IACC Part 2: The Somali Autism Clusters and More
By Katie Wright
The afternoon started with Dr. Gerald Fischbach, the scientific director of the Simons Institute. Gerry approached Wendy Fournier after our community meeting with Dr. Francis Collins in order to learn more about biomedical treatments. He was very friendly and genuinely interested in biomedical interventions. Maybe this is a sign of change? One wishes that given its tremendous resources that Simons would have a more diverse investment portfolio. They lead the nation as a private nonprofit in brain and genetic ASD research but conduct almost no biomedical treatment or environmental research.
Dr. Steven Scherer of the International Genome Project spoke about “Translating Genetic Discoveries into Diagnostics.” As I stated earlier translating needs to begin at home by working with the community of families. My husband and I had to travel to 4 states to get a diagnosis for my son’s co-morbid medical problems. How can this diagnosis discussion take place without representation from national ASD advocacy groups? Don’t the researchers need to know what kind of diagnostics our kids need, barriers currently in place, problems with hospital care and testing issues? Wouldn’t it be helpful to hear from a diverse body of parents, many of them doctors themselves and parents of medically affected ASD kids? Dr. Scherer said stakeholders were in attendance but no one I know from national advocacy, research and service orgs like NAA, SafeMinds, Generation Rescue or TACA who was invited. These groups are on the front line, helping families and kids with diagnoses, medical issues, physician referrals, interpreting laboratory results and providing cash grants everyday.
I heard a lot of talk about CNVs and the value of generating information for genome research and the importance of generating research for laboratories but almost nothing about diagnostics other than early identification. Yes there was some discussion about a possible genetic test for GI disease but we already have SO many incredible GI research proposals just dying on the vine! I am dying to see more of Dr. Arthur Krigsman’s GI research on clinical interventions. I would love to see an investment in Julie Matthews pioneering work in essential nutrition for the ASD gut. Over 1 million ASD people are suffering from GI disease. They don’t need a genetic test to confirm what they already know, they need to see research dollars invested in biomedical interventions, today.
I just do not understand David Armstrong. But then again I don’t understand much about the National Institutes of Environmental Health and their attitude towards autism and autism research.
In the group discussion Lyn Redwood brought up the need to more energetically investigate the Somali autism cluster in Minneapolis. Lyn asked the Dr. Coleen Boyle, the CDC representative why more isn’t being done to figure out what is going on?
Dr. Boyle responded by stating, “number of action steps are being taken.” They are examining “cultural sensitivity issues (which if anything would point to ASD being vastly undercounted in the Somali community)”, they are “updating our data…taking more steps to see more data”... the MN’s Dept of Health is also taking a number of action steps, “looking at the context of data…so I wouldn’t say nothing is being done.” Well other than “action steps” what exactly IS being done to isolate the environmental factors clearly causing this explosion of autism? Sounds like a whole lot of nothing.
Worse there was some Somali blaming. Don’t you love it when scientists go right to the “autism is caused by inbreeding” argument? My husband and I were asked if we were related, I kid you not, like 5 times. It is as if certain researchers cannot wait to get to the autism = mutant parents hypothesis. How many of us are really married to our cousins? Nevermind, I don’t want to give anyone ideas! Some might actually try to spend a million dollars studying this nonissue. Don’t these Somali families deserve a lot better than this? They come to this country for a better life, a chance for a decent life for their families only to see 1 in 50 of their children develop autism. The ASD Somali kids are also disproportionately affected with severe autism. My husband and I enjoyed nice standard of living pre autism but severe autism wiped us out. How on earth do families new to this country, struggling to survive, manage? Why isn’t the CDC or the NIEHS doing more to work with the Somalis and figure out what is going on?
American Somalis in Minneapolis have been pleading for help and for a substantive federal investigation into the causes of this autism cluster. All they have received in response are condescending lectures by the MN Dept of Health and reassurances that over-vaccination cannot be the cause. Remember Somalis are routinely vaccinated in overseas refugee camps and often re-vaccinated here for the same diseases. Minnesota has a generous public health system and encourages Somalis to get re vaccinated if they have no records of previous vaccinations (refugees are rarely in possession of all their medical records). The situation is a nightmare. Somali Moms and Dads have talked about seeing their typically developing sons get multiple vaccines (for diseases they have already been vaccinated against), develop fevers, become ill and regress into autism. No one at the CDC or the NIEHS is doing anything but counting the number of affected children- and guess what they have determined- way too many Somali kids have autism. OK we already knew that, now what?
Tom Insel turned to Dr. David Armstrong, the representative of the Natl. Institute of ENVIONMNENTAL Health and asked him what the NIEHS was doing to investigate the environmental causes of the Somali cluster. Let me emphasize that I did not ask that question, Lyn did not ask that question, Tom Insel did. It wasn’t a set up. I am sure Dr. Insel asked Armstrong about what the NIEHS was doing to investigate the Somali cluster because he naturally assumed the NIEHS would be involved. You will not believe what Armstrong’s response was. Nothing. They are doing nothing. Even Insel was incredulous and pushed Armstrong further asking “really?” Armstrong replied that Dr. Linda Birnbaum “was thinking about it” but apparently decided to do nothing.…not even some busywork “action steps” – zero. I am sure Armstrong felt the consternation in the room before he said that he “would make a note to ask Linda” if she still intended to do nothing. Great plan. I feel so reassured.
So many researchers are beyond themselves with excitement about studying the 2% of ASD kids with Fragile X, but everyone is ignoring a huge cluster of American made autism right under our noses. Why is that? Why are they afraid?
Lyn Redwood asked (as I am sure everyone listening wanted to ask) why federal representatives have not risen to the job. Why are they failing/refusing to investigate the environmental causes behind this cluster? Any person with common sense would just flat out admit they screwed up, they have not responded the way they should and their agencies will rectify the situation asap. How can you justify doing nothing at the NIEHS? You can’t and if you try you look like a fool.
But wait things got worse. David Armstrong, remember he is there to advocate for environmental science announces that sometimes there is just too much going on and things get complicated and that you have to wait for more information. Then Armstrong expounds on how excited he was by the speed of recent genome findings. What? Is Armstrong saying he believes in waiting until more genetic research is done before investigating the Somali cluster or that investigating the cause of the cluster is just too darn hard so why try? Your guess is as good as mine. This is Dr. Cindy Lawler, Dr. Birnbaum and the entire NIEHS’ attitude towards autism research in a nutshell. Do nothing or as close to nothing as possible, complain how complicated everything is and do NOT, no matter what, get involved with stakeholders.
Dr. Dawson of Autism Speaks advocated that the CDC actually go talk to Somali ASD community in Minneapolis. This is such a unique opportunity to ascertain to ascertain causation issues! Lyn Redwood asked why the bar set so low for environmental research when it comes to autism. If the CDC can land helicopters in shopping market parking lots to immediately investigate an EColi outbreak why do they turn into “team give up (my words)” when it comes to autism?
Once again smart thing to say is you are right, we will do better. But no, David Armstrong got defensive. Armstrong replied that the CDC and the NIEHS know what causes E Coli and that they could get to the bottom of things quickly (therefore they try hard?). Autism has many causes so why bother to go to Minneapolis and study the cluster at all?
Last year the CDC spent $400 MILLION to screen and test for STDS (for diseases people might or might not have). Last year the CDC spent $75 MILLION on smoking cessation programs. As worthy as these endeavors are they are all treating preventable health problems- unlike autism. Under the category of insanely wasteful spending the CDC spent almost $3 BILLION dollars on the non-existent avian flu crisis. Only if one sleeps in a bed smothered in bird fowl is this a problem.
Don’t even get me started on waste at the NIEHS, but OK if you insist. Senator Grassley (my hero) has lead a number of investigations into corruption within the NIEHS. In 2005 it was discovered that NIEHS director Dr. Schwartz used limousines to run personal errands and acted as a paid consultant for asbestos companies, earning $150,000 while heading the NIEHS. Dr. Schwatz also spent $2,000 of our money in order to frame his high school diploma. Nice. So apparently The NIEHS can make time and find the money for all sorts of strange little projects, they just have no interest in investigating the largest autism cluster in the nation? Studying autism is just too hard?
I live in New York City. I really don’t spend any time worrying about terrorism but it is a fact that we just don’t know when, if or how we could experience another terrorist attack. Nevertheless the CDC immediately invested tens of BILLIONS in special gear and readiness plans IN CASE something does happen. I am sure that is a fine idea but guess what? Something is happening right now in this country, an autism epidemic and the CDC is doing nothing except counting the number of lives autism have been ruined. Armstrong of the NIEHS complains that this work is “so hard.” Are you nuts, I wanted to ask? The autism epidemic is hard for people with autism- not you. The CDC and the NIEHS are not the victims here. They need to stop feeling sorry for themselves and start doing their job, do it well and actively investigate the environmental causes of this cluster- including over-vaccination.
I have been hounding Autism Speaks for 2 years to get to Minneapolis and talk with ASD parents in the Somali community and dig in to the over-vaccination issue. To my knowledge that has not happened. Instead AS has been working with the CDC (frankly that frightens me). AS doesn’t need useless bureaucratic partnerships they need experienced environmental scientists working with the Somali community.
Ari Ne-Man asked some good questions about how to provide Somalis with better services and what is being done to assess the needs of these children now. Tom Insel urged the committee to make addressing the causes of this cluster a priority and asked for a specific plan. I really wish the other public members had spoken out in support of getting to the bottom of Somali autism cluster crisis. That is their role as public members, to support the public interest, especially when the federal memberships are not doing their jobs. That is why they are there. That is why so many of us fought so hard in order for community representation seats.
I would love to hear any feedback from Somali ASD affected families in Minneapolis. What do you think is about what is happening and what kind of help and research would you like to see get done?
$2000 to frame his high school diploma? Wow. Just wow - what was the frame made of, solid gold? Or, more apropos to the “autism-like epidemic”, it was probably made of solid aluminum. Or mercury. Or un-obtainium. And why his *high school* diploma, and not his medical school one?
Another blog put it well, “The truth is that NIEHS, one of the best and proudest of the NIH institutes and the only one that has public health as an integral part of its mission, is a mess.”
Counting autism? The CDC doesn’t seem to be good at that either - counting 8 year olds born in *1996*. 2009 minus 8 is 2001. The CDC can’t do simple math now? Must be the mercury in their hats..
As for in vivo Luminometric assay of methylation - the polar bear study was on extracted tissue samples, and used a method that destroyed the DNA to tag the methylated sites. But we now have infrared florescent protein has now been produced (“Using Infrared to Watch What Goes On in a Living Body”, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fluorescent-tagging-living-body-tsien; “Real Time In Vivo Non-invasive Optical Imaging Using Near-infrared Fluorescent Quantum Dots” http://www.ualg.pt/dmdocuments/biomedicas/project_23.pdf). This could theoretically be used to probe things if you could figure out a way to do it without destroying cells.
I wondered about this myself the other day as a way to *prove* that idling neurons actually exist in TBI victim’s brains (proving that evidence that there actually *was* tissue that could be recovered by HBOT without relying on blood flow imaging). And then go on from there - labeling and imaging generation of stem cells, migration of those cells, direct imaging of angioneogenesis, whether HBOT causes changes in glial scarring, etc.
Posted by: Jim Witte | November 25, 2010 at 01:14 PM
It makes me sick to think that these Somali immigrants arrive in this country already vaccinated and then get vaccinated again for the same diseases. If they can't produce records, they could at least get titer tests to check immunity. What is WRONG with these people (the health authorities)?!!
Posted by: Karen S. | November 23, 2010 at 04:52 PM
Can you say "cluster busters," boys and girls?
Here they are in action. Or inaction. Again.
Read a look at the whole article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kettleman-defects-20101123,0,504828.story
State health investigators have ruled out a toxic waste dump as the cause of severe birth defects including heart problems and facial deformities in the impoverished Central California farming community of Kettleman City, according to a draft report released Monday.
Beyond narrowing their list of potential causes, state Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Public Health investigators were still unsure why 11 babies were born with physical deformities in Kettleman City between September 2007 and March 2010. Three of the babies died.
Tests of water, air and soil; analysis of pesticides; and interviews with six of the affected families did not suggest a common cause for the health problems.
"I always expected a whitewash," added Bradley Angel, toxic waste coordinator for the environmental organization called Greenaction. "State investigators didn't test blood or tissue samples or even look for pesticides inside peoples' homes."
Posted by: Nonnymouse | November 22, 2010 at 11:35 PM
This is so disgusting and I can't say what I feel, so I'm going to read Kim's book instead.
Posted by: michael framson | November 22, 2010 at 11:03 PM
Bravo, Dr Schacter! Well-stated.
“WE NEED TO STOP MANDATED VACCINES!!! Anyone who wants one should be allowed to get it.” – Michael B Schachter MD, CNS
Eventually, those who choose vaccination will realize that vaccine-induced susceptibility to diseases is a very real concern, for which there is growing body of evidence. Over time, the number of citizens who choose vaccination will decline, once they see the value of strengthening their God-given natural immunity, but we must all have the freedom to make personal medical choices. A medical freedom agenda is a unifying strategy. This strategy has the advantage of bringing VAXERs and ANTI-VAXERs together. This is a good thing. Both sides should have the right to make personal medical choices. This right should be expressly protected in law.
Posted by: patrons99 | November 22, 2010 at 10:47 PM
Every time I read a post like this, I get sick to my stomach. The entire situation seems so obvious to me. The Somali children are developing autism at this incredible rate because of the intensive vaccine schedule. Any rational person looking at the known facts would come to this conclusion.
But, when you have a governmental agencies (CDC National Institute of Environmental Health) evaluating the effects of vaccines while promoting it at the same time, you are bound to have the nonsense that we learn about in this post. The CDC is heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical companies making the vaccines. Conventional medicine which pushes the vaccines is heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical companies, which largely support their organizations. The medica, which runs innumerable advertisements for drugs will not report anything bad about vaccines. Most politicians, beholden to pharmaceutical dollars will not touch this issue with a 10 foot pole.
Only the children, the parents, a handful of true scientists and clinicians and others directly affected by autism want to find out the truth about autism. The pro-vaccination forces are so strong that I doubt that anything short of minirevolution will result in any changes that will truly influence the incidence of autism.
WE MUST STOP MANDATED VACCINES!!! Parents throughout the country and the world need to be given the choice as to whether or not to vaccinate and what vaccinations to give. If such a program is instituted and if parents could be educated by organizations like Age of Autism, vaccination programs would be drastically reduced and so would be the incidence of autism. How can we bring this about? I don't know. Perhaps some of the new elected officials who seem to be more idealistic and interested in maximizing freedom for the individual can be persuaded to become educated about autism and vaccines. Resistance from the establishment is now and will continue to be in the future extraordinarily strong. Not an easy project!!!
Michael B Schachter MD, CNS
Posted by: Michael B Schachter MD, CNS | November 22, 2010 at 08:56 PM
Quite honestly...Call me crazy, but this is a mute subject! The Simpsonwood Meeting already showed what the 'cause' of autism was, why would they look for something when they already know what is causing it? It's like O.J. Simpson...he stated he was going to find the REAL killer(s) of his ex-wife....how's that going? NO DIFFERENCE!!
Posted by: Mr. T | November 22, 2010 at 08:51 PM
Hard? It's really really hard to find the truth when you're not looking for it. Shut your eyes and repeat after me.... asked and answered, asked and answered, asked and answered.
Whenever you don't want to know the answer to a question, you just don't ask it. "They" are very good at not WANTING to know that vaccines are dangerous.
Posted by: Cynthia Cournoyer | November 22, 2010 at 07:54 PM
Why don't we study the DNA methylation levels of the Somali cohort? Obviously, there are logistical and technical issues to worked out. But, in principle, why couldn't it be done?
"This is the first study to investigate environmental exposure to POPs and DNA methylation levels in a human population. Global methylation levels were inversely associated with blood plasma levels for several POPs and merit further investigation."
"Global DNA Hypomethylation Is Associated with High Serum-Persistent Organic Pollutants in Greenlandic Inuit"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2592276/
Posted by: patrons99 | November 22, 2010 at 06:48 PM
Taximom - "it's all the same: it's vaccine toxicity, with the body crippled by vitamin D deficiency and unable to excrete the heavy metals."
Can the Luminometric Methylation Assay be used to compare DNA hypomethylation in the brains of completely unvaccinated and fully vaccinated humans, in vivo, e.g. the Somali cohort? Maybe there is a specific electromagnetic frequency that could be detected or induced safely and noninvasively on living humans?
“Mercury-associated DNA hypomethylation in polar bear brains via the Luminometric Methylation Assay: a sensitive method to study epigenetics in wildlife”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20002585
Posted by: patrons99 | November 22, 2010 at 06:37 PM
Nov. 15, 2008, a conference was held in Minneapolis on the Somali-autism issue. (Please notice that I didn’t call it a CRISIS, because to health officials, autism is never a crisis.) Attendees included state and local school and health officials. You can read about that day in my story, “On Autism, Somalis Feel the Chill in Minnesota.” http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/11/on-autism-somal.html.
This photo shows some of us who were there, including David Kirby who flew in from New York: http://www.rescuepost.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/11/17/hodan_david_anne_patti.jpg
David also wrote about the Somalis in “Somali Gloves Come Off: Autism in Minnesota.” http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/11/somali-gloves-c.html
The lies spoken by officials that day were pretty much what we’re still hearing: Autism is nothing new. Better diagnosing is finding children with autism who’ve always been around. And all the science says vaccines don’t cause autism.
In front of me was a row of Somali gentlemen in suits silently listening to all the speeches with stoic expressions on their faces. These people were hardly reassured by the dismissive treatment given them by the government of MN. They were seeing their children destroyed by autism and no one cared. No one had any answers and no one was sounding an alarm. It may have been interpreted as a lack of concern for a group of poor, African immigrants, but the truth is, it was no different from the way white Americans have been universally treated by health officials for years. This is how I ended my story:
“...In my opinion, the best speaker of the day was in the last panel. Abdulkadir Khalif, father of a three and a half year old year old son with autism, addressed the vaccine controversy. He stated that if autism's always been around, ‘it's not what I see in my child.’ He told us about his belief that components of vaccines are the trigger for autism. He received resounding applause when he announced to the crowd that the cause and the cure for autism would be found. (This was something that wasn't said by MDH officials that day. Instead, we were simply told by them that autism is a lifelong disability with no known cause or cure.)”
And I believe him. The truth will come about the cause of autism—no matter how hard officials try to cover it up.
Anne Dachel, Media
Posted by: Anne McElroy Dachel | November 22, 2010 at 05:51 PM
Somalis in Minnesota, Somalis in Maine, Somalis in Sweden--it's all the same: it's vaccine toxicity, with the body crippled by vitamin D deficiency and unable to excrete the heavy metals.
Posted by: Taximom | November 22, 2010 at 05:24 PM
I live in Minnesota, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the U.S. -- if not THE highest. The state is a tightly networked home to:
- pharma-funded Immunization Action Coalition (run by a former Department of Health head)
- vaccine developers at the Mayo Clinic,
- CIDRAP at the University of Minnesota;
- vaccine surveillance through HMO's;
- the MDH head who is on the ACIP committee.
The Minnesota Department of Health's response to the Somali autism epidemic has been to fraternize with the anesthetized or biased local media, and maternalize the issue by using women employees in media appearances and throwing human services at the affected families. All that while tsk-tsking behind their backs about what ingrates the immigrants are for complaining about adverse reactions to vaccines.
Minnesota residents' lack of winter sunlight exposure contributes to a variety of health problems, such as seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and clinical depression.
A local clinical nutritionist's column on the flu shot's limited efficacy quotes Benjamin Franklin: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." I don't see either prevention or cure of autism coming from the Minnesota Department of Health anytime soon.
Posted by: nhokkanen | November 22, 2010 at 04:26 PM
If Vitamin D is an issue then wouldn't we expect to see an autism rise among the Somalis who settled in Lewiston Maine yet I've heard of no such dramatic increase in autism among the Maine group...perhaps they should compare these two similar populations.
Posted by: Sarah | November 22, 2010 at 03:59 PM
nonnymouse, your observation about Africans experiencing a crucial drop in Vitamin D when moving to Northern climes may be a bigger factor than anything else, and causes ever higher the morbidity of many illnesses of Africans in MN or Sweden.
It's been documented (sorry, I don't have any refs at hand) that the dark pigmented skin of Africans is 1/10 as effective as "northern caucasian skin" in converting sunlight to Vitamin D so fundamental to overall health in myriad ways.
Of course, the U.S. CDC or HHS never put out Public Service Announcements to promote Vitamin D supplements in winter or advise getting some Fall or Winter sun exposure; all they do is spend hundred of millions of dollars for radio and TV ads promoting Flu shots costing $billions of dollars, the batch-shots still heavily loaded with mercury along with toxic adjuvants such as aluminum compounds, etc. that are in all Flu shots, even the single dose ones.
Of course the Somali kids in Minnesota, even those already stricken with the Spectrum, no doubt are shot full of Flu vaccines every year.
Posted by: david burd | November 22, 2010 at 03:18 PM
My husband emigrated from Sweden in 2006. He got a battery of vaccines (since Sweden's schedule is a LOT less aggressive than ours. He was sick as a dog, by a couple days later. He ended up with infections in his gut and kidney's. He was on cirpoflaxin for like 6 weeks. The doctors called it coincidence. Within 6 months I got pregnant with our now recovered PDD-NOS son... coincidence again??
BTW my husband now has severe milk allergies and seasonal allergies. But, luckily he has had no more jabs. None of our family has- we don't like coincidence.
Posted by: casey | November 22, 2010 at 03:11 PM
Not an MD - Wow! Very well-stated. We are the only "stakeholders" that matter. The rest of them - the pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, health officials, and pharmaceutical company stockholders - are just big fat parasites, that we'd all be better off without. You could liken them to the genetically-engineered "flying-syringes" that Bill "Microsoft" Gates is so fond of, for population "optimization". Not only are they responsible for the current tidal wave of iatrogenic diseases, they have become “vectors” of the very same diseases that they pretend to prevent. Whether unintentionally or otherwise, they have endangered us all. They have sucked our blood, and replaced it with something that is completely UnGodly!
Posted by: patrons99 | November 22, 2010 at 02:28 PM
The Ontario Brain Institute
http://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2010/11/supporting-brain-research.html
Ontario invests $15-million in brain research
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario/ontario-invests-15-million-in-brain-research/article1799326/
Hamilton doctor with focus on autism will be part of new Ontario Brain Institute
http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/276710--hamilton-doctor-with-focus-on-autism-will-be-part-of-new-ontario-brain-institute
The biggest gene-jerks are hiding in Canada - thank you Katie for watching Scherer.
On the Somali topic...
Somali cluster in Canada as well...
The Somali autism puzzle
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article978207.ece
Dr. Wendy Roberts has something of interest to say in that Globe and Mail/Somali article:
"They may be exposed to toxins, pesticides, environmental triggers or something in their diet, and that serves to turn off or on a gene function," explains Dr. Roberts.
Posted by: blech | November 22, 2010 at 02:05 PM
Trying to work from memory doesn't work very well.
The Nigerians were the Yoruba. Their risk factor was about 1/4th what it is in the U.S. Not 1/10th.
The location was Indianapolis, Indiana, not Minneapolis.
Sigh. Shoot from the hip? Not a good idea.
Posted by: Nonnymouse | November 22, 2010 at 01:53 PM
About immigrants from Africa:
For some years now, research has been done regarding immigrants from Nigeria who wound up in Minnesota.
In Nigeria, the residents develop Alzheimer's at a very modest rate.
In the United States, they develop Alzheimer's at the same rate as the general (white etc.) population.
The difference, if I remember it correctly is about a 10x multiplier.
One difference, of course, is no useful sunshine in Minnesota all winter long. No vitamin D.
Another difference is dietary. I can point at several things which would make a big difference.
But in addition, probably those immigrants -- even as adults -- had to get certain shots or 'jabs'.
So it isn't just autism.
And the research, by the way, hasn't been ignored. But since 'they' don't know what to do about it, each new report sinks like a stone.
Posted by: Nonnymouse | November 22, 2010 at 01:04 PM
(1) The CDC investigates clusters (of cancer more often than other things). Well, it pretends to investigate. The groups which are sent out to 'investigate' call themselves "cluster busters." As in, we will work hard to NOT find anything. They're proud of 'refudiating' clusters, apparently.
(2) Why do all of these folks keep looking for genetic causes? Because that's the hammer that they have. (To a man with a hammer, every problem is a nail.) They seem to believe that genes and genetics provide real answers. All evidence to the contrary.
(3) Why do they get so defensive, so fast? Because their whole body, their whole being, is wrapped up in their work. Their work is genetics. If they're wrong, what happens? It turns huge billion-dollar industry systems (pharma, so-called academic, government) upside down. It's huge.
Posted by: Nonnymouse | November 22, 2010 at 12:58 PM
Regarding the Somali auitm cluster, why wait for the CDC or NIEHS to take the initiative? Why don't we parents lobby the UC MIND Davis Insitute to do a research study on the MN Somali population. They have the tools, experience and expertise. They have a proven track record and could probaby access the grant money to conduct to conduct a study.
Posted by: Sarah | November 22, 2010 at 12:54 PM
On Fox News this morning - Today!
A report that visit of babies to the ER has dropped 50% since they have stopped cold medicines, and Tylenol.
Then they had a lengthy report on the Axelrods. Yeap, the man that put President Obama in the White House.
His daughter has epilepsy. When she was seven months old after a cold and her mother gave her some adusted dose of adult cold medicine she found her blue in her crib.
Mommie Axlerod has become an epilepsy advocate- well good for her, and I do mean that. She has a least seen the problems with neurologists that we all face too. She too got to hear about febrile seizures when it was not.
Keppra came along in 2000 and finally solved now 29 year old daughter Axlerod's horrible epilepsy. My son was about 14 years old (in 2000) had already had 10 years of undignosed/untreated epilepsy. It took them untill 2007 to get him on Keppra.
That second DPT shot is somewhere in that time period of seven months by the way.
The news lady asked again what caused the problem in baby daughter Axelrod at seven months old and there was a looonnnngggg pause, and Mommy Axelrod said we will never know.
But it is probably genetic.
She had two normal boys, does she have other family members with epilepsy? What is this genetic crap? I thought it was the cold medicine? AND how far away was this cold from the last DPT shot - six weeks?
Funny how the Axelrods (President Obama boycotted Fox News) would grace Fox News after the series of programs by Alisyn Camerota has been on.
More Crowd Control- me thinks. I am not feeling generous on this issue, in fact I am very suspicious.
Can you be a good person and still be politically savy?
Posted by: Benedetta | November 22, 2010 at 11:54 AM
Eindekker, Here's a quote from the Sweden Report you cite. It leaves completely open the actual number where the 17 diagnosed kids with the Spectrum were actually born, thus it is likely many of these had lots of vaccinations before/during their immigration).
"Children of Somali background were those who were either born in Somalia or born in Sweden, with both parents born abroad and at least one parent coming from Somalia, as defined by the Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics.9 In November 2005, this group consisted of 2437 7- to 17-year-olds. Children with a Somali background constituted 0.96% (2437/253 002) of the total child population born during 1988 to 1998 in the county."
Thus complete medical records (if possible to obtain) about vaccine jabs before getting to Sweden might actually strongly indict the vaccine toxicity load, and not their parents' racial background.
On top of this, the 17 kids in this Sweden Report include "Pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified" that includes mild disorders and not catastrophic autism. This whole Report means little if vaccination records pre-immigration are unknown.
Minnesota Somalis, however, have documentation indicting the awful effects of their redundant vaccines.
Posted by: david burd | November 22, 2010 at 11:48 AM
Benedetta - "crowd control". How do you say police state? The controlling "elites" are exerting their will over us with greater impunity. They used to "toss us a bone" every now and then, as cover for their scams, schemes, and deception. But not anymore!
The oppression is rapidly escalating. Previously enjoyed freedoms have disappeared. Vaccine "madness" and global vaccine policy is the perfect instrument for crowd control. The problem is global and it transcends politics.
Posted by: patrons99 | November 22, 2010 at 11:32 AM
They're dragging their feet until enough pseudo science can be conjured up and published to cloud the issue. The finding that the rate of autism among Swedish Somali immigrants is comparable to US rates seems highly suspect to me.
Wouldn't be surprised to find the scoundrel Poul Thorson working furiously behind the scenes in Sweden. Why hasn't that guy turned up yet? Because no one is looking for him I bet.
Posted by: Disgusted | November 22, 2010 at 11:28 AM
That David Armstrong is a dick. How stupid do they look when they have an obvious cluster ( 1 in 50!) and they do zero to study it???? I mean REAL scientists would be all over this as a way to study genetic and environmental components. Oh, silly me, I keep forgetting that the creeps in the CDC, AAP, NIEHS etc are a little thing I call biased.
Posted by: Jen | November 22, 2010 at 11:25 AM
Katie, thanks for this article. In it you stated, "Dr. Scherer said stakeholders were in attendance but no one I know from national advocacy, research and service orgs like NAA, SafeMinds, Generation Rescue or TACA who was invited."
I wish those holding the meetings would understand and consider "the people" as stakeholders, not just the pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, health officials, and pharmaceutical company stockholders. We, the parents, are the real stakeholders as we and our children are the only ones who must live with the consequences of the overly aggressive vaccine schedule. We have far more at "stake" than any other groups in attendance. Shame on all of these agencies who declare they care about public health. All they care about is maintaining the status quo.
Posted by: Not an MD | November 22, 2010 at 10:58 AM
Wow, since Somalis have a risk of autism three or four times greater than the rest of us (or did in the early 2000s), what a perfect group in which to find autism genes or at least copy number variants!
I'm sure they've done this six ways from Sunday. It's chromosome 17, right? 16? 15? 14? Fragile X?
Posted by: Carol | November 22, 2010 at 10:41 AM
This is nothing but crowd control. They have controlled us for a very long time as far back as 1986 with a special court after they came forth and played so nice (creepy).
Crowd control- Knowing how the human mind works - they are the experts!
Knowing the human mind - That is how they knew to throw in that little clause in the vaccine court that said you have three years to bring your case to the vaccine injury court at the (VERY) first sign of injury.
Crowd control - was all about the 90's with Trenton, New Jersey when the CDC investigated, then disappeared, then when forced to come back to a meeting brought an extra CDC team to insure the the other CDC team toed the line.
Mind experts, how we the people think was what 2000 was all about - Once again crowd control (Congress promised to be generous for those hurt by vaccines). How generous can you be with such an injury??? Money make it all better?
How long can they keep the lid on this pressure cooker untill we bubble out?
What point do they consider that we are bubbling out enough to address the real questions and come up with the real answers? Will they keep at it if we just complain enough? Will they keep at it untill we march on Washington (oh we already done that, didn't we)? Will they keep at it untill we get a president of the United States firmly behind us? OR will they wait untill it goes so far as making us get out the pitch forks and burn down CDC down????
What reaction are they waiting for from us to finally say that is as far as they can control us? They are mind experts so they should know.
Posted by: Benedetta | November 22, 2010 at 10:07 AM
Senator Grasseley may have investigated corruption in NIEHS but helped (with input from lobbyists) write the Medicare Part D bill which was designed to benefit the pharmaceutical industry. An enormous amount of money could have been saved had drugs been allowed to be re-imported from Canada or had Medicare been allowedto negotiate for lower drug prices. Has Grasseley ever spoke out or done anything to support research into the vaccine/autism relationship?
Posted by: Eunice Carlson | November 22, 2010 at 09:13 AM
The same effect is seen in Somali immigrants to Sweden, a 4 fold increased risk of autism compared to non-Somalis, but all these affected children were born in Sweden with presumably the standard Swedish vaccine schedule, although there is a lower MMR uptake generally in this Somali population
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8749.2008.03036.x/full
Posted by: Eindekker | November 22, 2010 at 09:13 AM
Francis Collins told a Senate Committee as long ago as May 2006 that the reasons for the rise in autism were environmental.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/11/iaccs-dr-francis-collins-gives-the-game-away-on-autism.html
He probably over-emphasised the significance of the genetic dimension but he had conceded the biggest point. Now, finally, please can we have some urgency and no taboo areas (because actually none of the multifold environmental causes of autism are going to cause happiness in government or industry).
Posted by: John Stone | November 22, 2010 at 07:53 AM