I'm not complaining -- Dan Olmsted.

CLICK HERE.

OH, JUST 2 MORE SHOCKING VAX vs. UNVAXED SURVEYS. LAD-DE-DAH.

By Dan Olmsted

The conversation about the autism rate in vaccinated versus never-vaccinated kids has gotten kind of surreal, wouldn’t you agree? Right now (see several posts on this page) we’re battling the double-reverse pseudo-scientific assertion that such studies have been done and that they prove there’s no connection between vaccination and autism.

Oh, brother. In fact, oh, Big Brother. What we’re dealing with here is positively Orwellian. Not only is it the Big Lie -- because there are no such studies and those nonexistent studies prove no such thing– but it is an abuse of language that makes you wonder if this is 1984 rather than 2008.

WHAT DOES PROQUAD TELL US ABOUT THE MMR?

By DAN OLMSTED

Back in 2005, when the FDA approved the four-in-one live-virus vaccine ProQuad as safe and effective, manufacturer Merck had high hopes. "Based on the public health benefits realized following the introduction of other combination vaccines, such as M-M-R II, we expect PROQUAD to become a primary option for prevention of measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox," said Mark Feinberg, M.D., Ph.D., vice president of policy, public health and medical affairs, Merck Vaccine Division.

That was then. Now, because of a twice-as-high risk of fever-related convulsions, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has dropped its preferential recommendation for the four-in-one shot – measles, mumps, rubella (the MMR components) plus chickenpox. Read the story HERE.

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: ABC SNAPS TO ATTENTION OVER VACCINE CASE

By DAN OLMSTED

Below is an e-mail I've been waiting a long time to see -- someone from the mainstream media trying to get their mind around the fact that the United States government has conceded that vaccines triggered autistic regression. By now you've all read about this case and David Kirby's brilliant reporting and analysis of this watershed development (if not, click HERE for a link to David's A of A and Huffington Post column and HERE for the text of the settlement). What is so great is to see a news outlet scrambling to get the story quickly and get it right. The author of the memo, Dan Childs of ABCNews.com, sent it to various interested parties looking for feedback. So far, so good -- that's the way to solicit as wide a range of input as possible. Now to watch the coverage unfold -- and who's to say whether we'll ultimately be grinding our teeth once again or popping champagne. But for now, it's a complete blast to watch, especially for someone like me who's felt like a resident of Bizarro World for the past three years as Big Media covered its ears, eyes and mouths while the biggest health scandal of our lives has unfolded on their watch. Meantime, pass your thoughts on to Mr. Childs at the e-mail below, won't you? (And copy us by commenting on this post.)

From: ABC MEDICINE <ABC.MEDICINE@abc.com>
Sent: Tue Feb 26 12:56:31 2008
Subject: Federal Government May Have Conceded on Vaccine-Autism Case -- ABC News Interest

Good afternoon,

This is Dan Childs, producer of the Health page of ABCNews.com. I hope this message finds you well.

There has been a buzz lately about the possible concession of a vaccine-related case by the government. Much of this talk has surrounded a column posted on the Huffington Post. ...

ABC News is still assessing the validity of this report, but we would like to be ready to responsibly cover this issue if the report does, in fact, prove to be true.

PARENTS PROTEST AT PEDIATRICIANS' FRONT DOOR

By DAN OLMSTED

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill., Feb. 20 – You didn't need a mercury thermometer to know it was cold outside the American Academy of Pediatrics building early Wednesday morning. But despite single-digit temperatures, a double-digit crowd showed up to tell the AAP they shouldn't be injecting babies and pregnant women with mercury and other toxins.

"They need to start listening to parents' concerns and take them seriously," said Amy Carson from Moms Against Mercury. She and cofounder Angela Medlin came all the way from balmy North Carolina to freeze in front of the AAP, abetted by TACA and NAA Chicago, led by Chapter Development Director Karen McDonough. This was their fifth rally outside the AAP, timed to greet employees arriving at work and remind them that thousands of American families believe vaccines have triggered an epidemic of autism and other developmental and chronic health disorders.

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: SAVANTS, CONFLICTS, CONSEQUENCES

By DAN OLMSTED

Charlie Gibson named an amazing young man, Stephen Wiltshire, as ABC's Person of the Week on Friday. It's worth watching the video to see his ability to draw cityscapes from memory. Click here. Wiltshire has autism, and anyone familiar with this disorder will quickly realize that Stephen is an autistic savant – one of that small minority who have extraordinary gifts.

Yet ABC doesn't make the connection. They portray a young man struggling with language delay and socialization who unaccountably shows remarkable talent.

I suspect something similar is about to happen once again with coverage of Jason McElwain, the New York state high school basketball team manager who was put in for the last few minutes of the last game of the season and sank an astounding six 3-pointers, including one at the buzzer. He was carried off the court by his teammates, met the president and wrote a book that is about to come out to great fanfare.

He deserves every accolade he gets.

PODCAST WITH DAN OLMSTED

Editor's Note: Earlier this month I was interviewed by Coy Barefoot on his Charlottesville, Va., radio show. Coy is the parent of a child with autism and a strong advocate of the approach embraced by Age of Autism. In this conversation we touch on everything from the earliest cases to the continuing rise in the California numbers to -- of course -- the launch of the Age of Autism. Here's the link to the podcast, which is about 15 minutes long.

Audio by CPN - Player by ODEO

DAN OLMSTED: OBSERVATIONS FROM RECENT DAYS

By DAN OLMSTED

On flu shot kids: A pediatrician who treats a large number of kids with autism tells me she has started to detect a new pattern. Most of the very youngest children are what she calls "flu shot kids." Their mothers got mercury-containing flu shots when they were in utero. The kids got the shots right on schedule starting at 6 months.

She emphasized this was only an impression, not a study or even a survey. But this is someone who has been very astute about the autism epidemic since the early days – she first began noticing something amiss with the kids in her practice starting in the mid 1990s. They were just plain sicker. Too many allergies, too much asthma, too many with juvenile diabetes. Too many with autism.

Too many, too sick. So I think what she says about the flu shot bears repeating and watching.

AGE OF AUTISM: OUR STORY SO FAR

By Dan Olmsted

This week marks three months since Managing Editor Kim Stagliano and I launched Age of Autism at the National Autism Association Convention in Atlanta. In that time, we've come quite a distance – with well over 100,000 "hits" (visits), several hundred "posts" (articles) and a couple of thousand comments.

None of this was on my radar when I left United Press International last summer after three years of writing The Age of Autism column, but as a friend of mine said at the time, "I think this is a blessing in disguise, and not much of a disguise." That quickly proved true as several autism organizations coalesced to sponsor this site. In fact, our biggest achievement is simply this: providing a common forum for the enviro-bio community – people who believe autism is an epidemic and therefore primarily an environmental illness and, as such, it is treatable.

MMR AND THE SIMPLE TRUTH ABOUT AUTISM

By Dan Olmsted

Does the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine cause autism? I vote yes.

Of course, that’s just one man’s opinion – but one who’s spent the last three years listening to parents and enlightened pediatricians and combing through adverse events reports and just generally trying to think for himself.

Right below this post is yet another study seeming to exonerate the MMR. That sure sounds familiar – the CDCAAPFDAIOMETC have already given it multiple clean bills of health. And manufacturer Merck says no studies show any link to autistic regression.

DAN OLMSTED: "ATTACKING" MY AMISH COVERAGE

With enemies like this, who needs friends?

By DAN OLMSTED

A blogger who posts at Autism News Beat has set out to demolish my reporting over the past few years about the Amish and autism –- and believes he’s come up with pretty damning evidence. Toward the end of the piece he asks, rhetorically, “So what’s up with Olmsted? Did a UPI reporter fabricate a story, then pass it off as true?”

Now that can really hurt a guy’s feelings, especially one like me who tries to pass himself off as a non-fabricator. Mr. Beat (the blog is not bylined –- see Mark Blaxill’s piece about the Wackosphere for more about that approach) is referring to my attempts to find autism in the Amish community.

TIME TO RAIN ON THE MEDIA PARADE

By Dan Olmsted

The sad state of American journalism's coverage of the autism epidemic is on display today in tens of millions of Sunday newspapers, probably including yours. Parade magazine's cover story is titled: "With Children Struggling, Parents Ask: Is There Hope for Autism?"

Looking out from the cover is a child identified as "Nick Furth, 9, (who) attends a school for autistic children in New Jersey." When I saw that, my jaw dropped all the way to Beijing. This is the same Nick Furth who in May 2006 was on the cover for Time magazine's “New Insights Into the Hidden World of Autism” (caption: "Nick Furth, 8, of Mine Hill, N.J.").

Good heavenly days, as my mother might have put it. Out of thousands and thousands of children with autism, you're telling me Parade couldn't find one other child suitable for its cover? There's a technical term for this in my journalism dictionary. It's spelled l-a-z-y.

In the interest of full disclosure -- and also to make my point -- I need to say that I used to work for Parade's main Sunday supplement competitor, USA Weekend. Coming from this small universe, I can tell you these mega-circulation magazines have all the time and money they need to find and photograph anyone they want.

Both these photos were taken by the same photographer -- are they even new? I wonder. But here's what really sucks: After putting young Nick on the cover, both Parade and Time drop him like a hot potato. There's no mention of Nick, his family, his challenges and triumphs, that special school he attends and whether it helps, why his parents think he has autism, whether living in New Jersey, the state with the highest autism rate in the world, might conceivably have anything to do with it -- nothing. Two national magazine covers, and he's still a cipher. 

This is the commoditization of children with autism.

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THIS VAXED-UNVAXED SURVEY

By THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Dear Age of Autism: So what if you crackpots have turned up another survey (CLICK HERE) strongly pointing to an association between vaccines and autism? So what, because we've already seen a bunch of so-called studies like that, and they don't mean a darn thing. Even if a full-scale study of the autism rate in vaccinated-versus-unvaccinated kids has never been done, this case is closed. We already told you so.

First of all, this so-called survey was done by the Dutch Association for Conscientious Vaccination, a questionable crowd made up of doctors, parents and therapists "among others" -- and who might those secret unnamed "others" be? We can only guess -- whose stated aim is "freedom of choice for parents when it comes to vaccinating their children, based on honest, comprehensive and independent information. We view the current 'one size fits all' vaccination policy with great concern. The NVKP is therefore urging the adoption of more thorough independent research by representatives from different disciplines."

Ha! Clearly a foreign cabal of know-nothings.

CAN'T ANYONE GET THESE DELUSIONS OUT OF MY HEAD?

By Dan Olmsted

Help me -- I'm suffering again from what the psychiatrists call "delusions of reference." In layman's terms, I believe that all kinds of seemingly unrelated things -- from government pronouncements to scientific studies to newspaper headlines to cable-news "crawls" -- actually speak to me. Some of them seem to be sending messages only I and a small group of others (fellow basket cases like you, perhaps?) can truly understand.

My latest attack began with the news, reported on our site this week, that the anti-cholesterol drug Zetia doesn't seem to do much of anything (in fact, nothing at all; in fact, maybe worse). There is the further issue of whether the drug manufacturers and marketers, Merck and Schering-Plough, held on to the study results because they were such a bummer (of course not, the companies say, but Congress seems to want to put that reassurance to the perjury test, under oath. No doubt both companies welcome the opportunity).

Call me crazy -- I do! -- but couldn't anyone with a third eye see this one coming? The current Newsweek has an ad for Zetia (along with ads for Crestor on the back page and the page before that, Lyrica on pages 7, 8 and 9, Plavix on 13 and 14, Alli on 19 and 20, Effexor on 25 and 26, Prilosec on 50, Ambien on 70 and 71):

"The most common cholesterol-lowering medicines, statins, are a good option. Zetia is different. Statins work mainly in the liver. Zetia works in the digestive tract ... Unlike some statins, Zetia has not been shown to prevent heart disease or heart attacks."

If I'm reading this correctly -- and obviously my cognitive processes are not to be trusted -- Zetia is different, all right: Some cholesterol drugs really do help your heart, but there was never any evidence Zetia was one of them. And that's the AD, for crying out loud. Whatever happened to the FDA not approving drugs until they were proven both safe and EFFECTIVE?

MERCURY, THIMEROSAL and the NATURAL HISTORY OF AUTISM

By Dan Olmsted

Albert Einstein, master not just of the universe but of the simultaneously witty, profound and self-deprecating quote, once had this to say: "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

That doesn't make me an Einstein, but it does make me feel better about the fact I've stuck like superglue to a couple of problems that go to the heart of autism. The one I'm writing about today is one I've tackled many times before -- the fact that the earliest cases show a strong association with the commercialization of ethyl mercury.

In the wake of the new study showing that the California autism numbers are continuing to climb, those who think the ethyl  mercury vaccine preservative called thimerosal has been exonerated are having a field day. One of them -- Dr. Paul Offit -- has even written it was a mistake to phase thimerosal out of vaccines starting in 1999 because it signaled concern that mercury in childhood immunizations might really be a problem.

A of A Q&A: PEDIATRICIAN ON AUTISM, PART 3

By Dan Olmsted

Editor's note: This is the third installment of a three-part interview with Dr. Julie Buckley of Ponte Verdra Beach, Fla., a DAN! doctor with an affected child -- and some important observations on the state of our children's health and how to improve it.

AOA: I've never understood why having a discussion about vaccines is somehow imperiling public health, because it's not ALL vaccines or NO vaccines – that may be some folks' position – but what I hear from people like you is we've got to find a way to manage this and also to reformulate the vaccines so we're not causing problems And to respond, "Well, you're going to kill us all because we're going to bring back infectious diseases" just doesn't make much sense to me. Public policy debate is what happens in a democracy that leads to better outcomes. So I just don't understand why your kind of thinking is seen as so threatening.

Buckley: I think it's threatening for several reasons.

A of A Q&A: PEDIATRICIAN ON AUTISM, PART 2

By Dan Olmsted

Editor's note: This is the second of a three-part interview. I first met Dr. Julie Buckley of Ponte Verdra Beach, Fla., at the NAA convention in Atlanta. The formal sessions had ended for the day, but as usual some interesting discussions were going strong at the hotel bar. It was too crowded and noisy to have much of a conversation, but I picked up enough nuggets from Dr. Buckley that I wanted to hear more. So the next day we sat down in an empty conference room and had a proper talk. She touched on many key topics, from the relative health of never-vaccinated kids to the struggles of DAN! doctors helping children with autism recover. Sometimes, those children are their own.

AOA: What possible role could vaccination against deadly illness play in somehow bringing on more illness in kids? What's going on? Do you have a theory?

Buckley: I do. There is no doubt in my mind that the environmental exposures that kids are subjected to play a huge role in triggering off a chronic illness, and when we talk about autism and really when we talk about so many other illnesses – the autoimmune diseases, the allergy, the asthma -- we're talking about a generation of kids who have had something shift. This beautifully delicate balance in the immune system, where it's just tremendously delicately hanging …

A of A Q&A: PEDIATRICIAN ON AUTISM, VACCINATION & RECOVERY

By Dan Olmsted

Editor's note: This is the first of a three-part interview. I first met Dr. Julie Buckley of Ponte Verdra Beach, Fla., at the NAA convention in Atlanta. The formal sessions had ended for the day, but as usual some interesting discussions were going strong at the hotel bar. It was too crowded and noisy to have much of a conversation, but I picked up enough nuggets from Dr. Buckley that I wanted to hear more. So the next day we sat down in an empty conference room and had a proper talk. She touched on many key topics, from the relative health of never-vaccinated kids to the struggles of DAN! doctors helping children with autism recover. Sometimes, those children are their own.
--
AOA: How did you get started down this road?

Buckley: I had a very small and growing neurotypical practice when my daughter regressed, and then I figured out what we needed to do for her and then began working with other children and working with kids with autism. And very quickly my autism practice really outstripped my neurotypical practice. But the people who stayed in that neurotypical practice were those who were already very interested in not vaccinating, or who had siblings of children with autism, or parents in the community who for whatever reason didn't want to vaccinate their children, and knew that I was not going to scream at them at the top of my lungs – that if that was their wish, I was going to abide by it.

AOA: That sounds a lot like Homefirst, the medical practice in Chicago that welcomes people who choose not to vaccinate, and says it has seen almost no autism in never-vaccinated kids who were born at home. So what are your observations, given the diversity of kids in your practice? What do you see in terms of health outcomes for vaccinated versus non-vaccinated?

INTRODUCING DIEOXX

By Dan Olmsted

DIEOXX – script for 60 second spot by Smirk & Co.

(Key piano music, languid, soft and sad. It should sound like George Winston without inviting copyright infringement suits. Our in-house counsel are busy enough already.
Cue worried-looking person of indeterminate boomer age, looking directly at camera. Pan to pitiful neglected dog in corner.)

You know something isn't right. You just don't know what it is.

Now there's Dieoxx. For those times when you know you're just not right.

THE EXPERTS, THE TRUTH, AND GOLD SALTS

By DAN OLM