Autism According to Jenny
April 2, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
If you’d like a sense of where the next rebranding of autism is going, look no further than what Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey say on CNN.com today:
We believe autism is an environmental illness.
So: If “autism” is redefined as a medical diagnosis, will school districts start saying “autistic child? not our child, go talk to you doctor—education’s not the answer.”
I really hope not.
Okay, I was not attempting to draw any scientific conclusions from those figures–the bigger picture is that measles kills people, autism doesn’t. As far as I know, there are no stats on how many cases of autism are diagnosed worldwide per hour. If one supposedly existed, it would be subject to much criticism, and more than likely, inaccurate. How one gets an autism diagnosis, at what age, etc. varies widely from country to country.
The reason why people (like Jenny) in the U.S. think measles is a cake walk, is simply because we have vaccinated for it for years now. They have no clue what measles in an un-vaccinated person can look like and the lifelong effects for those who do not die from it. Just on my latest blog entry, I have individuals testifying to seeing these diseases firsthand (in developing countries, where vaccines are scarce) and those who have had measles and their own personal accounts of it. There is a reason why scientists worked hard to create a vaccine for this deadly disease, and why for years now we have vaccinated our children against it. There also a reason why the U.N. and WHO, among other organizations, are working so hard to get vaccines to developing countries and rid them of measles.
We have the luxury of the debate as long as we have the herd immunity. If we lose that, perhaps there will be more immediate statistics to discuss.
3/31/08
Measles ‘Not Yet’ an Epidemic
Israel
(IsraelNN.com) The old-fashioned children’s illness measles, not often seen in western nations where immunizations are standard procedure, has somehow managed to make its way back to Israel nevertheless.
An outbreak of the virus has hit the country and is spreading rapidly at a rate of six new cases a day, according to the Health Ministry. It is not an epidemic, but the trend, which began this time with a young passenger on an El Al flight from New York City at the beginning of March, is troubling.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125733
If “herd immunity” is necessary, then the vaccines are not as effective as they need to be. What recent scientific study has determined what percent of the population must be immune due to previous exposure or immunization to achieve “herd immunity”? “Herd immunity” can never be achieved with influenza or chickenpox, so why the need for such wide spread use of these vaccines?
Chuck,
I have some idea of your point of view on the matter. My point of view, after having observed and participated in some of these discussions over the past couple of years is that those who choose to see vaccines as dispensible will continue to do so, irrelevant of statistics and studies. In that event, we may at some point have opportunity to run our own in-house study on the matter, and hope that allopathic medicine have the resources to pull us or our kid through in the event that we are one of those statistics who happen to develop complications.
My concern is for those who have severe immunosuppression, are under cancer therapy, have active AIDS, or for whatever reason are medically contraindicated from vaccination. The wild-type disease would be devastating to those groups.
Hi S.L. –
The problem with equating measles deaths worldwide and what might happen in the US is that it mandates a preposterous logical jump; that all other things are equal between the places we are relating.
Your chances of dying from measles are affected by things that are vasty different besides vaccination availability between the industrialized world and the places where measles is killing a lot of people; basic nutrition, access to a physician, supplementation with Vitamin A, sanitation levels, are all big factors in whether or not getting measles (or more likely, complications from measles) kills you or not.
I’m not here to lobby against a measles vaccine per se, merely to point out that it is a lot more nuanced than what is commonly presented; we cannot compare apples and oranges and have confidence in the results we come up with. No doubt, however, for trying to point out that such an analysis can lead to misleading conclusions, I will be branded as junk science, anti vaccine, a fool or worse. *Sigh*
Take care!
- pD
Actually, the statistics ARE a useful comparison. That measles stat is a worldwide value that includes countries that do vaccinate. Without vaccinations, the global rate of measles deaths per hour would be even higher. Obviously, the current rate in the US is not close to the global rate precisely *because we have vaccinations*.
Herd immunity can be achieved with chicken pox–I am one example of that–and is not achieved long-term with influenza because influenza strains evolve so rapidly that they evade any existing immunity. Not a lot of herd immunity with influenza in the long-term, but there is short-term herd immunity resulting from vaccination, which helps protect vulnerable populations that cannot be vaccinated each season. In fact, it is reliance on this property that would drive any emergency vaccination effort in the event of a pandemic.
Herd immunity develops because of widespread vaccination programs. It is *necessary* for the at-risk populations who cannot get vaccines because of known complication problems (hemolysis reaction, allergic reactions, etc.) or because of age (e.g., infants too young for pertussis). The reason we don’t have a huge mortality rate among infants in this country from exploding lungs as a result of whooping cough is because of herd immunity produced through vaccination.
PubMed has hundreds of papers on herd immunity and the demonstrable effectiveness of inducing it through vaccination. Easy to search.
pD,
I won’t label you as any of those things.
Admittedly, the focus of vaccination programs is on the African continent, in which 18.7% of mothers report that they have a child who has died of measles.
The measles virus, however, has a known history of being very contagious, with 90% transmission rate, and an estimate that each active case has potential to infect 6-12 of those who are not immune in which the person comes in contact with.
The only thing that somewhat makes me hesitate on whether measles transmission can completely be prevented by western conditions is that some of the most recent outbreaks have been in the UK, Italy, and Japan, and apparently is of some concern in Israel, per the above news story. I haven’t travelled to Europe recently, but I did not note a shortage of basic medical care or sanitary conditions.
Herd immunity cannot be achieved with chicken pox, my son and I are examples of that.
I was not, of course, citing my situation as the sole evidence for that statement. I was simply saying that I, myself, benefited from the herd immunity for that particular illness for a long time, not having had it as a child (didn’t attend schools early on and thus was not exposed; hung around with a lot of old people who’d already had it). But after I began attending school, I was around so many more people who had already had chickenpox and thus were not vectors that I never caught it in childhood (more herd protection), even when it was around. It took a vector (i.e., someone who had not had it and could transmit the live virus) that was close to me (my sister, 13 years my junior) to finally bring me exposure via her daycare and transmit the disease. Until that time, I had community protection among my own peer group, most of whom had the disease at an age similar to my sister’s–toddler years.
Now that we have the chicken pox vaccine, there is heightened herd immunity even in this age group, and I actually don’t personally know a child my children’s age (<7 years) who has had chicken pox (an unheard of scenario 30 years ago), although I know that a single shot of the vaccine does not result in total coverage. There is a case currently at my youngest son’s school, but I do not know the background on it (i.e., age of the child, etc.). What I do know is that were this case to have developed prior to the varicella vaccine, the entire school would have been shut down–I was actually told that yesterday–until the two-week time frame had passed and all the children had recovered–infection of everyone in that age group would be a given. That brings to my mind a clear spectre of medical, economic, and productivity losses, all from this single school and beginning with one case of chicken pox, losses that likely would ultimately spread throughout the community. That scenario did not transpire, and we have the (partial) success of that vaccine to thank for that.
As someone who had chicken pox pretty late in the game, I can tell you that it completely sucks, it scars, and it’s painful. I’m glad that I can get my children a quick shot to prevent their having that experience. In my childhood, it was either avoid public exposure completely (as I ended up doing), or suffer the course of the illness, with all of the attendant repercussions spreading through families and communities.
Again, PubMed is a useful source for abundant information about the medical, social, and economic consequences of herd immunity.
I am mom to a child with autism. So when I hear other parents down talk Jenny McCarthy I have to cringe. Let’s get this straight, I am not a a DAN follower. One of the first websites I visited when my son was diagnosed was DAN and I wasn’t too impressed then. I’m still not. But she is a parent who clearly loves her son and has advocated for him. Calling her vapid and linking to photos of her on the toilet are perhaps not the signature of an thinking adult. I too watched the Larry King show and read the transcript. Unfortunately I have listened to many stories of parents who have said their child was perfectly normal before they had immunizations and then afterwards they regressed. I am of the opinion that there should be more than one immunization schedule parents have to choose from. And when more research and I mean longer term research is done let some of the money given to research help fund schools for autism programs and perhaps bigger grants with less restrictions. Or umm I don’t know easing some of the financial tragedies some parents go through. I too would like to focus more on treatment. In my opinion it will take a lot more research that what we already have to find the answers. But its a good place to start.
My anecdotal information is contradictory to yours. My vaccinated son developed chicken pox. It is also contradictory to medical information about the vaccine that his case was just as bad as mine when I was his age. When I had chicken pox as a child the absentee rate for my class was no different then every other class and the absentee rate was normal for that time of year, winter and most were absent with colds. Thirty years ago, or today, schools are not closed down due to a case of chicken pox. The situation you describe is fictional to my past and present experiences.
I subsequently developed shingles from my son’s chicken pox. I can tell you that shingles puts chick pox to shame. I was in pain and I have a high tolerance for pain.
Let me know if you pull up any studies on the chicken pox vaccine increasing the likelihood of shingles outbreaks.
PubMed Central Archives where anyone can seek these studies for themselves.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/
Free and full text articles
“herd immunity” 618 citations
“herd immunity” + “measles” 182
“herd immunity” + pertussis 98
“herd immunity” + rubella 110
“herd immunity” + varicella 30
“herd immunity” + polio 76
Etc.
There was a pithy description of Herd Immunity.
“…Herd immunity is achieved when there is a sufficient level of vaccine protection in the population to prevent circulation of the disease to those who remain biologically susceptible. Even in a fully vaccinated population, some individuals remain susceptible to the disease against which the vaccine was administered. No vaccine, even one that works well, is 100% effective at inducing sufficient immunity. Further, not everyone in the population is capable of generating immunity, even to an effective vaccine.
BUT, with herd immunity, the likelihood of two susceptible individuals being within range for transmission is very, very small…”
Freeman, P. (1997). The Biology of vaccines and community decisions to vaccinate. Public Health Reports, 112, 21.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1381832
Sidebar,
On doing this, I located an interesting paper which is kind of mathematical, on the dynamics of vaccinating behavior. The modelling itself is complicated, but the description of behavioral variables and dynamics is not.
Bauch, C.T. (2005). Imitation dynamics predict vaccinating behaviour. Proceedings of The Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 272, 1669-1675.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1560180
I already mentioned–clearly–that the vaccine does not have full coverage and actually gave an example of that in my son’s current school. It’s one reason for the movement to two shots instead of one. So my information was not contradictory to yours, at all. It still does not negate the absolute fact that without the vaccine, the outcome at my son’s school would have been significantly more negative and have affected an enormous number of families throughout the community, rather than one family. The vaccine does not confer 100% coverage, which I mentioned, and I demonstrated that nevertheless, without it, the outcome would have been much much worse.
Again, you appear to be another poster more intent on an effort at verbal sparring than at actual investigation of information. The question you ask finds easy and direct answers with a basic PubMed search. Of course there is a link between chicken pox and shingles, given that the same virus causes both. It is absolutely common for the virus to reappear in an individual who has already had it–even decades before–in the very painful form of shingles. That’s a function of the virus, not of the vaccine, and it’s not something that would spread like wildfire through a community causing significant medical and social and economic adverse outcomes.
@Tanya,
I often wonder if, without the Candies ad and other of the sorts of photos one finds on the web of McCarthy—-if she would be a recognizable name now…….. Her latest performance speaks for itself, I think.
Here’s a post on the NIH’s autism research portfolio. Education is definitely the place to start and stay on. Best wishes—-
As for magnets—-one of my middle school students (back in the 90s) had to wear them for migraines. She rolled her eyes when I asked her what thought of them.
I have a more of a question than a comment, as I am a young mother who is coming up to her daughters 15 mo vaccinations which includes MMR. Does anyone believe that post-poning the MMR to a later date changes anything. I tend to believe that their is no link but given all the Media and Jennys out there it’s easy to be challenged. So should I stick with the schedule, wait a little longer or not vaccinate?
@jess,
Have your daughter’s gross motor, fine motor, speech, play skills, communication/speech been developing more or less normally so far?
My son’s were not—–in particular, he did not have joint attention: He did not try to share his interest in something, such as a toy or something he saw, with us.
I am not a physician—I would say, it’s important to vaccinate; the recent outbreak of 12 measles cases in San Diego was very scary. What does your pediatrician say about this issue?—-here’s a website about vaccines via the AAP:
http://www.cispimmunize.org/
A friend whose first child is autism decided to space out the vaccines for her younger son. The younger son does have some speech delays; his development is otherwise typical. Hope this is somewhat helpful.
Emily,
Your verbal sparring skills are as finely honed as mine. We have both been exposed to very similar circumstances and have recounted them through our own experiences and biases. We have both presented information that we have deemed to be factual that the other determines to be nothing more than opinion. We have both misinterpreted what the other has said because of our experiences and biases. We both project very different outcomes to similar situations. After all is said and done, it is nothing more than anecdotal information at it’s finest.
Kristina Chew,
I understand that her very strong opinions on Larry King may have caused the presumably well respected doctors to not take her seriously after the “measles” and “BS” bit. Seriously, do we need to attack her character. Autism doesn’t care if mom is Playmate of the Year or Super,Stay-at-home Soccer Mom of the Year. Oh yeah! Magnets
Magnets?
@Tanya,
I was referring to some earlier comments by others on magnets—–it always seems that there’s a new theory on autism! I should have clarified that.
I think McCarthy’s character and various exploits are one reason behind her being a (notorious) celebrity and behind her attracting attention to autism (and her views on it). Very best wishes——–
My daughter seems perfectly normal is all areas to me. I spoke with my ped. and he says there is no connection between the two. He went through the whole discussion about the preservatives Therimisol being removed etc…However I recently came across the argument that RhoGam also contains Therimisol and I have had the RhoGam both during pregnancy and after. Now is this something else I have to be concerned about?? Thanks for the website I will check it out.
Arguing over a “medical model” vs. “educational model” to me has always sounded like a slightly nicer way of saying- “We couldn’t possibly pay for your child’s treatment.”
@jess,
here’s a study that found no link between rhogam and autism:
Lack of association between Rh status, Rh immune globulin in pregnancy and autism
The study notes that until 2001, Rh immune globulin (RhIg) contained thimerosal, so theories about a connection between RhoGam and autism may have arisen from that. But there’s no connection. From the study:
Thank you so much Kristina. You’ve been very helpful.
When this hot topic appears, we all login from our particular corners. One note for certain, arguments are never won when hysteria enters the ring. I too, blogged on Jenny McCarthy’s giddiness and subsequent shrill vernacular. I diffused her points, whatever they were meant to be. Given that I don’t subscribe to her message, I was more upset than amused.
I love Ms. Clarks point about the pictures of Jenny’s son Evan being “held” at all events. True, it would be most positive if he was able to behave like an appropriate kid his age.
On another note, the comment abouut Rhogam is interesting, Kristina. I am RHNegative and did receive the Rhogam. Only one of our quadruplets has autism.
What, Americans are no longer allowed to “believe” or have an opinion? “We believe autism is an environmental illness.” What makes one opinion or belief better than another? Why is her belief being lambasted? Doesn’t she have enough “time” invested in this subject to have a valid opinion?
I believe Jenny has studies this more than most here and her points are valid. We already know there is a gut-bad digestion autism connection. We also know that not having the capacity to eliminate toxins is a problem, thus, toxins are the cause by default. Where do those toxins come from? The environment, vaccinations, food, etc. Can one pin the blame solely on one thing? No. However, if we know that vaccines contain a toxin that causes brain damage (according to Eli Lilly internal studies 20+ years ago) and we know that the rise in autism began around the same time Bush-1 started to increase vaccinations from 3 before 1st grade to 35, including one before a child leaves the hospital, and Bush was on the BOD of Eli Lilly as are many current Bush-2 lackey’s, and we also know that both Bush’s are for a “New World Order” that calls for population control, and we know that Bush-2 gave Eli Lilly immunity from litigation from harm done by their vaccines in the Homeland Security Act (without debate, last 4 provisions snuck in), what else can one deduce when they know all of the facts here?
Lots of opinions about autism indeed!
I have a 9 yr old son with autism who is non-verbal. I had tried the gluten-casein free diet when my son was 3 yrs old hoping to see improvements. I saw none. I know some children have benefited from it.
What is annoying me to no end is Jenny McCarthy acted like EVERY child with autism will be CURED if they follow her advice.
Also if you are going to speak on behalf of parents in the community educate yourself – I believe she made a comment about there being no adults living today with autism – I beg your pardon they are many – many of whom were misdiagnosed or living in institutions. When we advocate for our childen – we need to also advocate for those adults as well.