Comments on: Catastrophic Thinking and David Kirby’s Global Worries

By: Myth, Science, and a Trial: Vaccines and Autism

Myth, Science, and a Trial: Vaccines and Autism — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 06:50:52 +0000

[...] Wakefield and the MMR, not to mention numerous emails, blogs, email discussion lists, and the expected sort of postings from David Kirby—it seems more and more to me that there is a great divide in what the different sides [...]

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:52:42 +0000

I reviewed Dr. Herbert's lecture on "biomarkers for autism, given last Friday at the Eden Institute conference, here. She is definitely interested in the brain and the effects of environmental pollution on it, and made specific mention of dolphin brains in regard to this. All of our kids have issues as far as getting the right education, as you've noted in other comments, Minnie, and thanks for all your concern!

By: Minnie Matta

Minnie Matta — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:10:06 +0000

Julie,
Have you read Dr Martha Herbert’s work? She’s a Harvard dr that says there is a relationship between the medical issues/physical health and the neurological issues.
The Geier research shows evidence that children on the spectrum have high levels of toxins, specificially mercury, in their systems.
How do you know your child does not have high levels of mercury – did you run a porphyrin test?

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:30:10 +0000

I did not say that she does not have medical issues what I said is that I do not believe that medical issues cause the autism they are two seperate issues one being physical health the other being neurological. I have not seen any evidence that autistic children have more or less toxins in there system than non autistics since most normally developing children and not tested for merury levels I think it is premature to say that it is causing autism.

By: Minnie Matta

Minnie Matta — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:12:10 +0000

Julie, Kristina,
That’s great if your child has no medical issues. That’s definitely not the case for all children on the spectrum.
If you’ve been following the Cedillo case, then you’re well aware that some children on the spectrum have many severe medical issues.

Matt,
All doctors use all people as guinea pigs, to some degree. They can make educated guesses based on what they know and what they’ve seen.
Doctors wouldn’t chelate a child just for the heck of it – they chelate a child with high mercury levels. Just as a person with lead poisoning would be chelated, so should a person with mercury poisoning, since mercury is even more toxic.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:58:37 +0000

I've noted the references to immigration and also an earlier one regarding pollution from China as a source of environmental pollution. In his previous post on vaccine court, Kirby wrote>

Is immigration helping keep the California numbers up? We don't have that data. But we do know that, since 2003, the rate of increase among white and black children was 48.6% and 51.6%, respectively. Among Asian children, however, it was 79%, and among Hispanics, 84.2%. Probably something worth looking into (as well as the effect of aggressive early intervention campaigns, which have consistently brought down the average age of diagnosis and would likely drive up the number of three year olds in the system).

I would like to know more about the 79% Asian figure---being Asian and living in California or being (as I am, originally) from California, does not mean that one is an immigrant.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:29:04 +0000

Keep in mind that this is the second Kirby report in a very short time to raise the spector of “immigration” . He recently speculated that the California numbers may have continued to go up due to immigration. Somehow, the rise in the autism numbers for Hispanics didn’t count when it was helping to “epidemic” numbers in the 1990’s. Guess what, Hispanics are still vastly underrepresented. California can see a roughly 80% increase in autism numbers if the minority levels increase to just match those of Whites.

This is a man who obviously doesn’t do his homework.

Matt

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:07:22 +0000

Matt, it has indeed been said before….

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 01:10:11 +0000

Matt I love it!

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:48:44 +0000

What if his words were edited to:

“Yes, chelation might cause harm, but we are going to give it to you anyway, for your own good. Trust us. We’re DAN! Doctors. We know what we’re doing.”

Matt