MLive

What's the matter with Michigan?

We're the fourth-highest state for kids skipping out on vaccinations because their parents claim a personal or religious exemption.

That means that less than 72 percent of young children and 63 percent of teenagers are fully immunized, the Michigan State Medical Society reports.

Those presenting bogus stories slamming non-vaccinating parents are going to blame either Jenny McCarthy or Andy Wakefield---this time it's Jenny.  I posted comments and within a few seconds, trolls were going after me.

HealthImpactNews.com

Vaccine related legislative activity in states across the country is at an all time high in 2014. The National Vaccine Information Center has been busy monitoring the bills filed in different states and analyzing them for their potential impact on vaccine freedom of choice.

The NVIC Advocacy Portal (NVICAP) is already tracking 58 bills across 24 states. With many bill filing deadlines weeks away, and several upcoming opportunities for amendments on other proposed measures, we expect the number of bills needing grassroots support or opposition to continue to rise.

The Hill

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is calling for an end to the use of "scream rooms" to discipline children in U.S. schools.

The Connecticut senator has proposed legislation that would end the practice of physically restraining students or secluding them in padded rooms, after learning that there were more than 30,000 such instances every year in schools across the state. . . .

"There are just better ways to deal with behavioral issues than just locking kids up in padded rooms," he said. . . .

(VIDEO) US Sen. Chris Murphy: "We had 33,000 incidents of seclusion and restraint in Connecticut" schools in one year.

Murphy believes we need to train teachers to deal with mental health issues and provide more resources. He isn't concerned about why we have so many out-of-control children in our schools.  We just need to find other ways of handling them.

Salt Lake City Tribune 

Utah has the highest rate of autism in the country - one child in 47. The advocacy group Autism Speaks estimates 18,000 Utah children have the disorder, which causes intellectual disability, difficulties in motor coordination and attention and physical-health issues. The symptoms range from mild in some children to debilitating in others.

Children with autism spectrum disorder need special individual therapy to help them interact with others and learn the academic skills all children need and to develop the exceptional music, visual and academic skills many autistic children have.

But that therapy is expensive, and unless insurance companies are required to cover it, most won't. That leaves thousands of Utah families struggling with the horrific dilemma of deciding what to forgo in order to pay for the therapy that can help their autistic children become productive, happy citizens.

One family featured in a Tribune news story sold their home in order to pay for their son's treatment. That kind of sacrifice should never be required when the Legislature has the power to help them get what they need.

Utah is one of just 16 states that do not require insurance companies to cover treatment for autism. Last year legislators approved a pilot program of sorts in which autistic children were chosen in a lottery to receive Applied Behavior Analysis therapy. They said they wanted to make sure the treatment works.

(I can't post on this for some reason.)

Whoever wrote this doesn't really address the issue. It's nice to sound proactive and call for insurance coverage for services--but it stops there.

What's missing:

WHAT'S CAUSING THIS?
Why does Utah have the highest autism rate in the U.S.?

Why isn't anyone talking about helping AUTISTIC ADULTS?

Why isn't there any mention of THE FUTURE COST OF ALL THESE CHILDREN AS ADULTS?

This editorial doesn't address autism. Universally the media in America has failed our children. They don't hold anyone accountable for what's happened.

TIME Magazine

The flat-earthers have always been with us, as have the believers in phrenology and alchemy and eugenics and sorcery, and, more recently and perniciously, the climate change deniers and the vaccines-cause-autism ninnies.

Sometimes it's greed and political calculation at work: If we call climate change a hoax, we keep the riches flowing to the fossil fuel industry. Sometimes it's a search for answers (if a child develop autism someone must be to blame) coupled with a know-nothing carnival barker like Jenny McCarthy.

?

Jeffrey Kluger is a senior editor and he oversees TIME's science and technology reporting. He's a great spokesman for those in denial.

I posted comments. 

For 20 years, officials have ignored the autism epidemic happening everywhere. They dismiss every jaw-dropping increase as just more "better diagnosing" of a disorder that's always been around. They've never called autism a crisis. They've failed to show us a comparable rate among adults. They've wasted millions of dollars on studies linking autism to mothers--old mothers, mothers who marry old dads, fat moms, moms who drink, moms who smoke, moms who have babies too close together and moms who live too close to freeways. All the while ignoring the suffering of a generation of children. AND THE MEDIA HAS ALLOWED THEM TO GET AWAY WITH WITH THIS MALFEASANCE.

Meanwhile the generation of children with autism is aging out of school with nowhere to go.