Foundation for Autism Research & Information Presents Documentary: The Missing Piece
Autism The Missing Piece: A non partisan documentary addressing the challenges and financial crisis of autism spectrum disorders in The United States. Watch below or on YouTube https://youtu.be/2uSsVjJbH0I or at Fair Autism Media
Subjects covered include:
Advocacy, Policy and Legislation,
CDC and the escalating prevalence rates of autism
Adult Transition and Services
Co-occurring Medical Conditions
Autism Insurance
The Autism Financial Crisis
By Anne Dachel
Senior CDC autism researcher sounds alarm over the fact that the “broadest increase” in autism is among children with the “highest level of impairment,” and he explains how the agency plans to cover up the numbers
Every once in a while a film comes with really stunning information from very credible sources. That’s how I would describe the release of a documentary called, The Missing Piece produced by Michael Smith, Executive Director Foundation for Autism Information and Research.
It’s a film about autism. It focuses on the very real increase in the rate of autism and what a lot of experts have to say about it. Included are interviews by Smith with people like Dr. David Amaral, Research Director at UC Davis MIND Institute, Rick Rollens, Former Secretary of the California State Senate, Co-Founder of the U.C. Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, and autism lobbyist in California, Sheri Marino, to Autism Think Tank/Autism Healthcare Collaborative (or now Autism Healthcare collaborative), Dr. Walter Zahorodny, Director of the New Jersey Autism Study and the leading researcher for the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM).
Dr. Walter Zahorodny says that he’s has been working on autism since 2000, and he’s responsible for the New Jersey autism numbers, considered the most accurate in the country at one in every 34 children. He’s an insider and his views have a lot of credibility.
There are a number of topics covered in this film, but what was most intriguing were the comments on what the autism numbers really are and what we’re going to have to deal with in the not-too-distant future. I transcribed the entire film, but I wanted to share the parts that truly spell disaster.
Zahorodny begins his comments by rejecting the claim that all the autism in children today is simply the result of better diagnosing.
I’m always struck by the fact that people think the prevalence is increasing because we’re just getting better at identifying subtly affected children.
That’s definitely not the case.
Autism is going up and has increased significantly across every group that we look at: boys and girls, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, all up significantly. Children from rich communities and poor towns, up significantly.
Zahorodny goes on to sound an alarm about what’s happening, using terms like tsunami, crisis and epidemic, words we’ve never heard from officials at the CDC. And not only are the increases real, but the biggest increase is in children with the most severe form of autism.
Interestingly enough, we’ve seen the widest or the broadest increase among the children who have the highest level of impairment of autism, not the subtle, mild levels of impairment.
So I do consider escalating autism prevalence to be a public health crisis.
The cliché now to me, epidemic is a cliché. People talk about it in many different ways. The public’s not sensitive to that term anymore.
If there’s a stronger term, I’d be in favor of using it.
But when we saw autism prevalence go from one to two percent, nobody objected or seemed concerned, and now we’ve gone from two percent to three percent, and I also see no significant concern or urgency.
On the other hand, we’re seen autism escalating very progressively in the last 10 and 15 years, and I’m a little bit concerned why nobody really sees this tsunami right there in front of us.
We saw a very significant rise in prevalence between the 2012 and 2014 cycle. It was over 25 percent in a 2 year period. That’s very significant.
Because of his research, Zahorodny is sure the autism numbers for the U.S. are worse than what the CDC admits to.
You can’t understand what has to happen for these children unless you know how many are affected.
And this is the beginning. This is the way that you appreciate the scope of the problem.
We know, we do surveillance in Essex, Hudson and Union Counties. They’re part of the New York metropolitan region, and if our rate is three percent, I would bet that the rate in all of your suburban, urban New York counties would be the same.
Michael Smith adds this about Zahorodny’s findings:
One of the most compelling epidemiological studies that I’ve seen in recent history is the study from Dr. Zahorodny in New Jersey showing that 4.4 percent of the boys in the State of New Jersey now have an autism spectrum disorder.
What is troubling about that study is the fact that we know that not all of these kids are diagnosed by age four, and the real rates could be as high as six percent.
If we look at the fact of how many of these kids have an intellectual disability or nonverbal, we could be looking at a situation in New Jersey right now where three percent of these boys are going to grow up to be non-verbal and have an intellectual disability, the term we use now instead of mental retardation.
So that’s very troubling, and I’m really concerned why other states are not making epidemiological studies a major priority so that they can manage the crisis that they have upon them in their states right now.
Zahorodny actually accuses the CDC of ignoring the autism disaster along with the media.
For some reason, the CDC has been very effective in massaging the message in the last few years, and whatever the CDC offers as a bullet point or two, invariably winds up being repeated almost verbatim in the leading press reports, and then everybody else copies those.
I find that there’s very little independent investigation by the media. …
… they don’t really know how to address the problem. I’m certain that people there understand the magnitude and the scope of the crisis, but if you don’t have any way of explaining it to the public, it’s embarrassing to come forward and say, we’ve seen autism, a significant developmental disorder, rise 200 percent and we don’t know why that is.
I can say that because I’m not a public health authority, but if one of my main responsibilities was trying to project a sense of confidence and authority, I wouldn’t be repeating that I don’t understand why an important problem is occurring.
Finally Zahorodny reveals what can only be seen as a sinister plan coming from the CDC. Instead of addressing the autism epidemic with the full force of a multi-billion dollar institution, they’re plotting to cover it all up by changing the counting method.
…we were surprised, or at least I was surprised a week or two ago when we had a webinar with the CDC during which all the investigators that are going to continue doing surveillance were notified that the methodology is going to be changing and changing, I’d say, rather dramatically.
Instead of really doing active case finding going forward, the CDC now wants us to only identify children who have already received an autism diagnosis by age eight.
That’s a lot simpler. It’s a lot more efficient, but it’s going to give us no information about the expression of autism, and it will certainly suppress the estimate of autism prevalence.
My co-investigator took a look at this a few days ago, and she found that if we used the new, the proposed methodology in 2014, instead of the traditional active case finding methodology, our rate wouldn’t have been 29.3 per thousand, it would be 21 per thousand.
So there’s a gigantic difference between two percent and three percent.
Michael Smith posed this question to Zahorodny:
If the rates are going to be suppressed by 20 to 30 percent under the new methodology, can we expect the CDC to issue press releases next year saying, that the prevalence rates of autism are going down when we know that they’re actually still going up, but they’ve just changed the methodology?
Zahorodny: I’m not so sure that the public health authorities really grasp this even in New Jersey and probably not in New York.
I don’t think that they really appreciate the magnitude of the health crisis, but something has to wake those people up because they’re the ones who can pass the laws and shift the policy decisions so as to be ready to help.
Other autism experts expressed their fears over the lack of any official action to address the autism crisis.
Rick Rollens in California:
[I]t’s the number one public health crisis in our country. There’s no doubt. It’s at this level that when we’re adding one new child every 42 minutes in the State of California with autism, something has got to be done….
California is really under the gun. We’ve now established waiting lists for services, which has never happened before in our state, because we can’t pay providers the rate that they need to stay in business to serve this very challenging population.
Sheri Marino, speech pathologist:
It’s a public health crisis because at the rate we’re going, we’re not going to be able to sustain this. This is a bubble that’s going to burst.
We can’t afford, as it is, the educational needs and the therapeutic needs and now we have the medical needs on top that we’re just [now] understanding.
One slide summed up what the autism price tag will mean for the United States:
Within the next decade the projected annual cost of autism will exceed annual cost of social security in the United States
Why don’t we ever hear the truth about what autism is doing to all of us?
Anne Dachel transcribed the dialogue here: Download The Missing Piece Transcribed By Anne Dachel
That is right Julie there is that fourth layer. The upper middle class.
The doctors and all that surrounds medical care.
Posted by: Benedetta | May 01, 2022 at 08:26 AM
Joe Elle, Contact this company: https://www.paxmedica.com/pipeline if you are interested in enrolling your child in a study.
According to Dr. Naviaux at a recent TACA conference, two studies are needed, 300 children at 30 sites in North America for 6 months. The earliest Suramin will be available is 3 years. The treatment will be once per month for 3 to 6 months. They don't know how long it will last. Dr. N thinks Suramin will help with 20 different disorders. My worry is the company will prioritize drug development based on return on investment. If other disorders will bring greater financial return for investors, development of the drug for ASD will be further delayed.
Posted by: Autism Mom | April 30, 2022 at 01:01 PM
Suramin? Hello? Anyone know what happened to the expanded study Dr Naviaux was conducting? It’s way overdue and crickets …
Posted by: Joe Elie | April 29, 2022 at 10:44 PM
Yes, Benedetta, and then there is the fourth layer where all the doctors, speech and language specialists and other specialties who make a good sum of money from the whole vaccine injury industry and these people sit by, knowing that the vaccines are causing major damage but turning a blind eye or seeing but refusing to call it out or raise alarm. Some acknowledge the increase in numbers of autism and some even say that the numbers are undercounted, but it is a rare one of these doctors or autism specialists who calls out vaccines as the root of the damage. They are the ones who should be shouting from the rooftops. Their gravy train is too good for them to give up. They would rather keep the peace, and in many instances, continue giving more vaccines, fully knowing the damage they are inflicting. If there are any that don't know, it is because they are refusing to look and listen.
Posted by: Julie | April 29, 2022 at 09:37 AM
There was a school district in New Jersey that just reported 1 out of 14 has autism.
I believe that one more that 1 of 34. Things are moving right along with the plan
The people in charge wants this.
This is part of the population control.
They keep the rising numbers tone down and calm- by their none reaction and control of the medical federal agencies and WHO. So we can say with all the alarm the numbers are sky rocketing, and there will be no civilization, so please pay attention - well they are. They are. Like a murderer that likes to watch the light go out of their victim's eyes.
RF Kennedy Jr's. book spells it out for us. .
You got the uppity, really rich billionaires like Bill Gates, Kaus Scwwab, Kissinger, Soros at the top; making the policy. Number one on their policy list is eugenics.
Under them you have lots of want to be young global leaders, that will do what it takes to please the billionaires. Examples are: Justin Trudeau, and Biden (young is a newspeak for corrupt and will sell your soul and your mother for the right price) . There are plenty of them, those at the top and those waiting in the wings to take their place. . This second layer types are getting their rewards from pharma companies. The latest example is the pharma pumping money into Penn State every time Biden gets another law pass to force us to take more vaccines. Penn State puts a lot of that money into the big nest egg of Biden's Penn state think tank. It is waiting for him there. .
The third layer are those Fauci types that get money from the tax payer to buy medical equipment, but instead buy huge amounts of small pox vaccines: Because they own the small pox vaccine factory. There are a lot of these types, and Kennedy named a lot of them.
Oh which I would imagine would include:
Hunter Biden, board member, part owner of companies that get tax payer money, to pass onto another company that does research and then passes more of that money and research to make things like the covid 19 so there will be demand for vaccines,
Posted by: Benedetta | April 29, 2022 at 08:51 AM
Michael,
Firstly, I do not live in the US. Secondly, I am not a parent of a vaccine injured child. I am an aunt of a beautiful boy whose life was heavily impacted by vaccine injury. I am also a teacher who has watched the health (physical,mental, intellectual....) of children deteriorate over decades. It seems to me that they are waiting to get to the 1 in 2 diagnosed with autism before the situation is seriously looked at. Like many/most people who see this problem, I write, I phone, I distribute information, I contact media, I write and phone the politicians and I protest, protest and protest, vigil, vigil, vigil. For many hours of every week, I am doing something. I constantly use the Brian Hooker 2 minute strategy; steer any conversation to vaccine injury after two minutes talking with a stranger. What notice is taken of us? Pretty much zilch, so far. In Australia, we do not have independent free to air small tv stations. We don't even have local newspapers anymore. Our mainstream media have been told they cannot report vaccine industry. It will simply not be given a voice, and anyone who challenges the narrative is derided as a crazy anti-vaxxer. We do not, as you do in the US, have free speech enshrined in law.
It sounds like a complaint to you? Well too bad. I will keep complaining. I didn't offer a solution? I thought it was pretty obvious; until we get all these professionals who have made great careers for themselves working with the ever growing number of vaccine injured to actually start calling out what the damn problems are caused by, well, we can pretty much give up on a solution. Here, on this video, we have a large amount of professionals who could easily get together and, on masse, do something like stand together, walk together, get themselves noticed, protest together. There are many professionals who know what the problem is. Most want to keep quiet and keep doing their jobs., while watching more and more lives be destroyed. The few brave ones get out on their own. Not that many. I have lost my job due to mandates. If all the 'professionals' started making noise instead of just leaving it to the one or two brave ones, the problem could be solved. Imagine going to a doctor for a vaccine, to be told they were not giving them anymore!!!!!
I might watch to the end when I am in a better mood.
Posted by: Julie | April 28, 2022 at 09:06 PM
We are also the parents of an adult son with autism and he is now in his 30's and we are in our late 60's.
We have been living with the stress and constant demands of caring for our son for so many very hard years and are exhausted and very discouraged. We want him to live with us and he wants to stay with his family and older brother. He also has epilepsy and has had many grand mal seizures and to watch him in that state is truly heartbreaking. We need the funding from the NIH or CDC or some rich people or person who can provide the funding for research into the clinical trials for medications that will reverse our children's condition. I have mentioned here before that we have a doctor who is based in California by the name of Michael Goldberg who has written a book called The Myth of Autism in which he writes that our children are suffering from an illness he calls "neuroimmune dysfunction syndrome." He needs the funding to run the clinical trials for medications known as immune modulators that would correct this dysfunction and actually be a CURE for our children's illness. We need people like Elon Musk or Jeff Besos to provide the money for this endeavor that would save a whole generation of children and adults from a lifetime of a condition that is really an illness and can be treated and reversed. I am writing this to try and get his message out there for anyone willing to listen and hope that somehow this can become a reality when we get the attention of the medical world or the right people who care about this autism epidemic. Otherwise we must live forever to continue taking care of our loved ones and that is just not possible.
Posted by: Gayle | April 28, 2022 at 08:34 PM
"We have to elevate this issue above all others (Cancer, Diabetes, etc). That is the challenge. "
The fix:
CALL ALL VACCINE INJURY DENIERS RACISTS!
Spread this message widely, and you too can cash in on the $BILLIONS of Covid dollars funneled to the public schools. Here's what they spent it on:
Blue States Used Democrat-Passed Coronavirus Relief Funds to Implement CRT in Schools
“the law provided over $122 billion for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER), which helped multiple states implement ‘implicit bias’ and ‘anti-racism’ training, among other programs, according to research from One Nation shared with and verified by Fox News Digital.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/04/28/blue-states-used-democrat-passed-coronavirus-relief-funds-to-implement-crt-in-schools/
Demand that the money go to special ed services for the vaccine injured (AKA ASD) as reparations. Advertise far and wide, the CDC coverup (fraud) of the higher risk of autism for African American males. Refer them to TheHighWire.com to see the film VAXXED for free. Strike while the iron is hot.
Spread this message far wide wide on Twitter.
Posted by: Emmaphiladelphia | April 28, 2022 at 06:50 PM
Julie,
You really should watch the rest because it is up to YOU and other parents to show legislators these numbers and magnitude of the public health crisis. There is an entire 10 minute chapter on how to be a more effective legislative advocate and why it must be a priority for people like yourself who are almost certainly very challenged raising a child or adult with autism. I personally get really annoyed with people identifying a obvious problem but seldom do anything to try and affect change. If you have time to write on a blog you have time to call your elected offcials. Be a resource to them. Call the media and aske them to cover it. The smaller local TV affiliates and other smaller publication will cover it. Most parents will never even try. I am particularly concerned about almost nonexistant advocacy among younger generation of parents. There is a saying in politics "You know why an issue is important? Becuase a person /constituent told their elected official it is important" It is even more important to them when they see the media covering it. Julie , I didn't see you list one solution and that is a big part of the problem. It just reads like a bunch of time wasting complaining to me. We have to elevate this issue above all others (Cancer, Diabetes, etc). That is the challenge. I know for a fact 99.9% of autism parents have never engaged their public health officials or elected officials. The last full day scheduled autism hearing at our NY State Capitol, before Covid, and that was well promoted months resulted in only about 5 parents and about 20-25 others in a giant state auditorium hearing room that seats about 700 people. Most of the 20-25 were from agencies and there to ensure their funding streats from tax revenue were secure. Julie, It is up to us to sound the alarm. I know it is not fair, but, we have to ndo more if we want to see things change. Please watch the chapter on legislative advocacy. Awesome Job Anne Dachel. You are making a difference. Thank you for being proactive and keeping a focus on this issue.
Posted by: Michael Smith | April 28, 2022 at 12:48 PM
Bill, why on earth would you think that people with autism have less entitlement to social services than anyone else in need of them? What a horrid thing to say.
BTW, vaccine injury is underdiagnosed, not over diagnosed.
Posted by: Julie | April 28, 2022 at 09:54 AM
As a mother of twin 19 year old sons, both non-verbal and autistic, I can attest to the burdensome cost of raising a child(ren), and, in most cases similar to the severity of disability as my sons, who will live with my husband and I until we are no longer here. I often feel guilty when I think to myself, “if the world spent ½ the amount of resources in terms of funding, focus, medical advancement and understanding to autism as we have with COVID, we might have more autistic people speaking and being able to live independently.” Unless you live in this world, one can’t possibly have an understanding of the demand, both physically and emotionally to care for this population. It takes certain qualities and behavioral attributes to “work” with my sons that are not found in a $15 or $20 per hour “typical” job. My husband and I will be working the rest of our lives until we amass enough funding to pay someone $125k per year to live in our home with no expenses and “be me” to care for what will most likely be 35 – 45 year olds, until God takes them home. Do the math, that could be 40+ years. I’m not trusting our government to be able to handle this. We don’t know if we’ll be able to do it, yet I’m not quitting on my sons. And, I don’t know of many families who survive well under this pressure.
FYI, I lived in Union County NJ, my twin sons were premature (34 weeks) and yes they were vaccinated against the CDC schedule until they were ~ 2.5 years old. They were walking at 11 months and doing typical 12 – 18 month old things…until things changed. Am available to share details, cost breakdowns, therapies, etc over the years for anyone needing data to put a spotlight on this need.
Posted by: Maggievhessel | April 28, 2022 at 09:48 AM
I could only watch about a third of the way through before my frustration level peaked and I couldn't take any more. Why the hell are these so called experts not screaming at the top of their lungs? I am sure many of them realise (and if they don't, then they do not deserve their jobs) that these problems, previously so rare that most teachers had not even heard of the word 'autism', are caused by vaccines.
They should be calling it out and making themselves loud. Instead, they sit around, and ponder how they can coordinate yet more doctors and educational specialists who are making careers from the damage done to children by vaccines. They make documentaries that are only seen by parents of vaccine injured children and say a few critical words against the CDC but do they call out the BS about the whole vaccine industry? No, no and no. Their jobs are probably too important to them, just like the doctors who will not speak out about the Covid 19 rubbish. I'd really like to swear here but I will hold myself back. I am sorry to criticise if people here think this is great for their children, and I know it probably is very helpful but how many times do these people who are making their livings from injured children shout from the rooftops and call out where the blame lies? For crying out loud, watching these people is much, much worse than watching paint dry!!
The more I watched of the documentary, the more I thought about how many different professions were making careers (and some very profitable ones) from the whole autism epidemic. Sometimes I don't think they want to shout from the rooftops because they would then eventually lose their careers. Imagine if vaccines were halted today, how many of these specialties would even be needed in time to come. We have specialties today that I'd never heard of when I started teaching for conditions that I had never heard of then but are common today. Every time I pass major hospitals and look at the vast amount of buildings in their grounds, I imagine how many less would be needed if nobody ever had a (swear word) vaccine!!! These people would be out of jobs. Maybe the rest of the video was better. Sorry if I've spoke too soon.
Posted by: Julie | April 28, 2022 at 09:46 AM
Autism is a public health issue but over diagnosis of autism is not the answer. It adds to a back log and wait list for services like speech and occupational therapy or for affordable housing. I suggest autism parents start intentional communities with paid and volunteer caregivers and medical professionals to take the burden of over loaded social services.
Take a look at the webpage for ALUT an autism related charity in Israel. That organization has trained and background checked volunteers to the benefit of those with autism why not in the US or Canada.
Posted by: Bill | April 28, 2022 at 09:12 AM