California has the best autism data in the nation. . .  California has a whole department that has been looking at this stuff for a long time. 
Autism only made up 4.8 percent of our Department of Developmental Services System in1993. Well fast-forward 31 years, and it’s half the case load.

Anyone you talk to in our system which is called the Regional Center System because those are the agencies that actually fund and provide programs for our developmentally disabled citizens, will tell you that they’ve seen this exact trend.  . . . 

They’ve been seeing a manifest, obvious objective difference in the characteristics of the people who are now in the system compared to the people who were in the system. . .  in the 90s. . . .

The programs that were set up in California to serve these people, most of them are completely unprepared to serve at least those who are more severely disabled by autism.  . . .

 We see this dramatic increase in our Medicaid population. The autism population there more than tripled. . . . Again we see these dramatic increases but mostly in these younger age groups.

Escher talked about other countries experiencing the same thing. She cited Northern Ireland as an example.

. . . from a very recent report from last year. They found 7.3 percent of their school age males had autism, overall, 5 percent.  That’s a crazy number. . . .

 I don’t know why a number like this doesn’t raise the alarm bells.

 This is absolutely potentially catastrophic for Northern Ireland.  . . .

According to Escher, it is impossible that all this is the result of greater awareness, diagnostic substitution or that autism is merely a genetic condition.

The inaction of health officials is inexplicable

She continued.

So this is the greatest medical mystery of our time, and the people who are supposed to be solving this are acting like there is no problem to solve, which should deeply worry us.

We should be very worried about the future of our children and of this country if we don’t figure this out.

Everything Escher said about the exploding autism numbers and the economic and social disaster that they represent echo what I have been writing about for the past 20 years.

 The myths of awareness, better diagnosing, autism genes, and expanded definition do nothing but cover up the reality of autism.

 Something in the environment is changing the brains of our children, and we’re doing nothing to stop it. No one is talking about reducing autism numbers.

 Jill Escher: Denialism must stop. We need answers now.

 I agree, but the answers we have are totally different. She was quick to dismiss vaccines as a culprit.

 Of course it’s not vaccines. Vaccines really can’t explain any of this.

Instead, Escher believes that it’s not the toxins children are exposed to; it’s what has affected the parents.

Our argument is we shouldn’t be looking at our kids. It’s nothing that our kids were exposed to; it’s what we parents were exposed to. . . .

Animal studies have shown that general anesthesia “can change the way our genes act in our sperm and egg.”

If we expose the parents, their children are at higher risk for having disregulation in their brain development, autism traits in their behavior, and that is especially seen in the male offspring. . . .

Next Escher turned things over to Dr. Zahorodny

Dr. Zahorodny's interview starts at 54:45  on the YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ff5TGvmTnw

See the text of the entire talk.

Dr. Zahorodny spoke as a top researcher who’s been working on autism numbers since 2000. Zahorodny is in total agreement with Escher, the rate is truly increasing.

There’s no doubt that autism is much more prevalent than many other childhood disorders and many more, much more common than many frequently encountered childhood diseases.

There’s no doubt as well that while New Jersey’s rate is quite high, we’re not the only region with high rates, but that these high rates are now reflected from data in California. 

Zahorodny had plenty of statistics, all of them pretty dire. He also warned that our current numbers are probably an underestimate.

…autism, in spite of better awareness, better recognition, is still widely under diagnosed.

Zahorodny was asked why CDC officials refuse to say that autism is really increasing, and he said it was because they can’t identify the cause of autism.

It’s uncomfortable to identify a phenomenon and not to be able to explain it. 

If I were to say, if I were to conjecture what a motive could be by some organization such as the CDC, I would be implying something in that direction.

 Without there being a well identified set of hypothetical risk factors, it’s just easier to retreat behind the concept of better awareness. . . .

 We don’t know the risk factors, so the best one can say apparently is that the increase might be due to better awareness or recognition.

 He predicted that the autism rate would continue to increase, and it would again be attributed to greater awareness of health officials.

 Autism prevalence for 2022—that is for the next surveillance cycle—will be higher than found previously. This is inevitable because autism prevalence has not peaked.

 Most likely the next report will mention better awareness and recognition as possible factors bearing on higher estimates.

This is a standard, almost magical Cohen that comes up every time the prevalence estimates are provided.

Zahorodny admitted that experts were clueless as to what is causing all the autism.

 We really don’t understand what’s driving autism prevalence

He was in agreement with Escher that it couldn’t be vaccines.

The first wave of speculation in this field was concerning vaccination and the vaccination hypothesis, though wrong, was very compelling on a number of grounds, and it was very distressing to the Centers for Disease Control to have that hypothesis out there.

Once the hypothesis was debunked or failed to gather evidence, supportive evidence, and no other hypothesis that was compelling enough come into the field, and so we’re kind of stuck repeating the same pseudo explanations. 

 This was Zahorodny’s only advice.

 Since we don’t yet understand, and I see no prospect for understanding the autism risk factors or triggers in the near future, I think it’s very important that we try to promote universal autism screening of toddlers and preschool aged children. . .

I wonder if Dr. Zahorodny remembers an interview he gave in 2012.

Back in April, 2012, Zahorodny was featured on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC radio. During the interview, the host brought up research on the possible causes for autism and he made this comment: 

I guess we know what they aren't, for instance, childhood vaccines, right?

This was Zahorodny's stunning response: 

Vaccines don't play a significant role in autism increasing. Some small number of children probably do have autism because of an adverse vaccine reaction, but they don't make for the overall rise.

Now, twelve year later, he’s sure there is no link.

Escher flatly said, “Of course it’s not vaccines,” but based on what evidence?

Is it the endless pharma-funded studies showing no link?\

Is it the pronouncements of vaccine developer Paul Offit?

It is interesting that Escher and Zahorodny both seem unaware of people like Hannah Poling, the girl in Georgia who, we learned in 2008, was compensated by the federal government for vaccine-induced autism, or the more than 80 cases in Vaccine Court where claimants were quietly awarded compensation for autism caused by vaccines.

What about the words of the late Dr. Bernadine Healy?

In 2008 Dr. Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health, told CBS News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o2R8j4QpBE 

that the science hadn’t been done on vaccines. No one had studied to see if a certain subgroup of children were susceptible to vaccine injury.

It still hasn’t been done.

Sharyl Attkisson at CBS News wrote this about Dr. Healy.

According to Healy, when she began researching autism and vaccines she found credible published, peer-reviewed scientific studies that support the idea of an association. That seemed to counter what many of her colleagues had been saying for years. She dug a little deeper and was surprised to find that the government has not embarked upon some of the most basic research that could help answer the question of a link.

The more she dug, she says, the more she came to believe the government and medical establishment were intentionally avoiding the question because they were afraid of the answer.

The science not done

Where is a simple comparison study of fully vaccinated and never-vaccinated children to compare autism rates? There certainly are enough leery parents out there who’ve exempted their kids from vaccination requirements to find a study group. It would be the proof to finally put the controversy to rest. Somehow, for some reason, officials refuse to consider such a study.

The truth is we have had decades of evidence piling up. Endless studies by well-credentialed experts from top institutions expose the disastrous side effects from our unchecked, unsafe vaccine schedule. Health officials pretend this research doesn’t exist.

No one is interested in studying children who were normally developing and suddenly lost learned skills and regressed into autism. 

NIH reports that a third of children on the autism spectrum experienced regression. This would make a huge study group. Again, no one wants to look.

Dr. Zahorody doesn’t want to consider that CDC officials have a huge motive in denying a real increase each and every time the autism rate worsens; they know countless parents have reported that their normally developing children changed after receiving routine childhood vaccines. This fact lays the blames right on their doorstep.

I have reported on a number of Zahorodny’s interviews over the past five years and his comments are always the same: 

The increase in autism is a real increase.

No one knows why this is happening.

The increases will continue.

The best we can do is to promote early detection and early intervention.

As Zahorodny predicts, when we finally wake up from this nightmare, it will be to a world where no normally functioning children are left.

My past stories on Dr. Zahorodny

2018 Autism Rates Increase. 1 in 22 Boys in New Jersey.

2020 Rutgers' Walter Zahorodny on Autism Rise in New Jersey

2023 Pull Out Those Old Excuses

2023 Autism Prevalence Since 2000: Wayne Rohde Interviews Dr. Walter Zahorodny

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