AAP Calls Autism an Epidemic
The new head of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. James Perrin,
calls autism an epidemic. He really
does. Perrin was the focus in an interview just out from the Boston
Globe: Pediatrics leader talks about biggest issues facing kids.
“Perrin is particularly interested in addressing chronic childhood illness during his three years of leadership at the academy.”
Perrin had this to say about “chronic childhood illness.”
“Childhood obesity and other chronic health conditions: the continuing growth in childhood asthma, and the tremendous growth in mental health conditions and developmental conditions like autism. We’ve got three or four major epidemics really growing among children and adolescents in America.”
I couldn’t believe he talked like this because in the past the AAP has been leading the way calling autism a mysterious disorder with no known cause or cure. I have never seen anyone connected to the AAP ever sound worried or use the word crisis in the same sentence with the word autism, let alone epidemic. Most of the time, the AAP is right there in the news declaring solemnly that, regardless of the latest rate increase, they’re still not sure how much is real and how much is more better diagnosing. When the rate went to one in every 88 children, one in every 54 boys, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas Frieden, still wasn’t sure if more children really have autism. In the same story, Dr. Susan Hyman, chairperson of the Autism Subcommittee of the AAP, could only say that early intervention helps a lot.
Still, no one at the AAP has even been alarmed about the numbers continually climbing with no end in sight—until now.
1995 1:500, 2001 1:250, 2004 1:166, 2007 1:150, 2009 1:110, 2012 1:88.
And while experts love to credit doctors for all the better diagnosing they’re doing, stories about doctors needing help to learn the signs of autism are common. In May, 2012, this story was in Education Week, Families Don't Seek Help for Autism from Pediatricians.
“A small new study discussed at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Toronto last week found that parents didn't expect their pediatricians to provide autism-specific treatment, and many pediatricians don't view autism treatment as within the scope of their work.
“The study involving families and doctors in Philadelphia, also found that even doctors who want to help families manage their children's diagnoses lack the training to do so.
“‘This study validates what previous studies and parents have told us: Many pediatricians are not prepared to provide the kind of advice and information that parents need after receiving a diagnosis of autism for their child,’ Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for Autism Speaks told Health Day News.”
It sounds
like Dr. Perrin has his work cut out for himself.
Lots of doctors don’t see a problem with all the kids everywhere with asthma,
autism, ADD/ADHD, and lots of other health problems
children never used to have in overwhelming numbers
like they do now.
I wish I could have interviewed Dr. Perrin because I have my own questions
about his role as head of the AAP.
Dr. Perrin, are you comfortable with the fact that the ever-increasing vaccine schedule has never been tested for its cumulative effect on the health of a baby?
Dr. Perrin, how can doctors continue to deny a link between vaccines and autism when medical experts at Health and Human Services conceded the vaccine damage case of Hannah Poling? She's the young Georgia girl who regressed into autism following routine vaccinations. CBS News ran the story: Family to Receive $1.5M+ in First-Ever Vaccine-Autism Court Award?
Dr. Perrin, the report, Unanswered Questions, on HDNet TV exposed the fact that dozen of cases of vaccine damage that included autism have been compensated by the federal government. Shouldn’t the AAP be interested in these findings?
Dr. Perrin, what is your opinion on the award-winning documentary, The Greater Good, which examines both sides of the vaccine safety question?
Dr. Perrin, what about all the independent scientific research raising serous concerns about vaccine side effects?
Dr. Perrin, do you agree with the comments made by the late Dr. Bernadine who said that we shouldn’t be afraid to look into the issue of regressive autism? Healy on CBS News in 2008 said we need to study the kids that were fine until they vaccinated.
Dr, Perrin, in 2008 CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson exposed the financial ties between the AAP and the vaccine makers in How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders?” To the public it’s clear that the money received from major pharmaceutical companies may be a factor in all the denial of a link between the vaccine schedule that the AAP promotes and the exponential increase in autism. How can you justify your financial ties to the drug industry?
Just this year the AAP announced that they opposed a ban on mercury exposure. (See: Ban on all mercury-based products would risk global immunization efforts, says AAP, WHO)
“The Academy has endorsed a recommendation by the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization that the preservative thimerosal be retained for use in the global vaccine supply.”
Dr. Perrin, how can the AAP defend injecting a deadly neurotoxin into human beings—especially children and pregnant women? Are you aware that the mercury based vaccine preservative thimerosal was never tested or approved by the FDA. The drug company Eli Lilly invented it in 1930 and tested it on 22 meningitis patients who were all dead by the end of their study. Eli Lilly said it was safe and after the creation of the FDA, its use was merely continued. Shouldn’t this pathetic oversight record call every safety claim into question?
The record of the AAP is pretty pathetic. They’ve willingly closed their eyes to what’s happening to our children and they’ve blindly defended an unchecked, unsafe vaccination schedule.
In 2008, I wrote this about Dr. David Tayloe, then president of the AAP: The AAP and Dr. Tayloe: Ignoring a generation of sick kids.
In 2009, I wrote this about the AAP website where they blamed autism on bad genes: New AAP Website-- Autism: 'It's Not Environmentally Caused'
In truth,
Dr. Perrin and the AAP have to wake up to what chronic illness is doing to our
children. If the AAP continues to ignore the reality of our children’s
health, they will only end up further marginalized as irrelevant. We need
doctors who really care about all the sick and suffering children in the United States
and who want to do something to help them.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor of Age of Autism.
http://tacanowblog.com/2012/11/08/gut-brain-connection-leaky-guy-no-longer-crazy-talk-says-aap/
Can you believe this? Do you think they are trying to get in on the money train?
Posted by: Julie | November 09, 2012 at 10:30 AM
Don't worry a vaccination to prevent Autism is just around the corner, yes you will have to have it every 5 years and of course it's not 100%. It's perfectly safe as proven in clinical trials, especially for pregnant women and newborns. The side effects can include Autism....... and yes I did just make this up. But I'm sure Pharmaceutical companies won't miss this opportunity or the dollars to be had!
Posted by: Sarcha | November 08, 2012 at 06:14 PM
David:
I came back and looked at it too.
My daughter was charged 40 dollars for a DTaP shot recently - I see that the tetanus shot with reduce pertussis and diptheria cost that much. Since she asked for a tetanus only vaccine - I wonder if this is what she got???
The rest of the DTaP cost anywhere from 20 to 25.
Those over 100 dollars are the HPVs, OHHHH the horror of all those really poor proverty ridden young ladies - won't be able to afford to be "one less"
And I see Paul Offit's rota virus vaccine is well over 100 dollars too. Poor third world country kids could not afford this vaccine, but us college educated bunch scatching out our living would pay it in a heart beat - esp if the CDC makes it mandatory.
Posted by: Benedetta | November 08, 2012 at 05:55 PM
Wow. Will vaccine manufacturers stop at nothing?
For petroleum companies like Conoco-Phillips and Exxon, oil, coal, and gas are "reserves," assets in the ground that shape their market value. Similarly, children--not just Americans but all children worldwide--are the reserves of pharmaceutical companies, pincushions for their products. Future profits from vaccine sales based on these reserves are built into the value of Merck and Glaxo stock.
We can explore the power and resolve of Pharmageddon--and learn what we are up against--by determining the future value of each "asset" (kid). Which is what the CDC Vaccine Price List does.
Thanks, David, for publishing the link.
Posted by: Dan E. Burns | November 08, 2012 at 08:30 AM
Dan Burns, I hope you check back on this thread. Here are the infant/child vaccine prices, BEFORE pediatrician markup. This is huge income for Pharma, AND pediatricians. I think it was JB Handley who cited pediatricians' majority income was from all the immunization shots. Truly frightening.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vfc/awardees/vaccine-management/price-list/index.html#pediatric
please let me know you read this, thanks.
David Burd [email protected]
Posted by: david burd | November 08, 2012 at 05:50 AM
Regarding 99 million doses --
David, big numbers and big news. Thanks. Any idea how much each dose is worth on average to the manufacturer ... or where I can get this information?
Posted by: Dan E. Burns | November 07, 2012 at 10:09 PM
well, we can always hope he'll lead the AAP in a different direction, but his comment about autism as a mental and developmental problem is worrisome. I dislike when childhood obesity is mentioned first.
Thanks, Anne.
Maurine
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | November 07, 2012 at 09:35 PM
Bob Moffitt, Actually the real number of vaccine doses received by U.S. infants in their first year is very close to 100 million.
Since 4 million are born each year in the U.S. for many years now, and at least 26 DOSES of vaccines by 7 months are given per the U.S. Immunization Schedule for Ages 0 to 6 the accurate number is easy (subtracting those whose parents are wise enough to refuse them takes 4 million down to 3.8 million).
It comes to 3.8 million x 26 doses = 99 million doses total.
Here's the Schedule:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/downloads/child/0-6yrs-schedule-pr.pdf
In time this Schedule will "live in infamy" to use FDR's phrase for the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. In our present time it dramatically illustrates the horrendous assault on our infants and children - by our own Medical Establishment.
Posted by: david burd | November 07, 2012 at 05:29 PM
"But is it sustainable?"
Dan Burns asked the really pertinent question. Regardless of the fact that the American Psychiatric Assoc. is preparing to change the definition of autism so that no one will be able to say anything for sure about the rate, these kids are real and they're aging into adulthood. The cost will bankrupt us. "Autism the mystery" will be replaced with "autism the financial nightmare." And all those who did nothing but watch it happen will have to explain their malfeasance.
Anne Dachel, Media
Posted by: Anne McElroy Dachel | November 07, 2012 at 02:27 PM
We shall see his future performance. If he only talks about treating these pediatric diseases with new pharmaceuticals, but nothing about prevention and nothing about finding the causes of these epidemics, we can be sure that he is just another big pharma man.
Posted by: no vac | November 07, 2012 at 11:27 AM
Bob Moffitt include the diseases when they start going through puberty.
And not just increase epilepsy but Mental health problems -which left untreated in the mid west ---esculates into drug abuse.
Posted by: Benedetta | November 07, 2012 at 10:13 AM
All that "better diagnosis" malarkey makes me laugh so much . LOL as they say on FarceBook .
Regarding all the Autism that I've seen , its not smthg that you can miss very easily (barn door with a banjo springs to mind).
So effectively what the Doctors of today are saying , if I understand them correctly , is that the Doctors of the past (their predecessors), were such complete morons that they were unable to diagnose Autism as the Doctors of today are now able to.
I am happy to believe the Doctors of the past were complete morons but I am equally happy to believe the same of the Doctors of today . I traipsed up and down Harley Street in the beginning of my autism odyssey to one fully qualified Doctor-quack after another , none of them able to offer any insight on the condition , but they were all good at counting their fees for doing nothing at all .
Just got to hope these fully qualified doctor-charlatans keep their own vaccinations fully up to date , and that of their entire families . That is where I'll get my justice .
Posted by: Eugene Nicks | November 07, 2012 at 09:10 AM
The AAP org has been no help to me in helping my Autistic son, who has been riddled with horrific health issues. I feel they are in the dark ages. I don't want to rush my son's childhood away, but I will celebrate the day he is old enough to leave the pediatrics system and graduate into a family practice.
Posted by: AnaB | November 07, 2012 at 08:52 AM
Anne, your numbers -- 1995 1:500, 2001 1:250, 2004 1:166, 2007 1:150, 2009 1:110, 2012 1:88 – indicate an increase in autism prevalence of about 10% per year.
Calculating the future of autism in America involves some complex models and tricky math. But we don’t need a supercomputer to understand the scale of the epidemic. For simplicity and clarity, we can model a bare-bones universe that preserves some key features of our own. Let’s call our model Columbia (the historical name for the United States of America), and assign our fictional country a population of 300 million. The prevalence of autism among 12-year-olds in Columbia is 1 in 88, and is increasing at the rate of 10% per year. Old folks die as fast as new ones are born and there’s no immigration, so the population bucket never overflows.
Based on the 2010 Census there are a little over 4 million 12-year-olds in Columbia, same as in America. To avoid the technical term “cohort,” let’s think of these kids as the national class of 6th graders. Forty-five thousand of them find a place on the ASD spectrum. Once these young Columbians become adults, they’ll cost us $30K per year each – the low-ball rent for a bedroom in a group home – or $1.35 million per year for the whole batch, sea to shining sea. That’s about the average price of a house in a gated suburb like Highland Park Texas, and to me it sounds affordable as long as I’m not paying for it. But is it sustainable? The next class of 6th graders will cost a little more (because there are 10% more of them on the ASD spectrum) and so on.
Columbia is about 22 years into the autism epidemic (as in America, the curve began to rise exponentially a little before 1990). Suppose ASD prevalence continues to increase 10% per year for another 22 years, until 2034, when the rate among 12-year-olds is 1 in 10. What will be the annual cost of caring for the class of 2034 when they become adults? About a billion dollars per year. To scale this, a billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. But – big but here – a billion dollars per year for one class is only the beginning. Parents and taxpayers will still be caring for all the previous classes, because autism in Columbia requires lifelong services and supports. Adding class on class, by 2034 Columbians will be paying close to $100 billion per year to take care of their adult ASD kids. That’s twice the cost of cleaning up after Hurricane Sandy. So “cleaning up” after autism in 2034 – caring for the adult victims of the epidemic -- will be like dealing with a Sandy-scale hurricane twice a year.
How can we afford it?
Posted by: Dan E. Burns | November 07, 2012 at 08:29 AM
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) proudly declares that children in the United States receive TEN MILLION doses of vaccines during their FIRST year of life.
Yet,inexplicably, the dismal infant mortality rate of the United States among developed nations is far below that of other .. less wealthy, less technologically advanced .. LESS VACCINATED .. countries. If children in the US are not dying of vaccine preventable diseases .. what in God's name keeps US infant mortality rates so high?
Indeed, one wonders where the US would rank among developed nations according to the numbers of children under five years of age with diagnosed chronic auto-immune or developmental problems?
What is the rate of juvenile type 1 diabetes in developed countries? What is the rate of SIDS? What is the rate of a whole host of childhood health problems that now comprise the "new normal" United States childhood diseases or disorders?
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | November 07, 2012 at 08:26 AM