Groundhog Year? Autism and The New York Times: 2003
By Anne Dachel
In Nov 2003 the New York Times published an interesting article titled, Government Mapping Out A Strategy to Fight Autism by Jane Gross. HERE
It was about a government plan to deal with autism. It had a lot of familiar details: autism is on the rise, we need to find the cause, and early intervention is best.
Gross reported, “Nobody knows the cause of the surge, although epidemiologists suspect it is largely a result of refined diagnosis and public awareness. That does not change the dimensions of a problem that strains schools, medical services and families. Nor does it affect forecasts of growing caseloads for decades to come.”
Not bad coverage for something from almost a decade ago. We would expect that after millions of dollars of research and all the efforts of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee created by Congress to deal with autism there would be definite answers and we’d have great success stories about programs for affected children and the progress being made. Sadly, it’s not happening.
WNDU-TV in South Bend, IN just published a story about autism on Jan 3, 2012 called, Doctors working on ways to better diagnose children with autism. HERE
WNDU announced, “The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children be screened for autism twice before age 2. However, only between 5 and 7 percent of pediatricians perform a formal screening.
“The average age of diagnosis for a child with autism is about 5 and a half, and experts say that’s way too late.”
In addition they reported, “The number of children diagnosed with autism appears to be rising. It’s not clear whether this is due to better detection and reporting of autism, a real increase in the number of cases, or both.”
What the South Bend story reveals is that we are basically where we were at in 2003 when it comes to autism. Autism is still a medical mystery that doctors and health officials scratch their heads over. There is still no alarm over autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics didn’t call autism a crisis in 2003 and they still don’t call it one today.
Back in 2003 it seemed like a real effort was going to be made and I might have been a little hopeful. The Times told us, “Propelled by the skyrocketing number of diagnoses of the perplexing brain disorder autism in children, federal officials have for the first time mapped out a long-term, interagency plan to deal with the problem.
“The plan includes objectives like the development of teaching methods that will allow 90 percent of autistic children to speak; the identification of genetic and nongenetic causes of the condition; and adequate services for all afflicted children in the next 7 to 10 years.”
The Times also included Dr. Fred R. Volkmar from Yale who has long blamed bad genes and credited doctors for the explosion in autism. Volkmar is still in the news regularly trying to convince us that there’s been no real increase in autism.
The strategy mapped out in 2003 set definite goals. “The plan lays out a timeline, in increments of 1 to 3 years, 4 to 6 years and 7 to 10 years and then ranks goals according to the likelihood of achieving them. Realistic goals in each of the three stages include the development, evaluation and institution of effective treatments, in collaboration with the Department of Education.”
”’The idea is to be challenging everyone in the field to be reaching for the best we can possibly do,’ said Dr. Steve Foote, the director of neuroscience at the National Institute of Mental Health, which was designated the lead agency by the Child Health Act.”
The Times did warn, “Some parents are likely to be frustrated by the plan’s suggestion that it will take at least seven years to provide treatment for all who need it.”
“Reaching for the best we can possibly do”
Dr. Foote’s goal of challenging everyone in the field to do their best for autism seems comical today. The truth is the science is nowhere when it comes to autism. The epidemic now affects one in 110 children in the U.S. and almost two percent of just boys according to outdated statistics from the CDC. (We don’t even know what the real numbers currently are.) Back in 2003 when the Times story was written, the autism rate was officially one in 250 children.
‘The Times told us that the plan mapped out by the government “was drafted by scientists to assess the state of autism research and identify the roadblocks that might be hindering progress in understanding the cause and the best treatment options.”
Of course that has never come to pass. The cause of autism paralyzes officials because if they honestly looked into what’s happening to a generation of children they’d have to admit that most of it points to their out-of-control vaccination schedule.
Robert L. Beck of the Autism Society of America lamented the lack of funding in 2003. ”And there’s no money on the services and treatment side. What do we do with the kids for the next 7 to 10 years? We have to do both. You cannot just throw away a generation of children.”
Little has come from all the official attention autism received back in 2000 when the IACC was established and in 2003 when the Strategic Plan was announced. The nightmare only gets worse for families caught up in the epidemic as their children struggle with the lack of services, endless waiting lists, enormous out-of-pocket costs, and growing fears about what the future holds.
We constantly see stories in the press about charges of abuse in schools unprepared for the onslaught of autistic children. We read about parents who can’t find a place for their young adult children aging out of the public school system. And officials and mainstream medicine continue to close their eyes to what autism is doing to America. Experts have quietly surrendered to autism. I can only guess at what it will be like in another nine years of doing nothing as autism conquers the U.S.
Anne Dachel is media editor for Age of Autism. Subscribe to her active news site AnneDachel.com today.
The vaccine lie is the most successful deception in the history of mankind. The notion that a vaccine has ever, or could ever prevent a disease is an absolute myth.
Big Pharma has reaped ENORMOUS profits at the hands of chronic illness, and they’ve accomplished that end with a calculated deployment of their poisonous vaccines, designed to systematically corrupt the human immune system. It’s a pretty simple recipe really. Its remarkable how they never seem to know what is causing all this illness, yet they’re always in a position to sell pre$ription drug designed to treat but never cure them. And while the efficacy of these treatments is often dubious at best, the scarcely discussed side effects serve to cripple our immune systems even further, thus driving the need for even more pre$ription drugs. It’s hardly a mystery why big phrama has been doing this, or why they now push so many vaccines so much earlier on our children.
But every dog does indeed have its day, because everything that goes around comes around. Big Phrama has done an unbelievable job just keeping this lie alive. But what strikes me now as the ultimate irony, albeit a brutally sad one, is that this dark chapter in history is beginning to unravel, and it’s largely BECAUSE of that effort.
To put it another way, they’re beginning to fall victim to their own success. Because for every year this deception is prolonged, the trail of victims continues to grow. Many of the people who used to regard us irrational, are finally taking notice of all the sick kids around them. Children, grandchildren nieces, nephews, neighbours, students... they’re everywhere. And it’s not just autism. You can hardly find a classroom now that has just one child suffering from a life threatening food allergy. People who grew with peanut butter as staple in the diet, now receive warnings not to send it to school in their kids lunches. Many volunteer in their child’s classroom, only to observe children who can’t even sit and listen to a story being read by their teacher. When they ask their children how the day went at school, they often hear a 10 year old explain how things improved after the teacher gave one of their fellow students his daily meds. If their children play sports, it’s now a common sight to see children extracting puffers from their equipment bags, as just a routine part of their pre-game preparation. Nor is it uncommon to hear that one of those 10 year old team members wont be playing again today, because his arthritis is simply too painful.
Our children are sicker now than at any other time in our history. And most, if not all of it, relates to immune system dysfunction that was practically unheard of just 2 short decades ago. When children received a fraction of the immune altering vaccines that they receive today.
The truth really is that simple, and the lie being told to cover it all up, is no longer simple at all. I think we may finally be on that downward slope toward the truth about vaccine damage.
Posted by: Barry | January 07, 2012 at 09:52 AM
I attended that "autism summit" in 2003, and submitted a 5-minute presentation in advance for the public comments period. Public comments got pushed to the very end, and I ended up speaking for about a minute and a half.
My website in memory of my son, Conrad, had been online for more than 3 years, with my viewpoint on the brain impairment underlying echolalic speech, the characteristic language disorder of autistic children. That viewpoint is still online, and I continue to find evidence in support of auditory system impairment. The auditory system has higher blood flow and metabolism than any other area of the brain, and is therefore vulnerable to all of autism's many etiologies.
I don't understand why it remains so difficult to try to bring attention to the evidence of auditory system impairment, or that the language disorder is the primary handicap of autistic children.
Posted by: Eileen Nicole Simon | January 06, 2012 at 08:29 PM
The first I have ever heard of any developmental disorder being associated with vaccines was 6 years ago. I also never knew about mercury or just about anything else I learned on this autism recovery journey. I learned everything I know now from the Internet which just started having such information about 6 years ago. Thus, many people may have been speaking 30 years ago, but their words never came to me. I would have listened because I am a listener. But, even so, it's all too late for what has already been done. But, we can do lots to repair, as my children are now in regular education classes.
Posted by: Heidi N | January 06, 2012 at 06:27 PM
$93,000 is peanuts!
What is needed it hard time, breaking rocks.
Posted by: Benedetta | January 06, 2012 at 03:26 PM
Vaccines cause autism amongst many many disorders, illnesses and maladies. I warned people and medical personnel thirty years ago to cease all vaccination. Dr. Robert Mendelsohn warned in his book, How to Raise a Healthy Child in spite of your Doctor, that vaccination would prove to be a medical time bomb. Barbara Loe Fischer has been warning and educating for over thirty years as well. I'm so sorry that the beautiful people that run this website did not hear our pleas for help before vaccinating their own angels. There must be some way to stop this Groundhog Life we're living. Unfortunately it will not involve the government. VOTE RON PAUL!
Posted by: ioneskye | January 06, 2012 at 01:11 PM
I cannot imagine the vaccine industry winning over many more parents on a day to day basis.
GSK January 3, 2012 Argentina 14 deaths
http://www.pharmalot.com/2012/01/glaxo-is-fined-for-vaccine-trials-in-argentina/
...Following an investigation by the National Administration of Medicine, Food and Technology, the Argentine government has fined GlaxoSmithKline the equivalent of...roughly $93,000...for its handling of vaccine trials several years ago in which 14 babies died.
The probe found the drugmaker and two trial investigators failed to heed proper informed consent procedures, The Buenos Aires Herald reports.
The study, which was called Protocol Compas, ran in 2007 and 2008, and was designed to test the efficacy of Synflorix, which at the time was an experimental pediatric pneumonia vaccine used to ward off the bacteria that causes meningitis and ear infections. But critics charged the study used children from poor families who visited public hospitals and were pressured into signing consent forms (back story).
“GSK Argentina set a protocol at the hospital, and recruited several doctors working there. These doctors took advantage of many ...illiterate parents... who take their children for treatment by pressuring and forcing them into signing these ....28-page consent forms.... and getting them involved in the trials,”
As of TODAY, I have officialy given up the hope of getting a Christmas card from the Synderman's.
Posted by: cmo | January 06, 2012 at 12:37 PM
'...drafted by scientists to assess the state of autism research and identify the roadblocks that might be hindering progress in understanding the cause and the best treatment options.' The roadblocks were abundantly clear to the scientists, namely their own hierarchy.
The signs are there that things will change in 2012. One of the fundamantals of many martial arts is that over extending yourself makes you vulnerable, 2011 saw a massive effort by the heath authorities to recover public trust in vaccines which started with the new round of Wakefield bashing and was followed by numerous articles in the likes of Scientific American about exciting new developments in vaccine technology, and a massive media campaign to sell the message to the public, yet it was all done without any substance to support it. There are at least three legal proceedings currently underway against vaccine damage deniers, and they are looking very vulnerable indeed.
Posted by: GH | January 06, 2012 at 09:06 AM
Thanks Anne. The "genetic" validity of kids stricken with the autism spectrum and all the other terrible physical afflictions like ruined bowels rests on the many $billions funding this preposterous hypothesis in combination with the $billions spent annually by Pharma to promote their toxic vaccines, and endlessly fearmonger.
Of course, those richly salaried at Federal Agencies such as NIH and CDC also are essentially "paid off" to promote the same Party Line - and also protect their corrupted and compromised reputations.
With the public media also "paid off" by scores of $billions of advertising dollars every year America's parents are inevitably turning to organizations such as AoA (Age of Autism) and NVIC (National Vaccine Information Center), and VRAN (Vaccination Risk Awareness Network).
The Lies are so big by the Pharma Axis (Pharma, NIH/CDC, Mainstream Media) it is impossible to predict when they will fall. An honestly informed public, mainly via the internet, and via appearances and books by heroes such as Andrew Wakefield (and his many professional allies) must keep fighting to bring about this Axis downfall. Thanks for much for the efforts of AoA.
Posted by: david burd | January 06, 2012 at 08:07 AM