Students Sending Emails Asking Unusual Questions about Vaccines and Autism
Good morning. Recently, I have received emails from people claiming to be students, asking for "help with research". The topic is autism and/or vaccinations. A friend in my town's son was asked to write a point/counterpoint on vaccine choice - in SEVENTH GRADE.
Last week, an email asked me to explain the vaccine autism link for a school project. By the time I would have answered, the kid would be celebrating his 25th high school reunion. I got another such an email yesterday.
Lauren XXXXXXX (Student) <[email protected]>
I’m so sorry to bother you, but I must say I’m offended by your publications. I am 16 years old and am living with high-functioning autism. I build my own computers. I am a master of economics. I am not a victim of a vaccination. I am not a side effect or mistake. I am an upgrade. Your blog makes me feel bad about myself. I am somebody, not a disease. I have autism, but autism isn’t me. Stop writing to make me feel like I wasn’t meant to be.
Sincerely, Rose Mxxxxxxxxx
A student says she wants us to stop publishing because we offend her. Oh honey, welcome to the world. I'm never rude to children who contact me. Or any reader, or faux reader. I gain nothing by whipping out my Snark guns. I borrowed dear Dan Olmsted's response to almost every email he got: "We always enjoy hearing from our readers." If I were to answer her in full. And I will not, I would tell her I do not think she is a mistake. Or a side effect. Her autism might be though. I would encourage her studies and her work and hope she is kind to the students in her school who have disabling autism, like my girls. I said none of this to her. I don't engage young people in this way - it's rhetorical. If she is genuine, I wish her well.
Kids should be thinking about prom and a first kiss and their first time voting and a driver's license. They should be worried about college debt, and maybe STDs and pregnancy. But vaccination? It feels fabricated. What do you think?
I agree, Benedetta, why do they either want much of the attention and money given for autism for themselves or not want ANYONE on the spectrum to get any of them, being mortally offended if ANYONE gets any? Guess it must be from the damage to the social center of their brain. Otherwise known as self-centeredness. Yeah, I guess they are on the spectrum.
Posted by: cia parker | May 08, 2019 at 12:11 PM
Well if they are so brilliant, and gifted, and all that; what makes them even care about some label? What makes them come a snooping around some website?
What are their problems if all is so wonderful, that made them take time off of their gifted world and make some statement of how offended they were?
I mean if life is so good why are they not really busy with a social life, of partying, dating, getting married, working, having children?
Posted by: Benedetta | May 07, 2019 at 03:54 PM
I think bright, often Aspie, teens are fully capable of writing these emails. Remember the kid, Marco something, several years ago who got his video to go viral (totally pharma-sponsored) with the gimmick of these are the studies on vaccines causing autism (blank sheaf of papers flutters to the ground). They get off on being sciencey, in-the-know, superior, super-intelligent, and putting down those who have learned that vaccines are often disabling or fatal.
Aspies (of whom I and my brother are two, from encephalitic reactions to the DPT at three months old) HAVE been brain-damaged by vaccines, but the nature of the damage is much less severe than it is for autism. It may have to do with how long the encephalitis lasted, my daughter screamed for four days and nights reacting to the hep-B vaccine at birth. I think, though, that though the cause is the same, vaccine brain damage, the results are so different that I think they should be considered separate conditions. Most Aspies can function independently in the world and use and understand language, often very competently. Most autists can do neither, and need and deserve a lot more attention and supports.
Posted by: cia parker | May 07, 2019 at 01:09 PM
I agree with so much of what has already been written, but I'm puzzled by some of the comments. We seem to agree that there is a wide spectrum in ASD, but to some "quirky and nerdy" doesn't qualify. It should be remembered that "autism" does not have a biological test, and neither do ADHD, Dyslexia and many of those new conditions with long names. In the "high-functioning" the symptoms may not be apparent on the outside, and also, someone in their fifties or older will have learned much earlier in life to hide them. Would you know if someone is suffering severe gut pain, or is struggling to understand your true meaning in what you're saying, or lets out their distressed behaviour after they get home? People like me who discover from books that we have this condition always express huge relief to find out at last what has been causing their symptoms. And of course, as we all know, the doctors will have been covering up the real diagnosis all of their lives. It's all vaccine injury, so by definition it will range from severe to imperceptible. When the neuro-diverse tribe finally find out that they've actually been poisoned I hope we will be ready to accept them into our midst.
Posted by: Grace Green | May 07, 2019 at 08:34 AM
Almost certainly a fabrication. You will find similar comments all over the internet from persons purporting to be young and autistic. They are invariably anonymous.
**********
Absolutely a fabrication, they are above nothing when it comes to shaming us into silence.
It's like that John Elder Robinson character.... the self diagnosed 'autist', who likes to come here and tell US what autism really looks like. What a joke.
Posted by: Barry | May 07, 2019 at 07:00 AM
Autism is the 'new black.' It is a fashion fad with the label applied to kids who once would have just been seen as 'nerdy.' It fits the bill in the modern age to be other, different, special, exceptional and is a total betrayal of kids suffering from real Autism.
Posted by: rosross | May 06, 2019 at 08:44 PM
Many times I have been referred a client who was haphazardly diagnosed with Autism and after working with the person in my sessions on a 1 to 1 basis, it turns out that he or she is Dyslexic but not autistic. Dyslexics also present social skill problems and appear Out of Sync much of the time. Kids with ADHD are often misdiagnosed as well.
Posted by: Shelley Tzorfas | May 06, 2019 at 08:35 PM
On the internet anyone can be anybody. They could be legitimate students who have been influenced (brainwashed) at school (like we see with global warming kids) or paid astroturfers whose intent is to harrass.
Based on some of the comments I would point out that autism existed before MMR and the crazy vaccination schedule that began in the late 80’s. My cousin has severe autism and is in his 50’s living in a home for autistic adults. Indeed its possible that there other cofactors in addition to vaccines that are behind autism. Wireless radiation has increased at a similar rate as vaccinations and we are only beginning to understand the biological effects of this electrosmog, but the young are likely more susceptible during their neurodevelopment years.
Frankly speaking some adults in their 50’s and 60’s likely would have been diagnosed with a high functioning ASD if they grew up today although I understand the classification for ASD has recently been made more strict. We may be seeing a plateau in new cases once the tougher diagnostic criteria gets fully rolled out
Posted by: Pft | May 06, 2019 at 07:25 PM
If someone is attempting to argue with you by trying to disqualify you (eg they are "offended" or you don't have whatever qualifications you are supposed to have) then your response should be to go all out on attack and don't under any circumstances hold back no matter how much they beg for mercy.
Your response to the sort of material that "neurodiversity" people come up with is to say:
"That's funny. If wanting to prevent autism makes someone a bigot then clearly wanting to prevent limpness with the polio vaccine means that you must hate people with paralysis. And you must hate people with a congenital defect if you support the rubella vaccine. And you must hate men who are sterile if you support the mumps vaccine.
Of course, paralysis, congenital defects and sterility have not actually fallen since the polio, rubella and mumps vaccines and vaccines are all worthless but pro-vaxers believe they have which means that they are all evil bigots who hate disabled people."
Always take their weapons and turn it around against them. If their arguments were logical then you wouldn't be able to do this but they are all nonsense.
If you stick to my three arguments - doctor offices being filled with germs, doctors ddx using vaccine status and pointing out that nobody has ever observed a virus jumping from one person to another and immediately causing illness you demolish their beliefs in a valid way that they will have no useful comeback for. And then whatever they say to defend themselves, you just turn it against them.
Posted by: Rtp | May 06, 2019 at 06:22 PM
I have a very close friend in his 50s who is starting to claim that he thinks he has autism, like it's a badge of honor. I try to tell him that quirky and nerdy does not equal autism. There is a spectrum here that is lost on most people. You have the high functioning autistic who learn differently, are many times brilliant, savant in some cases (like my son's good friend), and then you have 20 year olds still in diapers who smear their shit on the walls and self-harm. All are on the spectrum. I dare anyone to show me a person on this spectrum who has NOT been vaccinated with the full schedule, born after, say, 1994. I think you'd be hard-pressed. There is a link between vaccinations and autism, and for some reason it shows up after the MMR at around 18mos-2 years old. There is no denying this. Too many parents tell the same exact story. These are the facts. Autism shows in many different ways, but something triggers it. What is that something? These are the answers we want. Until then, you should be able to choose your own path to health, and that may or may not include vaccination.
Posted by: Warriormama1019 | May 06, 2019 at 02:43 PM
I have read this site faithfully for years and I have not seen articles that victimize anyone let alone label someone a side effect or mistake. Why misrepresent? Reporting on special education, law enforcement, science and the politics surrounding the rapid, relentless increase in autism must continue as long as autism includes the inability to communicate and function independently. As for school assignments, I doubt vaccine injury is in the curriculum. I would ask what books the complainer has read on this subject. Age of Autism by Dan Olmstead and Mark Blaxill? Evidence of Harm by David Kirby? How to End the Autism Epidemic by J.B. Handley? Perhaps seeing documentaries like The Greater Good or Trace Amounts, would help her understand the plight of parents, and those affected by autism, who experience seizures, chronic infections, constipation and the sensory processing problems that ride along with the diagnosis. The suggestion that this site should not exist deeply offends me.
Posted by: Beleaguered Autism Mom | May 06, 2019 at 12:36 PM
Kim, My high functioning 28 year old is now a student at the Futures film school in Livermore California. The school serves people with developmental disabilities most of them with autism.
Last year he attended an autism event and heard a young man give a toastmaster speech about how you can do anything even if you have autism etc. He came away so angry that the young man wasn't telling the truth.
Now he is passionate about making a film about his own life and experiences. A screenwriter teacher at the school has agreed to help him. I don't know how this will turn out, but wanted to share with you his outrage about people denying the pain of his actual experience.
(Readers may remember his film on skateboarding: youtube Peter Kangas Relocated. )
Posted by: Anna Quandt | May 06, 2019 at 11:36 AM
Everyone is offended by something these days. I live in a very liberal state and even people here are getting tired of the PC crap.
This morning, I was taking an Uber and my driver was a young man about to start his Masters the upcoming fall. I was poking fun at the PC ideology, gender studies being unnecessary, etc. and he agreed with me and said I was fun to talk to. Granted, as someone who speaks with an accent I can probably get away with more stuff than others.
Posted by: Natalie | May 06, 2019 at 11:31 AM
Kim, this could be either a genuine neurodiversity activist or a phony troll, but it hardly matters, because they both parrot the same party line. Of course they systematically misrepresent us: AoA has never said that autistic people "weren't meant to be".
Yes, we do say that autistic people are sick, often terribly sick, and in many cases the disease is fatal: consider all the autism-related deaths from seizures, drownings, and accidents. As neurodiversity partisans usually do, this young woman ignores the existence of low-functioning autistic people. And she reveals an unconscious prejudice that pervades the neurodiversity movement: they stigmatize neurological illness. They feel "offended" if you tell them that autism is a disease, because they think it's shameful to have a disease of the mind. Of course, doctors tell patients every day that they're sick: are those doctors "offensive"? In stark contrast, Alcoholics Anonymous starts by getting its members to admit that they have a disease. And if that approach is right for alcoholism, why is it wrong for autism?
In addition, to put it bluntly, this young woman is a racist. She thinks she belongs to a species of superhumanity endowed with intellectual powers superior to those of ordinary people: "I am an upgrade". This delusion is central to neurodiversity as an ideology. As I pointed out in my review of Edith Sheffer's "Asperger's Children", this myth originated with Hans Asperger, a Nazi sympathizer and a mass murderer of mentally handicapped children. It was popularized by Steve Silberman and the neurodiversity movement, who treated Asperger as their ideological forefather, but the notion that some groups are born with superbrains is "scientific" racism pure and simple, with no basis is real science. By all means point this out whenever a neurodiversity activist hassles you.
Yes, some autistic individuals achieve great things, but they do so in spite of the huge obstacles autism throws in their path. Autism never made anyone a genius, but it has destroyed many potential geniuses.
Posted by: Jonathan Rose | May 06, 2019 at 10:15 AM
Jenny Allan,
This is my own conclusion too after many years debating these people, it is a comment that appears like clockwork in comments sections "I'm autistic and I'm offended!", just like many of the other soundbites that appear e.g. "There's more mercury in a tuna sandwich". When you debate these posters they will follow a similar pattern, and simply keep moving goalposts; their behavior is clearly not organic.
Posted by: Pete | May 06, 2019 at 09:56 AM
Just as you thought is was safe to send them to school again...
With spring in the air, and court cases going against Monsanto, thought it might be worth bringing up, that schools with Monsanto invented artificial grass playing areas, get spayed around now with Monsanto Roundup or some other equally unpleasant chemical. Make sure your local educational establishments use alternatives.
Here is an article with some tips on how to go about it: The Surprising Connection Between Cancer and Sports By Ty Bollinger
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/artificial-turf-cancer/
Posted by: Pogo | May 06, 2019 at 08:56 AM
It is entirely fabricated. Students aren’t interested in the actual information or debate.
They are only interested in pleasing their teachers or whoever put them up to this.
That being said, most “high functioning” autistic youngsters have bought into the neuro diversity movement and genuinely believe they are the next step in evolution. It is narcissism, ignorance and willful denial blended together
Posted by: Joseph | May 06, 2019 at 08:38 AM
> I am a master of economics.
...but no great shakes at constitutional law, eh?
First Amendment much?
Sorry. Couldn't resist.
~Ken
Posted by: Kenneth Sizer | May 06, 2019 at 08:37 AM
Almost certainly a fabrication. You will find similar comments all over the internet from persons purporting to be young and autistic. They are invariably anonymous.
Several years ago I was naive enough to engage with someone claiming to be a sixteen year old autistic girl. She was denigrating Dr Wakefield. I gently stated she had been misinformed about the work of Dr Wakefield and his clinician colleagues at the Royal Free Hospital, but that didn't stop the lies. When I 'gently' stated her comments were libellous and could result in a fine, she shut up.
Later I found out she was a 40 year old troll.
Kim you are doing the right thing by refusing to engage with these persons. They are looking for information to use against you.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | May 06, 2019 at 08:36 AM
Defence as a Devils Advocate:
Think this is a genuine point of view being expressed. Like many people that have learned to overcome what ever disability they have, they are proud of their achievement. They want (and deserve) to be recognised as having equal-worth as the rest of us and not be defined by their condition. So is it not understandable that they protest when and where it ‘appears’ otherwise.
Don’t think any of us, would disagree with that, in anyway shape or form.
With Adverse Vaccine Reactions consequences being lumped under the ASD umbrella it is understandable I think, many people who are not up to speed on everything to feel offence, regarding some of the things they read here and else where, if they just dip in and out of blogs.
Just as we have to be wary of unsafe and dubious treatments, many now well functioning people (diagnosed with not only ASD but ME, MS and a host of other conditions) have personally suffered from the efforts to ‘cure’ them.
A favourite, are variations of Applied behaviour Analysis (ABA). Here is an example from an autistic point of view.
https://autisticuk.org/does-aba-harm-autistic-people/
The cure to receiving such emails in the future I believe, is to keep on educating those with open minds, that we are striving to mitigate fully, the effects of vaccine damage, pesticide poisoning, etc. and prevent this from occurring in future.
Posted by: Pogo | May 06, 2019 at 08:31 AM