For World Autism Awareness Day I must note two opposing sides of the discussions that I find myself in disagreement.
Little Green Footballs, a blog I have read since Charles Johnson exposed the Dan Rather “fake but accurate” scandal, has put up several posts against those who are exercise caution in vaccinating their kids. Examples are here, here, and here.
LGF keeps harping on information hosted at the Childrens Hospital of Pennsylvania that MMR vaccines has been shown not to cause autism, but that’s not the entire focus of the vaccination debate. The high frequency of vaccinations in babies and residual thimerosal content in some flu vaccines are other areas of investigation.
To paint parents as crazy because they are seeing things happening after events in their kids’ lives doesn’t help the debate. Even if one doesn’t believe that vaccines cause autism, it is just as blind to shout, “You’re wrong!” as it is to shout, “Vaccines cause autism, we need to stop now!” The proper response is, “Let’s find out what is going on.” This is more than mass hysteria.
On the other side, I’m disheartened to see Jenny McCarthy say this in Time Magazine:
I do believe sadly it’s going to take some diseases coming back to realize that we need to change and develop vaccines that are safe. If the vaccine companies are not listening to us, it’s their f___ing fault that the diseases are coming back. They’re making a product that’s s___. If you give us a safe vaccine, we’ll use it. It shouldn’t be polio versus autism.
Coarse language aside, if it’s wrong to exchange people with polio for people with autism, it’s just as wrong to exchange people with autism for people with polio. We have to remain in an investigative mood to eliminate both. This is the wrong country to tell its people something can’t be done.
I am concerned that we have lost our ability to discuss things with a reasonable give-and-take. Instead we are given to shoutcast, marshall up people who agree with us, and go to war. We shouldn’t be making soldiers out of our medical community.
Pray. Donate. Make dang sure you sound reasonably sane to people who aren’t intimately involved with the issues.
Take LGF with all due skepticism. Johnson may get it right from time to time, but he is by no means an expert in anything other than building a cool web page. In my opinion.
Is there any solid science demonstrating an actual cause and effect relationship between thimerosal and autism? Most of the stuff I've read seems to indicate that the perceived links between vaccinations and autism do not stand up under close scrutiny. The main sources of my knowledge about this issue "Autism's False Prophets- Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure" – Paul A. Offit, M.D. and Phil Plait, of the "Bad Astronomer Blog" who periodically rants about "Antivaxxers" and how crazy they are. I'm quite open to information on the other side though, as long as it's good science and not anecdotal evidence alone.
I think there is a lot of "bad science" going on. Problem is knowing what is and what isn't. An interesting parallel exists between the rise in autism and the increased use of "preventative medicine", one example being vaccines that may or many not be necessary.
Are we just getting better at diagnosing and tracking autism, or are we doing something to increase the chances of autism? Science doesn't really know yet, it seems.
I myself am not that trusting of doctors when it comes to my kids, either. My 4 year old daughter contracted a very nasty urinary tract infection that the pediatrician insisted was apendicitis. Wife and I knew that wasn't the case because of the symptoms coming and going over time and leading up through a number of doctor visits. We finally took her to a children's specialist at a nearby university hospital. The generalists at the hospital also insisted apendicitis and even schedule her for operation, butonly because we refuse to okay the surgical procedures did they finally contact the childrens urinary specialist that we came to see in the first place.
This all took over 6 hours before we spoke with the specialist. Doctors and Nurses all striving to convice us of the wrong diagnosis, while daughter suffered in intense pain. The specialist finally diagnosted the real problem. All our daughter needed was the correct antibiotics, which the pediatrician and generalist doctors would not otherwise prescribe. It turns out to that our daughter has a somewhat rare physical urinary system problem which she has now outgrown and/or is old enough to take appropriate precautions.
So, yeah, I can kind of understand the frustration of parents with autistic children trying to find solutions.
My inital comment was to long, so I had to break it up into pieces to post all of it.
I get this message when I try post with "Sign up for IntenseDebate" checked "Error! Your username is invalid. We allow numbers, letters and underscores. We've modified your username to fit these standards, feel free to change it however." But I didn't see any way to actually "Sign up." or change my "user name" What's with that? I posted a reply without using it just fine. Ah well.
The new comment system doesn't remember that you were previously approved under the old system. As soon as you have an approved comment, it should be OK.
EC, I don't have any email or anything with your previous comment. Would you mind sending it again? Thank you for your patience.
Isn't it sad that parents are considered crazy for exercising caution in vaccinating their children. And should Jenny be crazed, I don't know. I walk into a doctors office with a sick child and get blown off one two many times and I am borderline crazed at this point too.
Pray and donate and DO SOMETHING. Kim Stagliano (http://www.ageofautism.com) said it best:
"Pick up copy of Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Jerry Kartzinel's new book HEALING AND PREVENTING AUTISM and give it to someone who has a child with autism but who does not yet know autism is treatable. Call a friend who has a child on the spectrum and tell her you're coming over for two hours to watch her child while she goes out for coffee or tea or simply crawls into bed. Send a few bucks to http://www.lend4health.org to help a family pay for biomed treatments. Pop into school and offer to laminate PECS for a few hours. We're doers – not do-gooders. There's a difference. Awareness is no longer enough."
Yeah, when I saw the original announcement, I thought, "I think we're aware." Those are good suggestions.
(My own backstory: aLOT of reading on autism, from many perspectives, but no personal experience with autism spectrum disorders, save for a cousin with PDD-NOS, and a friend's kid who's an Aspie.)
OK, your new system just ate the rest of my comment, Dan! And why won't it remember me?
I think it comes down to trusting parent's gut instinct before anything else. Children belong to their parents, not the state and not the local health department.
I've also read enough to realize that there probably isn't one single cause of autism. That's why dietary intervention works miracles for one kid, but makes no difference for another. It's why for one kid early intervention and behavioral therapy is the key, but for another it's a disaster. Some autism we may never understand. Some autism seems to be a twisted form of gluten insensitivity. Some autism in normal high-sensitivity and "geek personality" in over-drive. We just don't know all the answers.
All discussion of thimerosal aside I've come to believe it's pure insanity to subject immature immune systems to the rapid-fire, multiple-shock method that the standard immunization schedule is. I've had friends and family whose pediatricians told them the standard schedule MUST be followed, despite Mom's gut feeling that something wasn't right, or despite high fevers and other reactions to the first rounds of shots. My sister was ridiculed for objecting to her less-than-one-year-old daughter receiving a five-vaccine combined immunization (I think it was 3 shots, if I recall.)
Parent who decide to skip vaccinations or delay them or stretch them out over a longer period because of a family history of allergies or autism-spectrum disorders should not be called freaks. And those who think the pharmaceutical companies are going about **intentionally** making dangerous vaccines need to calm down.
There very well may be something to the thimerosal issue; if autism is what it I think it is, I'd guess that some highly-sensitive kids are having a reaction to a compound that doesn't bother the rest of us. Are Twix bars "dangerous" because a certain percentage of the population will die if they eat the peanut butter in them? That theory would explain why parents are seeing multiple children affected by the vaccines (genetics!) yet studies (which collect data from larger groups of unrelated people) don't show any connexion.
For whatever reason, I've always been fascinated by autism, but always hesitate to discuss it too much, since I don't live with it day to day. I never want to accidentally say something that makes light of the difficulty of parenting a little one with an autism spectrum disorder.
Dear Elephantchild,
Than you for your wonderful comments. They are right on and so many people who don't live with autism jsut don't get so much of this. I am the grandmother of a beautiful, brilliant 6 year old girl who has autism. There is not a single day that I don't wonder why this is affecting her and not her twin sister. I wonder if it was her premature birth, antibiotics at such an early age, the ventilator they used, and on and on as to what is the cause. These are all moot points and I know it, but it is such a mind boggling affliction! Once again, thanks for trying to get it! We need more people in the world like you! And fewer who would judge the parents and their frustration over this mysterious ailment!
I am currently reading, and enjoying "The Speed of Dark." As when I read "The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night Time" I am finding that sometimes the way that the autistic characters think makes more sense to me than the way the "normal" people think.
Autism and those afflicted with it fascinate me.
John Petersen, for example, has brought a lot of joy into my life.
Just saw this: "AID FOR CHILDREN WITH AUTISM"
See Link:
http://www.kuworks.ku.edu/autism.shtml