That's the headline Reuters should have written, instead of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trial Brazil volunteer dies, trial to continue.

If you ask anyone with middle school grasp of science what is a "placebo," they will likely say, "a sugar pill."  A placebo has always meant an inert, benign substitute for the drug being tested.  How many Earthlings understand that with this Covid vaccine, the placebo is another vaccine? And in this case, it may well have killed a healthy, altruistic 28 year young man. Our sincere condolences to his grieving family. He volunteered to help others.   And what of every parent whose child needs a meningitis vaccine for school? Are they to feel comforted?

noun
noun: placebo; plural noun: placebos

a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect.
"his Aunt Beatrice had been kept alive on sympathy and placebos for thirty years"
a substance that has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs.
a measure designed merely to calm or please someone.
"pacified by the placebos of the previous year, they claimed a moral victory"

###

SAO PAULO/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Brazilian health authority Anvisa said on Wednesday that a volunteer in a clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University had died but added that the trial would continue.Oxford confirmed the plan to keep testing, saying in a statement that after careful assessment “there have been no concerns about safety of the clinical trial.”

AstraZeneca declined to comment immediately.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the trial would have been suspended if the volunteer who died had received the COVID-19 vaccine, suggesting the person was part of the control group that was given a meningitis jab.  Read more here.

By Anne Dachel

I just saw this October 15^th story from Ireland about Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).

I’m sorry I missed that acronym in the past. (I also missed DLD AWARENESS DAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020.)

Really it’s just one more official acronym to describe the pitiful state of childhood in the 21^st century. Add it to ADD, ADHD, ASD, LD, ED, DD, OCD and lots more.

The Irish Times published a really positive story about DLD awareness entitled, Lighting up purple and yellow for Developmental language disorder. (Not to be confused with Lighting up blue for autism awareness every April.)

The Times explained what DLD is, and lots of speakers were included on a video:

Developmental language disorder (DLD) is diagnosed when a child’s language skills are persistently below the level expected. In DLD, language deficits occur in the absence of another condition, such as autism spectrum disorder, and children may have difficulty understanding instructions, finding the right words, using correct grammar and telling stories.

“In my day-to-day life, it’s hard, because it messes with your emotions and it can make you agitated,” says Robert. “And there are things that other people can do, like they can just start writing a story off the bat, but I have to take a couple of minutes to even think of my first paragraph.”

VIDEO: Raising Awareness of Development

Speakers:

…DLD emerges in early childhood but persists into adulthood.

People who have DLD have difficulty understanding and using language.

They may have a small vocabulary or trouble formulating a grammatical sentence.

Difficulty organizing the ideas they want to express and problems learning to read and write.

These problems with language matter. …

So DLD isn’t just a problem with language; it’s a problem with living life to its fullest.

Increasing awareness of DLD can help by motivating policymakers, funding agencies, educators and health care providers…

By Anne Dachel

On August 28th, Robert Kennedy, Jr. was part of a press conference and a rally of a million people in Berlin, Germany.

Kennedy was there to launch the European chapter of Children’s Health Defense.

With him at the press conference was Dr. Heiko Schöning

On October 7th Dr. Schoning was interviewed about his international organization battling against governments of the world using coronavirus to nullify our freedoms.

In this 10 minute video Schoning explains what his group is up against and what they hope to do.

Medical doctors and lawyers allied against global malfeasance in conversation with Heiko Schöning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu6eXmBTA2I

More and more medical professionals worldwide are questioning the countermeasures against the coronavirus. Several initiatives and collaborations are popping up and by bundling forces across borders people are hoping to break the one sided narrative that is being spread by officials.

One of the doctors fighting for this cause is Heiko Schöning of Ärzte für Aufklärung. He was one of the speakers at the recently held conference in the Netherlands and is battling the fallacious reporting and disproportional measures under which people are suffering. Sven spoke with him about what they have been working on for the past weeks to provide a broader public with an update on what is going on outside the mainstream media.

Interview:

Sven Hulleman: “I have the honor to sit here with Dr. Heiko Schoning.

“Heiko, we have been working very hard in the past few weeks. What have you been doing?”

Dr. Heiko Schoning: “I just played my part. I’m a medical doctor and I just played the German part in this international great alliance that developed.”

Hulleman: “You are trying to get doctors internationally aligned. That’s why we had a conference last Friday, and now today we had a similar meeting because the French and the Belgians couldn’t really make it, but they were here today.

“What do you find in general is the common ground in every country? What is going on? Why are these doctors coming together? Why are they travelling from their patients to see you and to see me, to see international lawyers?”

I prefer the term, "pre-verbal" but the sentiment is the same. Many of our children do not use their voice and words for speaking. And yet, they have as much to say as any of us. And it's probably wiser than much of the noise we hear today. So while it's not April, but we think it's important to remind readers that we have not forgotten how much advocacy is desperately needed for autism families. Yours. Mine. And Ours.

"If people across the UK continue to work with the rest of the world... "  Does statement imply "global healthcare" over the next ten years?

Pay attention to the sponsor list at the end including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  From the YouTube brief description: If people across the UK continue to work with the rest of the world for our health, and we continue to talk and share this vision of a healthier, stronger future, it will become our reality. Share, discuss and open the conversation. Find out more at www.decadeofhealth.com 

The YouTube account is new, just opened on October 5. View count is low. The video is worthy of the October debut, frightening. More trick than treat.  I ran a WhoIs search on the domain, with little info beyond creating the domain last Spring. Other look ups tell you where they domain was registered. Not this one. If any readers have more insight into the WhoIs info, do share in our comments.  Thank you.

Domain Name: DECADEOFHEALTH.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2500278064_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.web.com
Registrar URL: http://www.networksolutions.com
Updated Date: 2020-09-07T23:40:33Z
Creation Date: 2020-03-05T19:42:18Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2028-03-05T19:42:18Z
Registrar: NamePal.com #8027, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 1633
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@web.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8003337680
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Name Server: PDNS1.ULTRADNS.NET
Name Server: PDNS2.ULTRADNS.NET
Name Server: PDNS3.ULTRADNS.ORG
Name Server: PDNS4.ULTRADNS.ORG
Name Server: PDNS5.ULTRADNS.INFO
Name Server: PDNS6.ULTRADNS.CO.UK
DNSSEC: unsigned

LIVE on Wednesday, 10/21 st 4:00pm Eastern at the NAA Facebook Page: facebook.com/NationalAutism

Source: Chess.com

Note: Sometimes these headlines just write themselves. 

Express & Star UK The Queen could be called on to help boost the public’s trust in a coronavirus vaccine, a Government adviser has suggested.

Vaccine misinformation expert Professor Heidi Larson said she feared that people’s concerns about vaccine safety were not being addressed, which could result in them not taking it.

 Our John Stone has written extensively about Professor Heidi Larson:

February 2019 Is Heidi Larson Out of Her Depth?

February 2019 Heidi Larson Calls For Vaccine Criticism To Be Prosecuted As Hate Crime

December 2017 Paradoxes for Heidi Larson: The Vaccine Confidence LadyParadoxes for Heidi Larson: The Vaccine Confidence Lady

November 2016 Dr. Heidi Larson - Who Lobbied the UN Claiming that "Not all Mercury is Toxic" - attacks AoA over Trump meeting

The article below accurately, yet surely inadvertently, refers to as a "vaccine misinformation expert." Based on reports of the Royal Family being firmly in the alternative medicine camp (or palace), March, 2020 Daily Mail UK RICHARD KAY: Royals put their faith in homeopathy, alternative cures... and secrecy about their health)  it seems unlikely that Buckingham Palace would allow the Queen to become a vaccine pawn, or jester.

Express & Star UK The Queen could be called on to help boost the public’s trust in a coronavirus vaccine, a Government adviser has suggested.

Vaccine misinformation expert Professor Heidi Larson said she feared that people’s concerns about vaccine safety were not being addressed, which could result in them not taking it.

It comes as scientists warned that a working Covid-19 vaccine “might not be enough” to end the pandemic unless governments and technology firms tackle coronavirus misinformation.

A study found a ‘clear link’ between coronavirus conspiracy theories and hesitancy around future vaccines (David Cheskin/PA)

In an interview with The Times, Prof Larson, who leads the Vaccine Confidence Project, said the Queen could help build trust in the older generation.

She said: “If there’s one thing I’ve seen, and I’ve been here (in the UK) for over a decade now, it’s the trust that she (the Queen) gets.

“And she’s certainly in that older cohort, so I think that’s actually really, really smart.”

Prof Larson said the “big question” would be whether the Queen, who is aged 94, would get a vaccine.

“I think the palace is going to have to decide for themselves – do you want to risk a new vaccine on the Queen? Or do you want to keep her isolated? They’re going to have to weigh those risks,” she added...

More and more Americans do not want a COVID vaccine.

They do not trust a COVID vaccine. They do not trust the "science," or the government ramming a vaccine forward.  It seems the pandemic response has taken our 20+ years of talking about the lack of vaccine safety and finally brought it into sharp focus. Why now? Why Covid and not the autism epidemic? Fear. Covid was immediately introduced to the world as a horrible global thread that could knock on any door and kill you. Fear is always the simplest tool for compliance, diversion and re-education.  And so while we worked our behinds off to tell people about autism and vaccination,  autism was turned into a "difference" to be accepted from the highest echelons of public health, science, government agencies and media.

We owe Covid a perverse thank you that we will never get ourselves. Keep saying NO. Tell your friends and family you will say NO. Speak up. Speak out. NO is a complete sentence.  Remember the old School House Rock series that ran on Saturday mornings?  The slogan was "Knowledge is power!"

From The New York Post:
Scientists worry as more Americans say they’ll refuse COVID-19 vaccine

Tara Granger, 36, has worked as a nurse for two decades in Suffolk County, NY, and she and her two children have been vaccinated every year.

“Drugs are my life,” she says. “It’s what I learned in school.”

But she’s been questioning the promised upcoming vaccine for COVID-19, in large part because of what she’s witnessed firsthand about the financial incentives for vaccines.

“It scares me that I got so many free lunches and free dinners because I pushed the flu vaccine,” Granger says. “What am I going to get when I push a COVID vaccine?”

Granger got sick from the coronavirus earlier this summer and said she did “the opposite of what people said to do. I took my supplements and vitamins, and didn’t go to the hospital to be put on a ventilator and die. I was smart enough to say, ‘My immune system can fight this, I just have to find the right way to do it.’ ”

Her job will require her to recommend the COVID vaccine when it’s available, but Granger said she won’t personally be getting it.

“The vaccine isn’t something we need, even if it is safe,” she says. “People want an easy solution and they think this is it. But it isn’t.”

She’s not the only one with misgivings. A Pew Research poll from late September showed that about half of US adults (51 percent) wouldn’t get a COVID-19 vaccine if it was available today — a big drop from the 72 percent who said they’d get one back in May.

by Cathy Jameson

For seven months, the public has been asked to live with an abundance of caution.  That’s included quarantining, keeping socially distant, wearing a face covering, and staying home even if one is not feeling ill.  For businesses, working with an abundance of caution included more restrictions.  It meant closing their doors.  For schools, it meant shutting down campuses and going completely virtual.  At the time, and based on a virus we knew little to nothing about, some of those precautions made sense.  

Seven months later, we’ve gained more knowledge about the virus and which precautions were necessary (and which ones were not).  Daily reminders of how to continue to live with an abundance of caution are still being broadcasting on the airwaves, like the ones I heard on the radio last week: 

Stay home!

If you have to leave home, wear a mask!

When in public, stay six-feet apart!

No matter what, don’t touch your face!

Later, when one has been fast-tracked and approved, I can bank on this added message…

Get your damn vaccine!

Even though the curve has been flattened, we’re being told to live as if it hasn’t.  I’m guessing that’s why the media is keeping that COVID-19 vaccine in their news cycle.  Claiming it’ll be the next best thing to counter the coronavirus, the vaccine is getting more airtime than the flu vaccine usually does. As with that typically ineffective flu shot, and other ones manufactured here in the states, it’ll be a liability-free vaccine the public will be offered.  That liability-free label means that should something go wrong post-vaccination, pharmaceutical companies do not have to claim any responsibility for it, even if the damage done is a result of their product.  

One would hope that those making vaccines would include using an abundance of caution in the process, but they don’t have to do that.  The law protects the vaccine industry, not the people being vaccinated.  And it seems further protection has been granted for any COVID-19 vaccine, too.  Where the manufacturers can throw caution to the wind, the double protection they’ve received for their yet-to-be developed, and minimally-tested, vaccine is red flag enough for me.  I’d be a fool to opt for any of them.  

As time goes by, we’ll certainly learn more about the coronavirus and any long-term effects it may have.  That’ll hopefully include learning about the quarantine precautions we were asked to take, too.  Evidence already shows that some precautions have had detrimental effects, including an increase in mental health issues.  Based on several observations and data, some doctors and researchers have shared that it’s time to open the world up again, even without knowing all there is to know about COVID-19.  Enough is enough. 

Who Decides When Vaccine Studies Are Done? Internal Documents Show Fauci Plays a Key Role.
Dr. Anthony Fauci will see data from government-funded vaccine trials before the FDA does. One caveat: Pfizer’s study, which is ahead of the others, isn’t included in his purview.

by Isaac Arnsdorf, Caroline Chen and Ryan Gabrielson

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official, will oversee most of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccine trials in the U.S., but not that of the current front-runner made by Pfizer, documents obtained by ProPublica show.

According to a draft charter spelling out how most of the advanced COVID-19 vaccine trials will be monitored, Fauci is the “designated senior representative” of the U.S. government who will be part of the first look at the results. That puts Fauci in the room with the companies — including Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca — in deciding whether the vaccines are ready to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Fauci’s role, which has not been previously reported and was confirmed for ProPublica by the National Institutes of Health, could offer some reassurance in the face of widespread concerns that President Donald Trump wants to rush through an unproven vaccine. As Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for vice president, put it at last week’s debate, “If the public health professionals, if Dr. Fauci, if the doctors tell us that we should take it, I’ll be the first in line to take it.”

Credit: New York Times

Note: Dan Olmsted wrote his Age of Autism newspaper column for UPI almost 20 years ago. In my personal Age of Autism, my daughters were in the kitchen at 3:30am, so I got up a bit earlier than I'd hoped (ha ha)  and started doing my homework for this morning's Presidential Town Hall follow up post.  In my search for Coronavirus vaccine mandate results from last night, UPI popped up as a top hit.  Good morning, Dan.  

Biden urges state, local leaders to mandate COVID-19 vaccine. 

UPI By Danielle Haynes & Darryl Coote

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Appearing in an ABC town hall Thursday night, Joe Biden said as president he'd lean on state and local leaders to implement COVID-19 vaccine mandates once one becomes available.

The Democratic presidential nominee opened up the town hall taking President Donald Trump to task for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and offering his own answers.

...When asked whether he would mandate for all Americans to take a COVID-19 vaccine once one's available, Biden said "it depends on the state and the nature of the vaccine when it comes out and how it's being distributed."

Biden acknowledged such a mandate would be difficult to enforce completely, comparing it to measles vaccines required by schools.   Read more here: Biden urges state, local leaders to mandate COVID-19 vaccine.

Vice President Biden's answer is not a clear cut " Yes" or "No." This IS politics, after all and every meal is waffles.  Keep in mind, with or without mandates, the vaccine can be used as a key to participate in many areas of society such as employment, school and even air travel. We have not had a national vaccine policy, although the idea has been trial ballooned as far back as 2015 when U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a South Florida Democrat, said Tuesday she wants a federal law mandating vaccinations for all public school students. Just last Spring, she introduced legislation to remove non-medical exemptions. On Friday, May 3, Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson reintroduced the Vaccinate All Children Act to promote the immunization of public school children and prevent public health crises. The legislation would disallow states from offering non-medical exemptions for meeting school vaccine requirements.

Could Coronavirus vaccination be the needle that breaks the camel's back? Americans and global citizens are already questioning and protesting masks, social isolation and the vaccine.  The world has been exposed for the very first time, to the sausage making process previously kept safely hidden behind pharma doors. Transparency, such as it has been, has  been enough to generate hard questions about safety, production and medical freedom. As another possible manmade vaccine epidemic is headline news, it looks yet again that Dan Olmsted's work is as important today, as it was when he wrote it.

Note: Below is an excerpt from the blog of Dr. Meryl Nass:

The testing mess, lack of reliable data on Covid-19, and a hypothesis why

Within the first 10 days of January a sequence for the Chinese SARS-CoV-2 virus had been published by Edward Holmes of Australia. (He coauthored the March Nature Medicine commentary I have publicly criticized here and here.) Holmes works closely with Chinese scientists who passed the sequence to him, possibly without CCP authorization.

People were able to immediately start devising PCR tests based on this published sequence, even without a virus. 

After that, as the virus travelled to many countries, scientists around the world started isolating the virus locally. There have been many thousands of isolations from patients from many countries, and scientists have decoded the genome, i.e., sequenced the virus, which has 30,000-34,000 nucleotides, and shown which mutations are occurring when, in different parts of the world. Alina Chan helped create a website that characterizes these strain differences by location.  

The virus has been cultured in many countries, as early as January-February, including by CDC:

1. Akst J. Australian Lab Cultures New Coronavirus as Infections Climb. The Scientist. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/australian-lab-cultures-new-coronavirus-as-infections-climb-67031. 

2. CDC has grown the COVID-19 virus in cell culture, which is necessary for further studies, including for additional genetic characterization. The cell-grown virus was sent to NIH’s BEI ResourcesRepositoryfor use by the broad scientific community.

But the virus cannot be cultured in ordinary hospital labs, because SARS is a designated biological warfare ("Select") agent with pandemic potential and must (by US law) be cultured only in high containment laboratories. So culture tests are not now commercially available, but they are being performed under specified conditions.

Testing for the virus is a disaster. There are over 100 available tests (PCR, Antibody, and Rapid Antigen tests) being used within the United States, and more overseas. 

The CDC made the inexplicable decisions to restrict US testing by allowing only the test CDC had developed to be used, a test that was both unnecessarily cumbersome, and faulty, and to test only those who almost certainly were infected.  This slowed down the development of better and more accessible tests by private, university and state public health labs. CDC's ban on other tests was only lifted on February 28.  (Tom Frieden, former CDC Director, has called for an independent panel to investigate what went wrong.)

(The CDC link no longer takes you to this graph.) 

Number of specimens tested for SARS-CoV-2 by CDC labs (N=3,995) and U.S. public health laboratories*

READ MORE HERE.

Update: Another nightmare story was published just today about a case in Baltimore, Maryland last year: Bodycam footage shows Baltimore school cop handcuffing autistic student, 11, for 23 minutes and leaving him with a broken wrist bone after he got into a fight with another child for bullying him

Mr. Rogers told children to "find the helpers," when they needed assistance. Below, Anne Dachel wrote up a horrendous story from North Carolina, where the "helper" in this case a police officer, brutally forced a 7 year old boy with autism into submission.  Where were the teachers? The school behaviorist? The school psychologist? The paras who know the child?  Nowhere to be found it seems, in this the Age of Autism.  Our children's needs have grown exponentially while services, supports, training have withered and died on the vine. Everywhere.  The child is SEVEN years old and already in an "alternative" school. These programs are for students who used to be called "Emotionally Disturbed." He's SEVEN. About the Pressly School and its "convenient" location. La de dah.

Pressly School is Iredell-Statesville’s alternative/non-traditional school serving students grades K-12. Pressly is centrally located at 222 Knox Street in Statesville, NC, making the location convenient for the entire district.

Pressly offers small classrooms, onsite counseling through a partnership with Children’s Hope Alliance, vocational opportunities through a partnership with CATS and other services tailored to the needs of the students.

Pressly serves students who have committed board policy violations. We also serve students that:

Have dropped out of school and wish to re-enroll
Need extra mental health support
Face extraordinary life circumstances that prevent them from attending a traditional school day
Need more intense academic and behavioral support

Pressly offers a variety of programs to meet the individual needs of each student.

###

By Anne Dachel

Police officer to the 7 year old boy : “…You ever been charged with a crime before? You ever been charged before? Well, you’re fixing to.  …

“Don’t make a wrong move, period. … If you my friend are not acquainted with the juvenile justice system, you will be very shortly. …”

Police officer to the mother: “I’m the arresting officer. He’s spitting a lot. …He kicked me, he’s been scratching, he’s beating his head against the floor, that’s why the pillow’s there. He’s combative.

“He is going to be charged with one count of assault, maybe two….”

Oct 12, 2020, NY Post: North Carolina mom sues after 7-year-old autistic son cuffed (video)

A North Carolina mom is suing after her autistic 7-year-old boy was handcuffed by a school resource officer and taunted for nearly 40 minutes for allegedly spitting, according to court papers and body camera video.

The incident unfolded on Sept. 11, 2018 at Pressly Alternative school in Statesville after the boy — identified in court papers as L.G. — was taken by his teacher and two aides to a “quiet room” to calm down.

The officer, Michael Fattaleh, “purported to have seen L.G. spit on the floor, as [he] walked past the ‘quiet room'” then telling the three staffers, “he’s mine now,” alleges a lawsuit filed Friday in North Carolina federal court by the boy’s mother.

The 38-year-old then forced the child onto the floor, cuffed and taunted him for the next 38 minutes, according to the suit and a body camera footage obtained by a local reporter through a court order, the Charlotte Observer reported.

“How in the world would anyone think it was appropriate to handcuff, pin down and taunt a 7-year-old boy with autism? It is incomprehensible,” the mom’s lawyer Alex Heroy told The Post. “His mother thought she was doing the right thing by sending him to a school where he could get extra help and attention, all for the system to fail in the worst way possible.”

Fattaleh — who knew the boy had special needs — allegedly asked the child, “ever been charged before?” and told him “If you, my friend, are not acquainted with the juvenile justice system, you will be shortly,” the court documents say.

The officer also said at one point as he was kneeling on the boy’s back, “have you ever heard the term babysitter? I take that term literally, my friend,” the court papers allege.

During the encounter, the 4-foot-6, 80-pound child cried for Fattaleh to let him go, saying, “Ow! My knee! My knee! It really hurts!” the suit claims.

Finally, the boy was released by a different officer when his mom, identified in court papers as A.G., arrived at the school. Fattaleh told the mother her son would be charged “with one count of assault, maybe two,” the court documents claim.

The boy — who went to the hospital with scratches and bruises — was never suspended or disciplined by the school. He returned the next day but was sent home early after becoming “extremely anxious and agitated,” the complaint says.

The mother is now homeschooling the boy, the court papers say.

The suit names Fattaleh, Statesville and the Iredell-Statesville Board of Education as defendants for negligence and other claims arguing that a special education teacher, teaching assistant and other employees “stood idly by and failed and refused to intervene, despite training and knowledge of the immense harm being done to L.G.”

The mom is suing for unspecified damages.

Fattaleh was placed on leave before eventually resigning. He did not immediately return a message left with his ex-wife.

The city and the Board of Education did not immediately return requests for comment.

Note:  Join us in wishing Teresa Conrick well as she ends her time with Age of Autism.  When Dan and Mark launched AofA 13 years ago next month, Teresa became the go-to for Dan's research.  Her dedication to her daughter Meghan has always shone in every post she wrote for us. For you. We shared the bond of raising a daughter(s) with severe autism. At one time, we were fairly rare. No more. Autism has ravaged a generation and a half. Our daughters in are in their 20s. The Age of Autism rages on, even as our small rebel alliance is now, smaller. 

I think we all feel a shift in our community. Some of it is the boot on our necks of censorship. Some is the natural progression of organizations and careers, such as we might call them. Some of it is sheer exhaustion.  Voices and messages are changing.  But who will carry the torch for the autism community that we have fought to keep in heart and minds for so many years? This group of youngsters who are now adults careening toward that day we all fear - when we leave them behind?   We have much to consider about our future and the message we must continue to share. This IS the Age of Autism, after all.

Thank you, Teresa. 

###

Dear AoA Readers,

I have been on a long pause here on AoA and after much thinking and deliberation, I have decided to retire.  I started writing for AoA about twelve years ago, in fact here is my first post from February 21st, 2008: AND THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO…

“I am no wimp.  I have had my share of hard days but have learned to survive, to take it on the chin.  I am no fan of the lemons into lemonade propaganda, but instead investigate those damn lemons and find out if they could help or hurt. “

And that’s what I have done for the past twelve years and longer, investigating the medical ramifications of autism.  I feel now though, that I no longer am able to report on medical, autism research as the political landscape and Covid - 19 landscape have become a frenzy of impediments. I do wish good health to everyone and their children.  Much of the medical research I have been following is on hiatus due to Covid-19.  It is disappointing and I hope that will change as the months evolve.

I also want to share some current and past thoughts.  From the past that intertwines with the present, my favorite piece here on AoA and what inspired me in many ways.  From Dan Olmsted in 2007, a hero to me and many others: 

As many of you know, I wrote the Age of Autism column for United Press International for two years, and I became convinced by my own reporting that autism's origins are recent -- triggered by something new in the environment -- and that treatment can work. I located the very first case ever described in the medical literature, Donald T., and heard from his brother the remarkable story of Donald's recovery from severe autism when gold salts were used to treat his juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease. To state the obvious: The very first case of autism recovered with biomedical treatment, but the doctors ignored it because they were so busy blaming parents. Now they don't blame parents for causing autism, they just blame them for trying to do anything about it….The Age of Autism will be wide-open and transparent in its reporting and commentary on causes and treatments; I am beholden to no individual, organization or fixed point of view. My commitment is to in-depth reporting. ...We'll follow the truth wherever it leads, and we hope you'll come along with us and, if you can manage it, donate to The Age of Autism and help us pursue this story. Fasten your seat belts – it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Stat News reported this week that Johnson and Johnson has the latest CoVax contestant clinical trial participant to have a serious side effect problem. Isn't that man or woman lucky compared to our kids? No one thinks vaccines harmed our sons and daughters. No one listens to us. No one has stopped a single pediatric vaccine from distribution or further administration because of our children. Nope. In fact, data has been massaged half to death when there are adverse reactions. Simpsonwood. MMR whistleblower William Thompson.

So the CoVax test subjects are indeed fortunate to have the media report their plight. Because once the vaccines are approved? Chances are any talk of adverse reactions will disappear.

PS: We hope every trial participant comes through OK. 

###

Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine study paused due to unexplained illness in participant

Note: In an election year that is already inside out and upside down, Gallup reports that confidence and acceptance of a COVID vaccine is DOWN among Democrats and UP among Republicans.  Read more here at News.Gallup

...Democrats Rethinking the Coronavirus Vaccine

The decline in Americans' readiness to be vaccinated obscures divergent trends among party groups, with Republicans showing increased willingness to be vaccinated but Democrats and independents showing decreased comfort levels.

After two months of Democrats being more likely than Republicans to say they would be vaccinated, about half of all political party groups now say they would get the vaccine. This marks a new low among Democrats and independents, while Republicans' interest in getting the vaccine has returned to the levels recorded in July, up from their low point in late August.

• Those in U.S. willing to get an FDA-backed COVID-19 vaccine falls to 50%
• Willingness down among Democrats and independents, up among Republicans
• New high of 26% waiting for a vaccine before getting back to normal
  
  
  

Note: Excerpted from the Vaccine Impact blog.

The following is a transcript of the highlights (by Henna Maria) from Dr. Margarite Griesz-Brisson’s recent extremely pressing video message, that was translated on-air from German into English by Claudia Stauber. Video at the end of the transcript.

by Dr. Margarite Griesz-Brisson and Henna Maria
Global Research

Dr. Margarite Griesz-Brisson MD, PhD is a Consultant Neurologist and Neurophysiologist with a PhD in Pharmacology, with special interest in neurotoxicology, environmental medicine, neuroregeneration and neuroplasticity. This is what she has to say about masks and their effects on our brains.

“The rebreathing of our exhaled air will without a doubt create oxygen deficiency and a flooding of carbon dioxide. We know that the human brain is very sensitive to oxygen depravation. There are nerve cells for example in the hippocampus, that can’t be longer than 3 minutes without oxygen – they cannot survive. The acute warning symptoms are headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, issues in concentration, slowing down of the reaction time – reactions of the cognitive system.

However, when you have chronic oxygen depravation, all of those symptoms disappear, because you get used to it. But your efficiency will remain impaired and the undersupply of oxygen in your brain continues to progress.

We know that neurodegenerative diseases take years to decades to develop. If today you forget your phone number, the breakdown in your brain would have already started 20 or 30 years ago.

While you’re thinking, that you have gotten used to wearing your mask and rebreathing your own exhaled air, the degenerative processes in your brain are getting amplified as your oxygen deprivation continues.

The second problem is that the nerve cells in your brain are unable to divide themselves normally. So in case our governments will generously allow as to get rid of the masks and go back to breathing oxygen freely again in a few months, the lost nerve cells will no longer be regenerated. What is gone is gone.  READ MORE HERE.

Note:  Below is a letter sent to the New York Times by disability community voices in response to the "cancel culture" that those with more severe behaviors and challenges (and their families) face.  We have been excluded from mainstream disability conversations forever.  A prime example, and ironic, is that we were not contacted to participate in this letter, and yet, ignoring us has not helped them make any gains with The NYT. 

That being said, the overall message is applicable to the Age of Autism Community.  We are being left in the dust, "objects in mirror are closer than they appear" without services or even a willingness to acknowledge the severity of challenges. Even with some advocates trying to shut down housing options. And Lord knows the medical industry is wholly untrained for patients with autism related issues.  Personally, I'd like to thank John Robison, a friend of mine for many years now, for standing up for the rights of people like my three daughters.

There are times when you have to bail the boat together, and then choose which side to row on after you're afloat.

###

The following letter was sent to The New York Times on behalf of 75 organizations and leaders in the disability community in response to the paper’s editorial choices omitting serious issues facing those with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Dozens of Disability Leaders Decry Cancel Culture at the New York Times

The following letter was sent to The New York Times on behalf of 75 organizations and leaders in the disability community in response to the paper’s editorial choices omitting serious issues facing those with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Dear Editors:

July 26th marked the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). To honor this unquestionably historic legislation, The New York Times has published over two dozen articles over the past few weeks celebrating disability. But with the exception of a brief mention in an article on caregiving, those with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities were notably absent from the Times’ coverage.

People with disabilities who win Academy and Tony awards, lobby Congress, and shape a new variant of hip-hop music absolutely deserve to be honored, as the Times did in its supplement dedicated to the ADA. But that isn’t the whole story. The whole story would include those whose profound intellectual and developmental disabilities preclude the autonomous decision-making, independent living, and competitive, minimum-wage employment that are the cornerstones of the Disability Rights movement. And it would also acknowledge that, in their zest to eliminate the specialized supports that don’t comport with this vision, advocates are doing exactly what Justice Anthony Kennedy feared would happen, when he wrote in his concurring opinion to the Olmstead decision referenced by the Times as a landmark in disability history: “It would be unreasonable, it would be a tragic event, then, were the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to be interpreted so that States had some incentive…to drive those in need of medical care and treatment out of appropriate care and into settings with too little assistance and supervision.”   

Our community’s absence from your coverage was not for lack of trying. Several prominent voices submitted responses — either to individual pieces or to the Times’ request for contributions from the public. Not one of these was published. Some excerpts:

From John Elder Robison, autistic self-advocate and Neurodiversity scholar, the College of William and Mary; Neurodiversity Advisor, Landmark College: “In her essay [“Dear Parents: Your Child with Autism is Perfect”], Ms. Ryan writes: Your child might be verbal, nonverbal, aggressive, passive, introverted or extroverted. It doesn’t matter. It troubles me greatly to see those words published in The New York Times. I have represented the autism community before the federal government for 10 years. In that role I have talked to thousands of parents and even more autistic people. My experience has shown me how diverse the autism community is. It has also shown me something else: If your child is nonverbal, passive, or aggressive, it most certainly does matter.”  Read more Dozens of Disability Leaders Decry Cancel Culture at the New York Times

Karen Kain's daughter Lorrin was severely injured by a routine childhoo vaccination. She died at age 15. Her mother is a powerful force in the vaccine community. Or should we say, the growing vaccine safety community? Below, she speaks out about the COVID vaccine and the PREP act which removes product liability during a pandemic.

###

Author: Rebecca Lindstrom
Published: 7:58 PM EDT October 8, 2020
11 Alive

ATLANTA — To build confidence in a COVID-19 vaccine, manufacturers have taken the highly unusual step of sharing their testing methods and pledged to keep politics out of the process. But the federal government is accused of doing the opposite, eroding public trust at a time when it’s needed most.

At issue, is how the government will handle adverse reactions or injuries associated with the vaccine. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to use the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP).

It was created to cover damage caused by treatments for pandemics and security threats such as H1N1 and Ebola. In the past decade, 446 people filed claims, 39 were approved, but only 29 received compensation. That’s because HHS says the other 10 didn’t have any medical expenses to reimburse. In all, $5.7 million has been paid out to vaccine injured through the program.

CICP is considered a compensation program of last resort. It only pays the medical costs or lost wages that were not covered by any other program and it does not pay anything for pain and suffering.

“It is an administrative program controlled strictly by the secretary,” attorney Mike Milmoe explained.  Read more and see video at 11 Alive, Atlanta, Georgia.

By Cathy Jameson

A gal named Alex shared the photo on this post on her social media page yesterday. I wanted to high five her.

Each October to April, that flu shot is pushed on the public.  Some people can opt out of that notoriously ineffective vaccine.  Others are not so fortunate.  Depending on which hospital or facility they work, medical personnel and health care workers are required to get a flu shot.  Personal beliefs are dismissed, and exemptions aren’t offered.  If, and when, medical care workers refuse the vaccine, it could cost them their job.

Nurses have seen some victories while fighting the mask mandates.  But many must wear a mask while working.  That mandate holds true for other medical staff who work directly with a patient.  Masks must stay on until April, even for the physical therapy aide, too, who’s filing paperwork in an office away from patients. 

This year, with as many people already donning masks because of COVID-19, I’m curious if those who refuse the flu shot will run into any trouble in the workplace.  They shouldn’t.  Based on mask protocols they were forced into earlier this year, already having a mask on should be on their side. 

Knowing that personal rights are not the pharmaceutical industry’s top priority, I have a bad feeling that some workers will find themselves in an unpleasant situation despite wearing a mask.  They may still have to fight to keep their job.  It’s a shame because that notoriously ineffective vaccine  that gets hawked all over the place will no doubt be a dud again this year. 

Even if it is not a dud for 2020, college students are now on the flu shot hit list.  University of California Davis welcomed their incoming coeds with mandates.  Students and staff are feeling the heat to comply with the flu shot mandates.  Officials are justifying this community-wide effort by saying that the vaccine is a “safe and effective way to prevent millions of illnesses and thousands of related medical visits every year.”  Other states, like Massachusetts and New Jersey, are gearing up to require flu vaccines for all students and at daycare centers, too.  Why, when the CDC claimed in August that “Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus – particularly when used universally within a community setting.  All Americans have a responsibility to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.”  Granted, they were talking about COVID-19 in that statement, but did the CDC just contradict themselves?

Many years ago, we wrote about Kent State University Professor Trudy Steuernagle, who was beaten to death by her son, Sky Walker. She knew that one day, his severe autism would kill her.  She did not blame him. She left a letter behind saying as much.  Kent State professor Trudy Steuernagel's fierce protection of her autistic son, Sky Walker, costs her life: Sheltering Sky.

Last month, the autism community lost Feda Almaliti and her beloved son Mu in a fire. Mu did not beat his mother to death. He refused to leave their burning home. She chose to remain with him, even to their deaths. 

Autism, like so many other critical issues this abysmal election season, has been cast aside for COVID .  Already tough times for families are far worse with closures, lack of proper school, no day programming, services and care staff unavailable and above it all - a radical change in routine which is toxic for our loved ones. 

We parents whose children remain at home are really feeling the pinch of  COVID's social isolation. There are countless families facing violent behavior, 24/7 caregiver exhaustion, financial trauma. I feel fortunate to have day programming opened my older daughters. That said, I have at least one of my daughters home with me at all times.  This means every trip to a store requires bringing her with me.  I've cancelled appointments. There is no downtime until bedtime. That sound you hear at 9:15pm is probably me breathing a sigh of relief! And I'm lucky all three of my daughters sleep. Many families do not have the luxury. Work is pecked out while surrounded by noise, music, stimming, hands grabbing me to do this or that, demands.   I have been telling friends this is like going back to the toddler years - with a few precious hours of preschool (day program) a week and a little one always in tow. I'm not complaining (much) - many have a far tougher situation and we have a darn good routine here.  I'm proud of my daughters.

Trudy and Feda's trauma is seared into my heart and soul.   Below is a post from David Royko that rings true. A call to action. A call to KEEP GOING because autism should not be fatal - to any of us.

Juggling Autism Blog: Feda Almaliti and Mu, A Severe Autism Nightmare

Father to Ben and Jake; Husband to Karen; Psychologist (so you can call me doctor if you want to though I probably won’t realize you mean me); Director of Chicago court system’s divorce mediation services; Writer/Author — mainly autism, music, children of divorce, Mom and Dad (Carol and Mike Royko); Blogger (Juggling Autism; Huffington Post); Resident of Deerfield, Illinois, and Beachwood, Ohio; Former: Drummer, Circulation Truck Helper, Radio Host, Workshop Leader, Uber driver, WFMT Production Assistant; Group Therapist; Freight Train hopper.

“Autism was becoming a fatal condition for me.”

Karen said that a dozen years ago when Ben and we were the subjects of an episode of the radio show, This American Life. It was about Ben moving out of the house into a residential placement. And she wasn’t speaking figuratively.

Severe autism is a living hell for the afflicted and those who love them. Karen had suffered a dozen years of severe sleep deprivation. Dangerous incidents were becoming more frequent with her ability to control a hulking, six-foot 12 year old decreasing by the day.

Last week, it became a fatal condition for Feda Almaliti. She was a larger-than-life, 43 year old powerhouse in the autism world, with a son suffering from severe autism. A true “Warrior Mom,” her accomplishments included co-founding the National Council on Severe Autism, and helping to reform California’s insurance laws to cover autism. In the world of autism, her brains, her sense of humor, and her personality were making her a living legend. And autism ended her life, and that of her beloved son, Mu (Muhammed).

The news reports all blame the fire for their deaths. No. It was severe autism that killed them....

By Anne Dachel

Rabbi Hillel Handler from New York City is someone I first got to know in 2013 when he was speaking out against the forced vaccination of Orthodox Jewish children against measles.

Rabbi Handler had done his own research and he understood the dangers of an untested, unsafe, liability-free vaccine and how our basic liberties were being threatened.

Today in 2020 the government is again threatening our rights.

Early in October the New York Times  reported that NYC mayor, Bill DeBlasio was closing schools, restaurants and non-essential businesses in neighborhoods with large numbers of Jewish residents, all this because of reported increases in COVID positive testing. Several hundred Jewish yeshivas are affected by this.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

blames the Jewish residents for the increase in positive tests, saying, ‘We had the rules. It wasn’t enforced in these areas.’ Now the schools are being closed and religious services are limited to 10 people.

Rabbi Handler was interviewed about the new restrictions on October 6 in a video entitled, New York Rabbi Begs For President Trump To Help Jewish Community

“To kill a person spiritually is worse than to kill him physically.”

Rabbi Handler gave an ominous warning about the government’s mandates limiting religious services, closing schools and forcing people to wear masks.

“What is the purpose of the mask? The purpose of the mask is to get you to comply, to scare you.

“Herman Goering of the Third Reich was asked at the Nuremberg Trial, how did you get the German people to do this terrible, horrible Holocaust?

“He said, ‘It’s easy. You just scare them. You inflict terror.’

“The mask is a tool of terror. You look around you, everyone is wearing a mask. Oh God! Our lives are in danger. We have to do whatever the governor says, whatever the mayor says.

“Your mind is frozen, you can’t think straight.

“Who is this governor who cares about us?

by John Stone

A news story in the Sun newspaper suggests that coronavirus vaccines will be rolled out in the UK as early as next month: “VACCINE BOOST:NHS ready to roll out covid jab from next month with tens of thousands of people being vaccinated before Christmas”. While this runs against so many apparently informed reports that vaccines may not be available until way into next year it coincides with the consultation last month to suspend licensing regulations to allow roll out this year.The report states:

“The first mass vaccination centres are planned for sites in major cities including Leeds, Hull and London...They will be supported by hundreds of mobile vaccination units dotted nationwide, while roving teams will visit care homes and vulnerable Brits.”

This corroborates an earlier BBC report:

We are happy to share this great news from Andy Wakefield and his crew:


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It’s just hours before the VP debate. Autism has been absent from any election dialog as far as I know.  Will there be any mention? 

Below is an unofficial transcript of Reiner Fuellmich's Crimes Against Humanity speech. Please excuse any errors regarding the German. Thank you to JF in the UK for sharing this with our John Stone. 

###

Hello. I am Reiner Fuellmich and I have been admitted to the bar in Germany and in California for 26 years.

I have been practicing law primarily as a trial lawyer against fraudulent corporations such as Deutsche bank, formerly one of the world's largest and most respected banks, today one of the most toxic criminal organisations in the world; VW, one of the world's largest and most respected car manufacturers, today notorious for its giant diesel fraud; and Cunard and Niagara the world's largest shipping company. We're suing them in a multi-million-dollar bribery case.

I'm also one of four members of the German Corona Investigative Committee. Since July 10, 2020, this committee has been listening to a large number of international scientists and experts' testimony - to find answers to questions about the corona crisis which more and more people worldwide are asking.

All the above mentioned cases of corruption and fraud committed by the German corporations pale in comparison in view of the extent of the damage that the corona crisis has caused and continues to cause.

This corona crisis, according to all we know today, must be renamed a corona scandal; and those responsible for it must be criminally prosecuted and sued for civil damages.

On a political level, everything must be done to make sure that no one will ever again be in a position of such power as to be able to defraud humanity, or to attempt to manipulate us with their corrupt agendas. And, for this reason, I will now explain to you how and where an international network of lawyers will argue this biggest tort case ever - the corona fraud scandal - which has meanwhile unfolded into probably the greatest crime against humanity ever committed.

Crimes against humanity were first defined in connection with the Nuremberg trials after World War II, that is when they dealt with the main war criminals of the Third Reich. Crimes against humanity are today regulated in section 7 of the International Criminal Code.

I saw this meme on social media yesterday.   It made me think of "Molly Brown", socialite, philanthropist and Titanic survivor who is said to have tried to convince her lifeboat crew to go back to the debris to look for survivors. They refused. There was a play and movie made about her called "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" that fictionalized her life.  If we were aboard the Titanic, we would have every job on the ship from Captain to cook to bottle washer. To musician. To maid. To entertainment. To navigator. To star reader. To alarm blower. To water baler. To protector. Even to martyr in the frigid waters to protect others. But we're treated as cold as icebergs....

It's October, and that means Halloween and horror movies.  Rather appropriate for this annus horribilis known as 2020, that's for certain. The common thread of horror movies is when the stalked teens say, "I think he's gone." And then they leave the lake house or barn or glass walled contemporary California home and - THWACK! They're dead. Can't imagine why I had these thoughts after reading that the CoVax will not be available for children right away.

Why the sudden transparency on vaccine production? I think that COVID has made vaccine safety a legit topic among millions of Americans who hadn't given a thought to how a vaccine is produced, tested, approved and then monitored for safety. You know, people like most of US before vaccine injury.  Sunlight isn't just for Vitamin D.  Kim

Children will not likely see a coronavirus vaccine until late 2021: Experts

From ABCNews

While drug companies and governments around the world are in an all-out sprint to develop a coronavirus vaccine for adults, the race to identify one that is safe and effective for children lags far behind, meaning America's youngest may not be vaccinated until late next year, health experts told ABC News.

Despite recent evidence that children may play a larger role in the community spread of COVID-19, experts say the delay is appropriate, because a vaccine should be tested in adults first to ensure it's safe and effective before being tested in children.

“We wouldn't start injecting five-year-olds before we knew what this vaccine did in adults,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.

“We’re asking about why is Betty… she seems to be breathing really hard and rapid. They said ‘well it’s probably because she has a fever of 102.9,'” Wattenbarger explained.

Her father said no x-rays were taken and no other medical tests were done. He explained Betty was given some Motrin for her fever, and they were sent home.

The misdiagnosis ended up costing her, her life’: A Texas family’s warning for all parents

A 7 year old child name Betty died in 2019 in Texas, after an urgent care sent her home with Motrin.  She died from sepsis and pneumonia and she had the flu. We extend our condolences to her family, who surely misses Betty every single day.

Were Betty a typical child, would the doctors have sent the family to an ER immediately rather than home? The child was unable to describe her symptoms because of her autism.  The article is written as a flu season admonition to get a flu shot. But we see something different in Betty's death, not the lack of a flu vaccine, but a lack of doctor training and proper care for those with special needs.

This article comes as no surprise to most Age of Autism readers who have a loved one on the spectrum. Doctors have few tools to diagnose symptoms for those who can not communicate traditionally or reliably.  Many doctors also do not have the patience to sleuth or tease out what's really going on when our children are sick.  And they are quick to dismiss patients with behaviors.   Here are examples from my household.

1) None of my daughters ever had an in office pediatric vision or hearing test because they weren't compliant, or could not speak.  No pediatrician seemed to notice or bother.  None looked at their charts and said, "Gee, I see we haven't been able to check her vision or hearing, do you have any concerns, Mom?"

Below is a video from Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, attorney licensed in Germany and the state of California. He practices as a trial lawyer against fraudulent corporations. He is one of four members of the German Corona Investigative Committee.  In this video, he explains how the anti-Corona measures were implemented, and have destroyed companies and lives worldwide. Thank you to our Anne Dachel for the transcribed excerpts below the video.

"...an international network of lawyers will argue this biggest tort case ever, the corona fraud scandal, which has meanwhile unfolded into probably the greatest crime against humanity ever committed. ...

"...Do the so-called anti-corona measures such as the lockdown, mandatory facemasks, social distancing and quarantine regulations serve to protect the world population from corona, or do these measures serve only to make people panic so that they believe, without asking any questions, that their lives are in danger, so that in the end, the pharmaceutical and tech industries can generate huge profits from the sale of PCR tests, antigens and antibody tests and vaccines as well as the harvesting of our genetic fingerprints.

"...Is it true that the German government was massively lobbied, more so than any other country, by the chief protagonists of the so-called corona pandemic, ...because Germany is known as a particulary disciplined country and was therefore to become a role model for the rest of the world for its strict and of course successful adherence to the corona measures. ...

32:50 "...Oxford professor, Carl Heneghan, director for Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, writes that 'the COVID virus would never disappear if this test practice were to be continued, but would always falsely detected in much of what is tested.'

"Lockdowns...do not work. Sweden with its laissez-faire approach and Great Britain with its strict lockdown, for example, have completely comparable disease and mortality statistics. The same was found by U.S. scientists concerning the different U.S. states.

"It makes no difference to the incidence of disease whether a state implements a lockdown or not.

"With regard to the now infamous Imperial College of London's professor Neil Ferguson and his completely false computers models warning of millions of deaths, [Heneghan] says, 'No serious scientist gives any validity to Ferguson's model.' ..."

Note: Many of us here at Age of Autism are Roman Catholic. Anne's post below does not surprise me in the least. An elderly man who never married, never had children expresses sentiments that make our children out to be special gifts bestowed upon us to provide beauty to the world. Holland? Meet Shmolland. Of course our children are beautiful and precious to to us. That's rather the default position of parenthood. Yet, to the world in action? It seems our children do not really matter at all.  Families struggling before COVID are spiraling into some of the darkest times ever as schools and programs have disappeared. The Holy Father means well - surely. His message spreads kindness and some awareness. But it's just words. We need more.

By Anne Dachel

On July 8, 2013 I wrote the piece, The Pretty and the Ugly Sides of Autism, which graphically showed us how severely children could be affected by this disorder.  I included half a dozen videos that would challenge anyone who believes that autism is just another way of seeing the world. This was the reality of autism that is never presented in April when we have a month to celebrate autism by lighting up the world in blue.

For decades the medical community has taken credit for all the autism everywhere among our children, saying it’s the result of “better diagnosing” and “an expanded definition.”  The media has dutifully called for autism funding and services, and they’ve never batted an eye over the gigantic increases in the rate year after year.

Autism happens. It’s unfortunate if it’s your child. You just need to accept it. This is what we’ve all been taught.

On September 21^st this was also the message from the Pope. Speaking to an audience of families with autistic children, Pope Francis focused on the pretty side of autism, calling autistic children God’s flowers.  

The minute and a half long video  showed the Pope addressing affected children and their parents. One barefoot girl wandered around in front of the Pope and another child sat staring at the ceiling. It looked like there were lots more adults in the room listening attentively and only a handful of kids on the spectrum sitting by parents. The event was to recognize an autism center in Austria.

I’m sure the media was happy to cover the Papal audience, eager to have the leader of the Catholic Church join them in making autism a normal and acceptable part of childhood.

An AP story said that the Pope thinks autistic kids are beautiful, unique flowers to God, and they quoted him saying, ‘God created the world with a great variety of flowers of all different colors. Each flower has its unique beauty. And each one of us is beautiful in the eyes of God, who loves us.’

People Magazine  described autistic children as part of “marginalized communities within the Catholic Church.”

The Washington Post and other outlets gave the event the same glowing coverage.

 Of course the real elephant in that dignified, formal chamber was the fact that autism is the real, unsustainable global pandemic that no official will recognize.

Pope Francis hosted autistic children who were at least able to make it through his brief remarks. He advised his audience to just learn to live with autism; it’s how God made these children.

By Cathy Jameson

I popped onto Facebook late one Friday afternoon.  Having had a very busy morning, I just wanted to relax and read and catch up on what my friends were talking about for a few minutes.  I sat down next to Ronan, who was also taking a break and playing on the Wii, and scrolled through my news feed.  Since I had less than an hour before I had to jet out again, it would be a quick peek.  

I had just about had my "fix" and was about to log out when I told myself just a few more scrolls....a couple more status updates to read...and I'll be all done...  That’s when I saw a request.  It was a short post and one I couldn’t ignore.  My friend was looking for other moms for assistance.  She hadn’t shared much, but I knew right away it was no ordinary request. 

Our community added a new member.  

A young mom.  

Her child was recently vaccine injured.

Trying to do things on her own, she knew that it was time to ask others for help.  Could one of us moms help?  Please?

I could.  

Having been that new mom before, I immediately contacted my friend who posted the request.  Hey, I'm here.  What do you need?  What does the new mom need?  Is it resources?  A link?  The name of a doctor?  You name it, I'm ready to help.

As quickly as I contacted my friend, she connected me with the new mom.  

Hello, I'm Cathy, mom to a vaccine injured kiddo.  I've been at this a long time.  I'm sorry to have found you, but I'm happy to be here to help you.  Tell me what you need.  If I can't help personally, I'll do my best connect you with someone who can.  

By Kim Rossi

Yesterday, the President of the United States was admitted to Walter Reed Hospital suffering from COVID infection.

I always listen to all news sources.  I was raised as a Massachusetts Independent.  I have voted for Democrats and Republicans alike. In all offices.   I  have Sirius/XM and I can switch from CNN to MSNBC to Fox news in the tap of a finger right on my phone. I'm busy all day - like a bee in a hive. I do not have the luxury of sitting down and watching TV during the day. So I listen.

Most of the reports were factual as we learned that Marine One (made by Sikorsky, just miles from my CT home) was waiting on the White House Lawn to bring the President to Walter Reed Medical Center. Some reports descended into an area I'd call snark. And I know snark.  I've seen oodles of friends on social media giddy with schadenfreude. That's OK. To a point. In the USA, we are allowed to say we love or hate, like or dislike our leaders. That's an American right.

Then I heard something that caught my ear from onE of President Trump's media detractors.   I'm paraphrasing, but she said that now that COVID has hit home, both President Trump and the First Lady, maybe he would take it more seriously.

Isn't that funny, by our Age of Autism standards? How many years have we been shouting the call to action to stem the tide of the autism epidemic.  Every cry falling on deaf media ears. Deaf Presidential ears. Stone deaf ears.

I laughed out loud and thought, "Good luck, Charlie." 

Whatever happens, let's be kind to each other.

Trust us. We know from social isolation. We have PhDs in social isolation. Black belts in social isolation. Decades of social isolation. When COVID ends for the world, our loved ones with autism will still endure social isolation.  This is why we continue our mission.

Eye of the Beholder Episode The Twilight Zone

Imagine if you will...  your toddler wakes in the middle of the night shaking so badly that she cracks a tooth. Would you call that discomfort or call 911 for help?  Welcome to.... the CoVax Zone, where vaccine adverse reactions are pushed through like sawing off one's arm to escape a tight crevasse.  Vaccine safety is in the eye of the beholder.

###

CNBC: Coronavirus vaccine trial participants report day-long exhaustion, fever and headaches — but say it’s worth it

Luke Hutchison woke up in the middle of the night with chills and a fever after taking the Covid-19 booster shot in Moderna’s vaccine trial. Another coronavirus vaccine trial participant, testing Pfizer’s candidate, similarly woke up with chills, shaking so hard he cracked a tooth after taking the second dose.

High fever, body aches, bad headaches and exhaustion are just some of the symptoms five participants in two of the leading coronavirus vaccine trials say they felt after receiving the shots.

In interviews, all five participants — three in Moderna’s study and two in Pfizer’s late-stage trials — said they think the discomfort is worth it to protect themselves against the coronavirus. Four of them asked not to be identified, but CNBC reviewed documentation that verified their participation in the trials...  Read more here.Read more here.

Thank you and congratulations to AofA reader Michael Framson on his published editorial in the Medford, Oregon Mail Tribune newspaper. The verbiage is below.  Brave voices speaking out in even tones, without rancor, offering information and facts is what will help Americans who are starting to question vaccine safety really listen.

###

The Washington Post (WAPO) editorial in the Tribune claimed that confidence in vaccines has been eroded by a “vociferous anti-vaccination movement.” Not true! Dr. Heidi Larson, PhD, Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project says the biggest factor in vaccine hesitancy is vaccine safety.

She points out at the recent WHO Vaccine Safety Summit that “doctors and nurses are ‘very wobbly’ and ‘starting to question the safety of vaccines,’ and “it's a "huge problem." In fact, “doctors don't have confidence in vaccine safety to stand up to mothers asking questions.”

WAPO, it is the vaccine science or lack thereof that has eroded the public’s vaccine confidence. As Dr. Larson points out: “There is a lot of safety science needed; “they can't keep repurposing old science that isn't relevant” to the safety questions parents are asking.

Vaccination is an invasive medical procedure using imperfect products, inadequately studied manufactured by an industry notorious for its greed, fraud, deception, lies, and prolific marketing, whether they are pushing Vioxx or vaccines. The only difference between the two is that vaccine manufacturers cannot be held accountable for their injuries and deaths.

Post, stop drinking your Kool-Aid long enough to read the science. The vociferous have.

Michael Framson
Medford, OR

Knucklehead definition, a stupid, bumbling, inept person. Knuckleheads, however, are what fans of The Three Stooges and the merchandise store are called. NJ Governor Phil Murphy called those who violated the lock down orders knuckleheads. It's a funny word, coined by funny men almost 100 years ago (they created comedy from 1922 - 1970!)  And the word adds a bit of levity in an otherwise very heavy world.

Tesla, Space-X founder Elon Musk says no to a CoVax. And calls Bill Gates, "a knucklehead," which is a lot nicer than the exchanges at the election debate. Quaint even. Musk is the 4th richest man in American and quite a bit younger than 65 year old Bill Gates at 49 years old. Whom do you trust to help plan YOUR future? Business Insider took a look at the "feud” between the two tech giants:
Elon Musk called Bill Gates a 'knucklehead' for criticizing his coronavirus response. Here's where their simmering feud began and how it's escalated amid the pandemic.

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From The NY Post

Elon Musk says he won’t take coronavirus vaccine, calls Bill Gates a ‘knucklehead’

SpaceX founder Elon Musk stirred the pot yet again after claiming that neither he nor his family would take a COVID-19 vaccine even if it was readily available.

The 49-year-old billionaire dropped the bombshell during a Monday appearance on the New York Times opinion podcast “Sway.”

“I’m not at risk, neither are my kids,” Musk told host Kara Swisher about the rationale behind his decision.

During the bizarre exchange, the Tesla CEO decried the nationwide lockdown as a “no-win situation” that has “diminished my faith in humanity.” Musk previously called widespread quarantines “unethical” and “de facto house arrest,” RT reports...  Elon Musk says he won’t take coronavirus vaccine, calls Bill Gates a ‘knucklehead’

NOTE: That headline is as relevant today as it was in 2009, when Age of Autism's Mark Blaxill wrote a scathing report on the utter failure of the CDC to act during what we now know is a worldwide autism PANdemic.  An pandemic born from the malicious minds at the CDC from the top down to the scientists who worked on vaccine programs.  Several commenters recalled Mark's brilliant analysis in our comments yesterday, so here it is as a Best Of. 



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By Mark Blaxill - 2009

With the recent (this report was written in 2009) announcement of the "largest ever" study to investigate the causes of autism, run through Kaiser Permanente (the HMO that lost vaccine safety data implicating thimerosal in harming children) and led by Lisa Croen (the epidemiologist who first attempted to deny the autism epidemic with faulty data), sometimes you just want to shake your head and wonder, what on earth is going on down in Atlanta?

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was once a proud and prestigious agency, staffed by the most elite corps of disease fighters on the planet, manning the front lines of the most threatening health problems facing mankind. Today, riven by dissension and ridiculed by many, the CDC has made a mockery of itself in failing to get to the roots of the most critical public health challenges of the day, including, but not limited to, autism. The consequences of its failures are profound. Morale has deteriorated and Congress has been investigating the agency for months.

Reflecting their loss of trust in the CDC's objectivity, autism advocacy groups have actively lobbied to reduce (and even zero out) CDC funding in the Combating Autism Act. The CDC has dual responsibility for monitoring vaccine safety and promoting the vaccine schedule; at the same time it's also responsible for surveillance on diseases like autism. In light of widespread concern over the link between autism and vaccines in the autism parent community, when the CDC announces that it's launching a new effort to find the cause of autism, it's hard not to think of OJ Simpson offering a reward for finding his wife's killer.

It was not always so. Indeed, in the midst of the AIDS epidemic, it was the CDC that took the lead—often against the intransigence and conservatism of NIH researchers—in tracking down the causes of the AIDS epidemic and taking steps to reduce its toll on society. For many years, CDC was held up to the world as a model government agency. Yet in autism, we have truly seen the downward spiral of the agency reaching its nadir: defensive, secretive and non-responsive to a health crisis in full flower. There are undoubtedly larger forces affecting the agency and its leadership. But if (as I believe to be the case) there are turning points in the lives of large institutions, critical crossroads at which difficult choices are made, then the CDC's handling of the autism epidemic is certainly one such turning point. Poor choices at crucial moments can lead, not only to negative consequence on a specific issue, like autism, it can cause the institution to lose its way. In a way, autism has been both a strategic and a moral problem for the CDC. For it's in the autism epidemic, I would suggest, that the CDC has truly sold its soul.

At what point will animal activists catch on to the cruelty to animals in the production of vaccines, included the coveted Covid vaccine?  Monkeys. Blue Crabs. And Sharks, hunted and their their livers harvested. Meanwhile, shark fins for shark fin soup are protected. No spoons, just harpoons.

By Aisha Zahid, Sky news reporter

Monday 28 September 2020 01:21, UK

Coronavirus: Half a million sharks 'could be killed for vaccine', experts warn

Sharks produce squalene, a natural oil made in their livers, which is an ingredient in several COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

...Shark Allies, a California-based group, suggests that if the world's population received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine containing the liver oil, around 250,000 sharks would need to be slaughtered, depending on the amount of squalene used.

Below is an article written just a few months ago by Feda Almaliti. Feda died in a house fire over the weekend, with her 15 year old son Muhammed. I read on Facebook that she went back into the house to get her son, but he would not go down the stairs to exit.  The article she wrote talked about the impossible challenges of parenting a child, a teen or for some of an an adult (or 2 or 3) with autism. Talking about the hardship doesn't mean we don't love, respect and cherish our children. Our family members with autism. The only way to effect change, to increase funding, to create new programs, is to talk about the needs of the community. God rest Feda and Muhammed's souls.

Life with an autistic child can be difficult. During a pandemic it can be grueling

By Feda Almaliti, May 2020

Life with an autistic child can be difficult. During a pandemic it can be grueling

he coronavirus pandemic has disrupted daily life for most people around the world. It has completely upended it for people with autism and their families.

My son Muhammed — we call him Mu — is 15 years old and severely autistic. He has few words beyond “wanee” (for “I want to eat”), hums and paces incessantly, has the academic skill of a toddler, and is prone to breaking things (we eat off paper plates and have gone through more iPads than I can count).

Like everyone else, Mu has good days and bad ones. But even on his good days, daily life can be a challenge.

The emergence and spread of Covid-19 have further complicated life for Mu. We’ve been cooped up at home since Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a shelter in place order for all Californians six weeks ago.

That means Mu went from going to school every day to being stuck at home. While many of his classmates continue their schooling via Zoom calls, there’s no way to meet Mu’s educational needs that way: Kids with autism often need highly trained special education teachers and one-on-one attention.

Autistic children thrive on routines and strongly dislike uncertainty and restrictions. The changes wrought by the coronavirus pandemic are clearly affecting Mu’s behavior, and I can see him grow increasingly aggressive and stubborn.

His applied behavioral analysis, a form of therapy that works on skill-building and managing behaviors, has also been scuttled. Here’s an example of how this therapy helps: Although toothbrushing seems like a simple, intuitive process to most, there are actually more than 40 individual steps to get from start to finish. Many children with severe autism, including Mu, must learn and master each step before they acquire the skill.

Before the pandemic, we received in-home weekly help from a trained professional to monitor Mu’s progress. This has been halted indefinitely, and trying to do it via telehealth is a grossly inadequate substitute for Mu. I am certain that my son, and thousands of other autistic children across the country, will regress because of the changes wrought by Covid-19.

All of this is made even more complicated by the fact that Mu does not understand the reason for these changes...  Read more at StatNews.

By John Stone

Following the TV broadcast of two civil servants, Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty, a Conservative member of Parliament, Desmond Swayne, has called from the chamber of the House of Commons for them to be sacked for spreading fear. He particularly refers to the use of a graph showing the infection rate doubling exponentially every seven days. Swayne is appalled by the authoritarian route the Johnson government has taken. View the 1 min 42 second video.

It was also disturbing to watch them broadcasting from the Prime Minister’s residence as I noted in a letter to British Medical Journal Rapid Responses:

“Not least was it dismaying to see two civil servants - Patrick Vallance and Christopher Whitty - on Monday address the public from Downing Street as if they were the government. We have got used to No 10 briefings, and even the absence of the Prime Minister at such briefings when he became ill in the spring, but this time we had Civil Servants unmediated by elected government politicians. The sheer oddity of it rings alarm bells - we seem to be entering some parallel and perhaps menacing universe. Where is the country we once knew?”

Now the government politicians and their advisors take it in turns to hide behind one another. 

John Stone is UK Editor of Age of Autism

Source: National Council on Severe Autism

Below is a story that brings our mission into sharp focus. Autism advocate, friend, mother - Feda Almaliti and her 15 year old son Muhammed died in a house fire. Our biggest worry is for the well being and safety of our beloved children during our time together and after our death.  Feda went back into the burning house to save her son. She carried him for nine months. Carried him through autism for 15 years. But she could not carry him out of the house - and so she perished with her son in her arms.  She had just turned 43 years old.  Please take a moment to think of her bravery and selfless love for her son. Just look at that 1000 watt smile.

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From the National Council on Severe Autism:

Yesterday was a day that rocked the autism community. Feda Almaliti, one of the founders of the National Council on Severe Autism and who was recognized nationally for her outspoken and often brash and hilarious advocacy for individuals and families impacted by autism, perished in an accidental house fire with her beloved son Muhammed. Feda was able to run out of the house along with her sister and niece but then went back in to bring out Mu. She could not carry him but kept fighting till she lost her breath due to heavy smoke. When the fire officials found the bodies, Feda was holding Muhammed.

Our hearts are broken.

Feda had just turned 43 five days before the fire, and she was at a turning point, filled with a buoyant energy about her future. She talked of many plans — dating, going back to school, helping to chair new autism programs and conferences, and even writing (well, dictating, as she admitted) a book called, of course, #AutisticAF.

Thousands of people had seen Feda tell her family’s story on various stages, millions had heard her despair in an NPR interview, a rapidly growing audience was tuning into her new podcast, The Scoop, and many thousands in the Bay Area had benefited from the events she helped organize, including autism family pool parties (inspired by her own frustration of having nowhere to take Mu to swim), huge Autism Society San Francisco Bay Area conferences on adult autism, webinars, and parent support gatherings among them. With The Scoop and other efforts she was buzzing with excitement about opportunities to discuss with honesty and compassion the hardest issues facing autism families. She was irrepressible, lord help anyone who got in her way.  Read more here.

From local SF Bay area news:

A house fire early Saturday morning in the Sundale neighborhood of Fremont has claimed the lives of a nationally-respected autism support advocate and her teenage son.

Family members have confirmed the deaths of 43-year-old Feda Almaliti and her 15-year-old son, Muhammed, in a one-alarm fire in their home in the 39000 block of Serra Place in Fremont. Firefighters arrived at 1:45 a.m. to find the residence, in the 39000 block of Serra Place, fully engulfed in flames.

Four people were home at the time, according to Fremont fire officials. The other occupants were uninjured.

Almaliti was vice president of the National Council on Severe Autism. She was also a commissioner on the city of Fremont’s Human Relations Commission.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

https://sfbayca.com/2020/09/27/national-autism-support-advocate-15-year-old-son-die-in-fremont-house-fire/

By John Stone

British readers should write to their MP’s today to express their doubts about the Coronavirus Act first passed in March which has expedited the Conservative government in the exercise of arbitrary measures against citizens, while Parliament turned a blind eye.

Now a Conservative rebellion by in the region of 40 members threatens the act when it comes up for renewal on Wednesday - this could lead to the act not bei ng renewed or being modified if opposition MPs decide to vote against the act in its present form. Opposition parties should not sit by week after week, month after month allowing the government to make a mess of things, while rubbing their hands. It may have suited them till now but it simply does not look very responsible: if they do renew the act without conditions it will certainly look opportunist and highly unprincipled. Two excellent articles have appeared in the Mail on Sunday this weekend by Peter Hitchens and retired Supreme Court judge Jonathan Sumption. 

If the act is renewed unmodified there will, for instance, be no mechanism to rein the government in over Boris Johnson’s lunatic scheme to test 10 million citizens for the SARS-CoV-2 virus a day, using technology which has not yet been invented at the estimated cost of £100billion (about 130billion USD). A suppressed government report predicts there will have been 75,000 non-COVID deaths over the next 5 years as a result of the government strategy including 16,000 who have already died in the hospital chaos of the spring, and 26,000 expected to die in the first years through not seeking medical treatment. These matters need closest political scrutiny.

John Stone is UK Editor, Age of Autism

By Cathy Jameson

Someone asked me recently how Ronan was doing.  I shared that he’s doing well and that he’s happy.  I also shared that he’s stayed healthy this whole time but added that he’s lost some skills during the quarantine.  We’d stayed home for so long not going anywhere, so now he doesn’t like to go out.  If he can manage to get in the car, he later doesn’t want to get out of the car.  Nothing seems to entice him to want to go out, not even a lunch out after an errand or therapy. 

When places started to reopen, I tried to bring Ronan with me.  It was no place new we were going but to the usual stores.  He refused to go in.  While sharing that with the person who asked me how Ronan was doing, I was reminded of the story below.  That event happened years ago.  Things got better back then the more we practiced going out. 

I’d love to reteach Ronan how to be in public again, but he isn’t ready for that right now.  Once things go back to normal, we’ll make time to get Ronan in and out of stores.  We’ll take him out to restaurants again.  We’ll have him join us on the sidelines at sporting events, too.  For now, he’d rather be hunkered down here at home.  It’s where he feels safest.  It’s where he’s happiest.  Home.  It really is the best place to be. 

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"Sometimes you wonder if this fight is worthwhile..."

While that lyric comes from more of a romantic-y 80s song, think of that particular line in the form of a message from Ronan to me.  I heard it yesterday being blasted from someone else's car in the Walmart parking lot.  It played as Ronan was desperately sending a message:  he was communicating to me that he did NOT want to go into Walmart.   

It was supposed to be a fun shopping trip.  I didn't need to get anything, but we were going so Ronan could practice shopping.  We haven't had much luck shopping at Walmart lately.  He can go in and out of other stores with no problem, but I'm not sure why he struggles with Walmart.  I don't know if it's the bright lights, the high ceiling, the constant noise, or the many shoppers.  I wonder, too, his legs hurt or if he doesn't think he'll have the energy.  But it's become quite difficult for Ronan to even get out of the car let alone walk into the place successfully.  Whatever the struggle, we were face-to-face with it again yesterday.  

Every time I tried to unbuckle Ronan, he blocked my hands.

April 2020: “It’s over whenever you have a vaccine,” said Cuomo during an Albany press briefing. He has said such a step may take 12 to 18 months. “Anything we can do to work with the federal government to get the vaccine done faster, we are all in,” Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York

Gov. Cuomo: ‘I’m Not Going To Trust The Federal Government’s Opinion’ On Potential Approved COVID-19 Vaccine Governor Says New York State Health Officials Will Also Screen Any Federally Approved Vaccine

Riddle us this: Over the last year, before we had ever heard the word COVID, Governor Cuomo tightened medical exemptions and removed the religious exemption in the State of New York, in the ultimate show of vaccine trust. Removing exemptions implies that the politicians believe that every vaccine is safe and effective for every citizen. Every child. Yours. Mine. Even their own kids.  Advocates fought hard for many months to stop exemption removal laws from coast to coast. Thousands of children in New York had been expelled from school for vaccine non-compliance. Today, every parent knows what it's like to have your child home instead of in school.

This weekend, Governor Cuomo, who had at one time offered up his state to test the COVID vaccine, is now saying that he does not trust the Federal government as it generates COVID vaccines.  He wants to test it for himself in New York. But just months ago he said:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday offered up New York as a “laboratory” for testing of possible coronavirus vaccines, as another 752 residents succumbed to the bug. “It’s over whenever you have a vaccine,” said Cuomo during an Albany press briefing. He has said such a step may take 12 to 18 months. “Anything we can do to work with the federal government to get the vaccine done faster, we are all in,” the governor continued. “We want to use New York as a laboratory. We are ready, willing, in any way.” Cuomo said the state Health Department stands ready to work with the federal Food and Drug Administration — and that New Yorkers would make perfect test subjects.  Source: New York Post April 2020

WELCOME TO THE ANTI-VAXXER CLUB GOVERNOR CUOMO!

He hasn't even experienced the personal vaccine injury losses so many of us have - and he doesn't trust the science safety system. We don't trust the safety science on the pediatric schedule.  From hard experience and knowledge of the science. So let's use this opportunity to hammer home education.  Maybe COVID has a purpose after all?

I think we should go back to February when the virus was born (hee hee ho ho ha ha) and rename it "Sneaky Pete the Pharma Treat."   Maybe pharma cried out "Houston, we have a problem," and Houston researchers responded with a repair?  Neither soap nor mask nor water nor shield will stop COVID from its appointed rounds. Only a vaccine can save us!

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Mutated coronavirus 'may now be more contagious and able to get around masks'

Researchers in Houston, US, who have been studying coronavirus since March have warned that a new more dominant strain D614G could be adapting to get around barriers.

The coronavirus may have mutated and could be more contagious and able to get around barriers such as masks and hand-washing, a study has claimed.

Experts have warned that a new dominant strain of Covid-19 could be adapting to circumvent barriers such as masks and hand-washing.

Since March experts based in Houston, US, have been sequencing the genomes of coronavirus and have logged 5,085 sequences, the Washington Post reports.

BBC's look at autism....pretty scary 

By Anne Dachel

Sept 6, 2020, BBC: Special educational needs families and the fight for education

Sofia is one of more than one million young people in the UK with special educational needs and disabilities, or SEND.She’s among one fifth of young people with SEND who have the most complex needs.

During lockdown, while schools closed to the majority of children, the government said that the most vulnerable, including those with complex special educational needs could still attend.Families speaking to Panorama say they've found accessing support difficult and that it was an example of the long-term struggles they have faced getting educational support for their children during lockdown.

Of course the BBC completely misses the BIG PICTURE HERE: They are showing us the ugly side of autism, namely out-of-control children with severe behavior issues. 

This is autism.

We see several autistic children who have meltdowns and the parents who have to deal with this daily.  A girl is described as "nonverbal," --another word in the modern lexicon that we're all getting used to like "on the spectrum," and "high functioning."

The BBC's message is that these kids have not been served during the lockdown over COVID. If government had only done their job and provided something for these children, all problems would disappear. 

Wait a minute. What are these same kids like in school?  Why is it that back in 2015 the big news out of Britain was the announcement that the government would be opening 27 new special needs schools in England.

These schools would serve 2,000 students. Of the 27 schools, 22 would be specifically for children with autism.

Virtual learning isn't just for the kids!  October 1 - 21. 2020

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

The National TACA Autism Conference - Virtual will include educational presentations on research, treatment options, therapies and more, accessible to you via video lecture portal. Presentations cover all aspects and levels of the autism journey including topics of diet and nutrition, therapies, beginner and advanced medical treatments, IEP, navigating adulthood, and much more.
What can you expect at this Virtual Conference

Over the many years that we have been ringing the autism alarm at Age of Autism, the most painful realization has been how little anyone in the public eye, government, media, medical field and often worse, friends and family seems to care. “Tsk tsk. A shame. So what’s for supper?”  When your loved one is hurt, or killed, it's more than a shame. It's not acceptable loss. It's a trauma.

I couldn’t help but connect  our experience as parents of vaccine injured children to the media reports that President Trump does not seem to care.

The US president says: 'Well, I think it’s a shame' when asked by a White House reporter about the 200,000 coronavirus deaths in the US – a fifth of the global total and the highest of any country worldwide. He claims the US could have had 2.5 million deaths 'if we didn't do it properly'. Source The Guardian

The reports are all similar, that the President is showing a callous disregard toward some 200,000 Americans dead. Callous disregard - sounds familiar doesn't it? The reports cry out that 200,000 is too high. It could have been prevented. Perhaps. And if your loved one has died, 1 is too high.

No matter your thoughts on the COVID  lockdown or the number of deaths reported (too high or too low) aren't you intrigued and enraged at how the world has changed so fast for a viral pandemic while ignoring the autism epidemic that has ravaged far more than 200,000?  This doesn't mean we write off the deaths, when we know all too well that when tragedy hits home, the statistics cease to matter. 

We’ve been living the Covid existence some of us for in the autism world for 20 or more years.  Social distance? We call it "No friends, and family won't tolerate us at Thanksgiving." Virtual learning? We call it 20 years of PBS kids, Nick Jr and YouTube.  Can't leave the house without hand sanitizer and a mask? We pack diaper wipes and toddler toys that haven't been made for 15 years.

I’d like some outrage for autism.  I suppose it's why Age of Autism still exists. We can't stop telling the world about the epidemic. To do so would be a shame.

We can't help but wonder if the members of the National Medical Association, a group formed in 1895 by and for Doctors of Color,  are aware of William Thompson's information regarding the CDC and their willful altering of data to mask  the autism rate among African American toddlers based on age at which MMR was administered?  Perhaps this is a good time to reach out to them.

In June, we posted an article about Melinda Gates' announcement that African Americans should be among the first to receive the Covid vaccine, and traced her Southern, white experience in a high school that retained "slave day" as a jovial fundraiser 100 years after slavery was abolished.   Read The One In Which Melinda Gates Bestows COVID Vaccines

"The slave trade became legal for one last time ... as the Senior class members sold themselves along with thirteen brave and courageous teachers," the caption read in the yearbook, titled Acres. Two white students who darkened their skin appear in photos on the page." NBC Dallas on Melinda Gates High School Yearbook from 1979. She was a Freshman that year.

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Not trusting the FDA, Black doctors’ group creates panel to vet Covid-19 vaccines

From StatNews

As trust in federal health agencies has withered over the last few months, a group of Black physicians has been working on an antidote: creating their own expert task force to independently vet regulators’ decisions about Covid-19 drugs and vaccines as well as government recommendations for curbing the pandemic.

Organized by the National Medical Association — founded in 1895 as an answer to racist professional societies excluding Black doctors — the committee is meant to safeguard against any unscientific guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

“It’s necessary to provide a trusted messenger of vetted information to the African American community,” said Leon McDougle, a family physician and president of the NMA. “There is a concern that some of the recent decisions by the Food and Drug Administration have been unduly influenced by politicians.”

Just one of the examples he gave was the agency’s go-ahead to use hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19 even though there was no reliable evidence that it worked, and some indication that it could cause heart damage. The FDA later back-tracked and revoked the authorization.

McDougle frames the new task force as a way to address the suspicion that has sprouted up around Covid-19 vaccines. Some worry that, in being developed at “warp speed,” the shots might not be safe or properly tested before they’re approved, and the anxiety is only heightened for those who’ve been alienated by the medical system. That’s part of the reason that certain patients of color are especially wary of taking part in the clinical trials — and those concerns may well persist even if adequate studies are done and a vaccine hits the market.

“I think this will help to increase uptake in the African American community, if members of our task force give it the green light,” McDougle said. But he emphasized that their stamp of approval would come only if data show that the vaccine is, in fact, effective and safe.  Read more: Not trusting the FDA, Black doctors’ group creates panel to vet Covid-19 vaccines