I'm an RN in a BSN/NP type program that I'm taking far too long to complete for the same reasons all of you have. Not all nurses buy the party line. Some nurses watch the interview between Paul Offit and Boyd Haley a million times. Some nurses watch the federal response to autism hearings. Some nurses read Baker and Pangborn's 250 page thesis. Some nurses have noticed all these nurses that have autistic kids. This nurse would like to thank you for all you do. My son is doing very well, too. I'm glad for both sons, but the epidemic breaks my heart and makes me angry. Yes, you can count me in with the very angry people.

Her biggest problem like many students nowadays is she was being lazy. Half the questions she asked you could have been answered if she took 5 minutes to look over the site. For example, the advertisers are clearly shown on the left. Anyone with any sense can tell those are SPONSORS. She wanted YOU to do her work for her. She should have answered as many of those questions as she could with a bit of reading on the site and then asked the couple she could not. I really don't have much use for the nursing profession anymore. If they can't think for themselves, then I sure as he'll don't want any of them "helping" me...

That should be "from many of those..."

Barry says:-
"Credentials of the authors": Even though one wouldn't ask that question about a general interest website, many articles on AoA make medical claims."

There's a great deal of expertise on this site; the 'credentials' of the authors are usually stated below the articles. Most authors also have internet profiles which can be accessed easily. Links to medical and scientific evidence, and other sources are usually provided. So - What's to criticise?

In contrast, we have medically and scientifically unqualified persons, like Brian Deer and Fiona Fox, CEO of the influential Science Media Centre, being given unlimited press and media coverage. These persons have been permitted to publicly spew their anti Wakefield rubbish completely unchallenged.

Brian Deer's BMJ article 'Does autistic enterocolitis exist' was quite ridiculous for someone with no experience or training in histopathology. Of course Deer 'found' the Lancet children had no bowel problems at all and the well qualified and experienced histopathologists who co-authored the paper had faked up the evidence!! He has had to change his tune now that a well respected US paper confirms the autism/bowel links. But the Deer and the Fox are both masters in the art of semantic cartwheels.

Age of Autism is a website of 'choice'. If you don't like it or agree with the content, you are perfectly free to go elsewhere, perhaps to Matt Carey's 'Left Brain/Right Brain' or Gorski's 'Respectful Insolence'. Both these sites are devoted to discrediting the Age of Autism site and denigrating its authors and posters, but it's 'dog eat dog' out there.

AoA articles are not, and do not claim to be, scientific papers. Much of the content is opinion, allowed in a so called 'free speech' democracy. Polite argument and debate is welcomed in these comment threads, but what's NOT acceptable are those persons who engage with this site with the sole objective of undermining its authors and posters. Please leave us alone!!

How dare you accuse me of doing exactly what I am doing!!! Wait... How dare you not act as a pawn in my little exercise designed to trap you!!! Wait... How the hell did you see right through me. That's not Fair!!!!!!

Ms. BSN kind of reminds me of a corporatocratic version of Princess Unikitty. In "The Lego Movie," Unikitty sets aggressive rules to battle "negativity" and buries not-so-happy ideas "deep inside where you'll never, ever, ever, EVER find them." Then she runs amok at the end and gores the enemy in an unhinged killing rampage.

I remember the anger-as-pathology campaign started in the 1980s as an industrial astroturf pop psych movement, probably to kill whatever was left of activism. Everyone getting in touch with their "inner child" and accepting their "responsibility" for "manifesting" injustice,etc. But there may finally be signs of a shift in the idiotic wellness paradigm. In the UK, where eco activists have sometimes been arrested hundreds of times for defacing signs or holding vigils and battle harassment from a vast British informant and surveillance network, they've started a sort of "activism therapy" movement to protect dissident mental health. https://www.activist-trauma.net/

The new form of therapy probably won't involve chanting to chase away negative thoughts about Monsanto and the TransPacific Partnership haha.

Hi BSN
AOA is the wrong site for you. Autism is medical. It's a neurodevelopmental and metabolic disorder affecting every organ in in the body. It is not primarily a mental issue.
Does BSN stand for Bull-shit nurse?

DO

In an age when iatrogenic error is the third leading cause of death, and two NEJM editors and other scientists have written books on research fraud, how can anyone naively believe that a site "peer reviewed by medical resources" is automatically trustworthy and educationally current?

Critical readers assess the content of everything their eyes peruse, regardless of its source. Biases are not declared outright; they require effort to locate. Field reports from autism parents come with a stated point of view -- as firsthand witnesses to their children's health status. Which they investigate with an energy and determination generally not found in pay-for-hire health care workers.

As for some parents of high-functioning kids with ASD, there's a smug subset who seem to think they're somehow anointed, rather than merely the recipients of dumb luck because their child didn't get too hard a whack from the vaccine stick.

Angry ?

It is always fun to visit the happy AAP "well baby visit site" until it turns into the "what the hell did you do to my baby"...

Seems there might be a "read this first" link on the AoA site to recap where we are coming from and briefly what has happened the past 20-30 years.

Maybe three or four paragraphs that could be quickly read by someone new to AoA.

Hi Dan,

I could not agree more with your and John's assessment that more people than even reported believe that vaccines do indeed cause autism, and are thus more than likely saying NO to vaccines (Amen to that!). Those controlling the message are in a real bind these days (love that!). When they report the numbers of those not fully compliant with the CDC-recommended vaccine schedule, they want to make it as high as they can to scare people into both vaccinating and ostracizing/marginalizing/attacking those who choose not to vaccinate. YET, there is a fine line to toe. If they report it as too high, then those vaccinating will seriously question and begin to wonder what the rest of the populace knows that they don't know. I just love this current predicament that Big Pharma, government regulators, vaccine-pushing doctors, and the ignorant/apathetic/corrupt media are in...puts a big smile on my face. Quite a little pickle they presently face :)

The good news is that Americans are FINALLY on to the fact that vaccines are NEITHER safe nor effective. As a matter of fact, they are immune-system, nervous-system, and GI-system DESTROYERS. And as we see over and over again, they don't work! But for one example...if the DTaP worked, why would it need to be given 5 times by age 4-6? (Not to mention that those who have received all of those doses STILL get pertussis during "outbreaks"!)

For any newbies to AoA reading this, ask yourselves this question (after reading a couple of vaccine package inserts): Would you allow someone to feed your baby a bottle filled with the ingredients found in vaccines? (e.g. mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, polysorbate 80, antifreeze, human viruses, animal viruses, aborted fetal tissue, monkey cells, chicken embryo cells, and goodness knows what all as not all ingredients are required to be listed as some can be considered "proprietary", and thus, you the consumer apparently have no need or right to know). I suspect that if a babysitter fed your baby a bottle with these ingredients, you'd be calling 911 to have them arrested. Well, ironically, your baby would stand a better chance of not being harmed by all of these dangerous and unhealthy ingredients if they entered via the GI tract versus being injected directly into muscle tissue and the bloodstream. And keep in mind that the human vascular system has no means to break down proteins...that is to be done in the GI tract prior to entering the bloodstream. YET, vaccines contain proteins, which cause an inflammatory response because the bloodstream has no means of dealing with them. To make matters worse, we don't know exactly when the blood-brain barrier closes (although it truly never completely closes), but researchers don't think it happens before age 2. Thus, all of those neurotoxic heavy metals in the vaccines have unfettered access to your baby's brain, where they might just like to take up permanent residence and do a world of harm.

Thanks, Dan, for being a true investigative reporter who is not beholden to corrupt and evil agendas that are destroying the health, well-being, development, ability to work/function, and longevity of our entire population.

I've been in (adult) medicine for decades. I can say from my experience that many of us in healthcare are becoming disillusioned. It's becoming clear that pharmaceutical companies manipulate science, control medical practices and even control governmental policies that affect our practices. One would have to be blind to not see the corruption. And it's not just about the vaccines. There was a recent article in Medscape entitled 'The Reasons Behind the Rise in Autism'. (You can only access it if you have an account.) While the article had blaring omissions, I found the comments section enlightening. Many doctors and nurses/NPs chimed in on their theories, with vaccines and other environmental triggers being discussed. Schools of Nursing and Medicine still control the message, but once she's out in practice her observations may re-educate her.

First she said that she couldn't access the information on AoA then, in a huff, she said she read the site and we sound angry. Dan, you had her number and she didn't like it. The intent was to put AoA on the black list - that was the reason for this little sleuthing assignment. Too bad they dont teach students to think critically in nursing school.