A constant theme in 2008 was the rebranding of autism, as Orac at Respectful Insolence referred to how the likes of David Kirby have been constantly saying that “autism isn’t autism”—-it’s “mercury poisoning,” “vaccine-aggravated mitochondrial disorder,” “mercury-induced neurological disorder,” etc., etc.
(April being Autism Awareness Month—-does your child know about this—let’s not get into what such “rebranding” would do to the month…….)
The notorious Judge Rotenburg Center in Canton, Massachusetts uses electroshock “treatment” on some its residents, some of whom are autistic. In April, one of its staff was charged with rape, assault, and battery of another staff member—-more about the very, …read more

Jim noted to me last night that the stock market is now pretty much back to where it was around the time Charlie was born.
Having spent the past ten days writing about vaccines and autism for the Science Blogs Book Club, it’s occurred to me that the whole vaccine-autism issue has been part of, and even dominated, public discussion about autism for most of Charlie’s life. It was in 1998 that Dr. Andrew Wakefield announced that he had found the cause of autism—-the MMR vaccine—and launched far more than a thousand discussions, diatribes, and disputed claims.
10 years, 11 years and …read more

No, not referring to what gets written about at the likes of this blog or this one, but to the popstars and celebrities who’ve (per the September 28th Times) helped “scandal-hit medic” Andrew Wakefield relaunch himself in the US and specifically in Austin, Texas. Juicy, or maybe just more commentary on America as the home of the self-(re)-made man?

A September 25th press release announces that parents make donations for cutting-edge research. Specifically, some parents have made contributions totaling $30,000 to the National Autism Association (NAA), whose website proclaims “think autism think cure. Some of the research to be funded will be conducted by gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor whose article in the journal Lancet set off a scare about an autism-MMR link, and who currently faces misconduct charges in the UK and may not be allowed to practice medicine there again.
Parents funding research, however “cutting edge,” is less than new news. While not many parents can give …read more

It’s late late Friday night (/early early Monday morning) as I’m writing this and feeling. I think we made it through another summer. Monday will be Charlie’s first day back to school, after an extra-long summer vacation: Due to school construction in our school district, summer vacation started extra early and is ending extra late. “That’s his world,” someone at work said to me when I noted how chaotically Wednesday started in our house. Looking back, I’ve realized that Charlie may have woken up early because he sensed that, Labor Day having passed, it was time for him to be …read more

A new study in PLoS One by scientists at Columbia University and from the CDC has found no link between the measles vaccine and autism. Researchers replicated the 1998 Lancet study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield; this study claimed that there was such a link and led to widespread fear that the vaccine could cause autism and, too, parents choosing not to vaccinate their children.
The researchers looked for evidence of genetic material from the measles virus in intestinal tissue samples taken from 25 autistic children who also had gastrointestinal problems; these results were compared to samples from 13 children …read more

Sometimes I think this blog is in danger of becoming a vaccine blog, as vaccines are so frequently a topic here. There’s what some refer to as their right to vaccinate or not. There’ve been recent outbreaks of measles and mumps, with many cases among unvaccinated persons. There’s the fear that vaccines or something in vaccines might be connected to autism.
Indeed, it’s “fear of autism” that is the reason for the continued talk about vaccines and autism. Anti-vaccine/pro-vaccine-safety advocates say that they want to “change the schedule” and to “make vaccines safer” to ensure that future generations of children do …read more

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the figure at the center of the controversy over the MMR vaccine and autism, was a “man in a hurry,” according to Professor John Walker-Smith in a hearing before the General Medical Council (GMC). The hearing is about “alleged irregularities in research methods.” Dr. Wakefield was the primary author of the 1998 Lancet paper that linked the MMR vaccine to an increased risk of autism. The Lancet has since disowned the paper, but not before fears of the MMR vaccine became widespread and led to many parents choosing not to vaccinate their children, and a serious increase …read more

A 17-year-old from West Yorkshire is the first person to die of measles in the UK in two years. He was admitted to a hospital in April with pneumonia, which he got after getting measles. More in today’s Telegraph, which notes that MMR vaccination coverage has been “sub-optimal” in the UK for the past ten years:
Because of the MMR scare in the late 1990s when the measles, mumps and rubella jab was linked to bowel disorders and autism, vaccinations levels have dropped below the threshold required to control the diseases. In London less than half of children have had the …read more

A new study in the Archives of Disease in Childhood suggests that autistic children do not appear to have proteins leaking into their intestinal systems and causing damage, today’s BBC News reports. Researchers at Great Ormond Street Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital and the University of Edinburgh found that autistic children did not have more peptides in their urine than did non-autistic children in a control group.
The “leaky gut” theory of autism is based on the belief that vaccines such as the MMR damage the lining of the intestine and create digestive problems in children. It is thought that …read more