This and Last Week’s Top Posts

Some software and other updates have been going on behind the scenes here, so if this blog loads slowly or (alas and argh) a comment does not go through, please bear with us. Over in the sidebar, the lists of comments and recent posts have not been updating (Learning All the Time (Whether You Know It Or Not) was posted on Friday morning) and I’m hoping that will get fixed soon. In the meantime, I wanted to point out discussions about the YouTube video of an autistic teenager getting beat up—about how autism, unlike measles, is not an infectious disease—–about the luxury of being able to choose to vaccinate or not—-whether hacker Gary McKinnon is a scapegoat or a public enemy.

Also: Tara on an idea for housing for disabled adults in New Jersey on Sued: New Jersey’s Department of Human Services.

And here’s what’s been under discussion here for the past two weeks:

• Gluten-free more and more common (and not just for autism)
  If everyone’s doing it, is “the diet” really a treatment for autism?
• Another Test to Detect Autism Earlier
  University of Missouri-Columbia are studying how to use 3-D imaging to analyze the facial structures and brain abnormalities of autistic children.
• Minnesota Has the Highest Autism Rate?: Depends on How You Count It
  An article in the August 20th CityPages in Minnesota suggests that it’s rather the North Star state that has the highest rate, 1 in 81. The article relies on a chart made up from data from public school districts around the country.
• The Autistic/Has Autism Question
  Dan Olmsted “really can’t stand” it when the “people with autism” are referred to as “autistics,” and he sees the word as a “corollary of ‘retards’.” Hmmmm…….
• Measles Cases, and Fear of Autism, on the Rise
  Measles cases are at their highest level in a decade, and is looming dread of autism at least partially responsible for this?
• The Parental Right to Choose to Vaccinate, Or Not
  A story from MSNBC provides some details about the attitudes of parents who’ve chosen not to vaccinate their children for their “philosophical or religious beliefs.”.
• The Right to Choose, So Choose Carefully
  If the word keeps getting out that there’s some (scientifically disputed) link between measles and autism, and vaccination rates continue to fall, and autism rates stay the same or rise, and measles really really returns—-will those who’ve invested so much energy to promote a vaccine-autism link be willing to be responsible for the consequences of their efforts?
• Measles You Can Catch (But Not Autism)
  “People have forgotten what measles looks like and have forgotten how infectious it is.”—Jane Seward, deputy director of the division of viral diseases at the CDC
• Monday at the Dentist
  A super great visit to the dentist for Charlie!
• A Note On Hillary Clinton’s Speech
  Said the Senator in her speech to the DNC: “I will always remember the single mom who had adopted two kids with autism. She didn’t have any health insurance, and she discovered she had cancer. But she greeted me with her bald head, painted with my name on it, and asked me to fight for health care for her and her children.”
• The Luxury of Choice
  Writes Matthew N. Parker, M.D.: “Perhaps it is yet another symptom of our wealth in this country that we have the luxury of wondering whether it is necessary to vaccinate.”
• Unlike Measles, Autism is Not a Potentially Fatal Disease
  Measles is an infectious disease; autism is not.
• False Prophets and Failed Poets
  The “false prophets” of autism are, it would seem, such figures as Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the doctor at the center of the controversy over the MMR vaccine and autism, and numerous others who have proclaimed that vaccines or something in vaccines is behind the epidemic rise in autism diagnoses, and who’ve given short shrift to arguments for how better diagnosis, understanding and awareness of autism have contributed to a rise in the prevalence of autism.