There is no prospect whatsoever of the 3% figure being reliable in the UK. But if it were it would strongly suggest that those autistic kids should become the focus of key research. Vaccine materials enter the infants system via other means than childhood vaccines.

One of the tiny number of unvaccinated autistic children in the UK is believed by one of the parents to be due to the child’s mother’s dental amalgam treatment in the early weeks of pregnancy.

US researchers might look at low vaccine take up locations such as Nevada County, California to see whether Generation Rescue’s figures repeated there. Quite apart from Amish and Homefirst populations.

Tony Bateson

Where are the thousands of parents who should be protesting but ‘our autistic child was never vaccinated’? Isn’t this subject of any interest? Do writers simply want to argue the toss about enormously complex genome science? It’s not science! It’s arithmetic! Where are the unvaccinated autistic kids?

Tony Bateson

Of course governments won’t look at this and most of the research reports I have taken apart page by page aren’t worth the paper they are written on.

In the UK there is the famous North Thames study of 1998 by Brent Taylor. I bet my bottom dollar that the 498 kids in that survey are all vaccinated. Dr Taylor, however, won’t release the papers. Is that because he works for the UK Government?

And by the way to those people who say they can’t understand all the ‘energy wasted on the vaccines/autism question’ can I say first of all that this is not mutually exclusive to other concerns, I have worked for many years on developing bricks and mortar projects. But most importantly the vaccine/autism issue carries the cause hidden within its folds. More kids could be helped properly if this was known.

It’s the USA’s mandatory vaccination policy that has effectively blanked out the possibility of differential analysis by medics otherwise if vaccines are implicated this would never have escaped detection in the US the way it seems to have in the UK.

Tony Bateson

I don’t think the skepticism is quite true, having been there. I mean, where I have worked, people are absolutely interested in doing everything they can (and, often, have worked harder than can be expected for such “health care issues” normally). The issue is that, quite honestly, often they can’t. It’s compounded into the issues of a larger, social picture.

“As an older parent (note, age is NOT a factor in this child’s disability, her mother was 20 and father 19) providing 24×7×365 care, without any nest egg (or even a small parachute), the odds are good I will not be around for much of her adult life; when I am gone, if she is unable to care for herself, what will happen?”

It’s a very real question with not a lot of very real answers as of yet. It’s important to of course keep pushing the issue with those who have some power to help such things, but it is hard sometimes to alter the reality of the situation as a whole.

“It is all well and good to pay lipservice to the fact she will be unique and “herself,” but where is the value in being severely imapired and unable to care for oneself?

And how, does providing therapy and interventions which enable my daughter to communicate, bathe, potty, feed herself, write, read, do math, and understand the workings of many things in the world, somehow, change the essence of “herself,” her uniqueness?

It is all fine and well to shout “just let them be who they are,” but the reality is, if our parents did this, we would not be who WE are. ”

I don’t think anyone here is going to deny the importance of making sure that autistic individuals have a secure environment and are given as many skills as possible. Now, the flip side of the argument is innane, too; if we were to have a completely normal population, much of the very developments we’re talking about simply wouldn’t exist and, surprise surprise, a lot of those who bring about such changes have autistic traits, since they can promote such values necessarily. So while I agree with the sentiment that giving individuals skills where otherwise such skills is of utmost important, it’s not necessarily so that it invalidates autistic existence.

“Education and nurturing provide the means to an end – independence. In our brave new world of war and profit, our schools and public programs have been given the short shrift; and our children with severe disabilities are paying the price. Those families with the comfort of wealth and/or extended family can afford to be cavilier; the rest of us, American paupers, live in perpetual terror. When our work-a-day lives cease, our severely disabled children will be left homeless, penniless, and defenseless.”

Yes and no. What such nurturing usually does is give someone the tools to deal within a system so that they can be dependent within that system. You will find virtually no one in today’s world who is independent. It’s a simple statement of fact.

But, again, the tools within working within a communicational system where such dependencies are expected is important, and where those skills are more difficult to come it is important to work towards giving those skills. I’m not in disagreement there.

“I see every effort we make to help my daughter feel better physically, function better mentally, feel emotionally validated through effective communication, and overall “catch-up” to her age-peers across the board, as another arrow in her quiver which she can now utilize to better engage the world on her own terms.

Isn’t our job as parents to provide these tools? Provision of the raw materials for her tools (therapies, supplements, physician fees, and tuition), just for the last four years cost about $400,000.00. The human toll on her parents and siblings cannot be calculated; but I have devoted at least 14,600 hours, in the same four year period, to just meeting her autism-related needs. Thanks to God for my now extinct retirement account and parents (may they rest in peace knowing their estates helped make their granddaughter whole). On the bright side, her quiver is filling nicely, as a result.”

I don’t disagree with the sentiment as to enabling her within such systems, whatsoever. And the cost of such education is important to ameliorate for a lot of reasons. By “human cost”, though, are you referring to lack of materials as diverted to her educational needs, to the time involved in such a process, the stigma of association, or some combination therein?

“So, if families cry out that they need services and their children need therapy and no agency holds out a helping hand, either the child remains severely disabled or the parent must pursue other avenues. Some children may have had the misfortune of being born with a lifelong disability; many were disabled by careless purveyors of “medicine.”

For those suffering from medically-induced disbability, financial compensation can help offset the expense of care and recovery efforts. Of course, the “vaccine court” $1,000,000.00 capped settlement won’t go very far; and they disburse it as an annuity, and dictate where and how you can spend it, but in terms of lives like ours, something is much better than nothing.”

I think you’re begging the question here, though. We don’t actually know what causes autism in any situation, and that’s still very much up in the air. And we have to be careful as to what we do. If we rashly decide, based on non-existent evidence, that vaccines are the cause and take away all vaccines, we’d likely just have the same number of autistic individuals with no means to educate them and a bunch of newly dying people and some extra million dollars to spread. Not the best situation, truth be told. It’s probably best to address the situation, as you have, as some of the needs in putting autistic individuals within a societally-singular situation where there is support and a very solid structure of idea sharing and communication.

Do you get my drift here? I think you’re creating a bit of a distinction between your point of view and a perceived other where such a distinction really doesn’t exist. You have valid points and, outside of causation and a few other details here and there, there’s not much in contention in reality.

Cliff