NY Times article on autism, vaccines, and Andrew Wakefield

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Read this a few days ago in the Times. I had heard a little about the vaccination theory/scandal, but was skeptical of claims that autism is caused by vaccines. This article justified my uncertainties; it depicts the medical establishment as shrouded in doubt and shaped by private interests (again, not exactly news, but maybe worth reaffirming).

Anyways, I thought this would be an interesting read for some folks. It was for me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/magazine/mag-24Autism-t.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general

Wow.....I'm so sick of people like this. The MMR vaccine theory was refuted not long after it was published! And the mother blaming herself for not getting her "possibly autistic child" a separate measles vaccine? She should blame genetics, not some stupid vaccine!

I don't remember when or where I saw this but the vaccine theory was disproved when a study was done of a groups of kids, of equal numbers, in (I believe) the US and a 3rd world country village where no one had ever been given the MMR vaccine. Between the two, there were about the same number of children on the spectrum in both groups; before the study, none of the children were diagnosed with an ASD.

i quite agree with this

for some interesting further reading on the matter: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt159361.html

This seems to be some of the main criticism:

" . . . In Britain, the General Medical Council revoked Wakefield’s medical license after a lengthy hearing, citing numerous ethical violations that tainted his work, like failing to disclose financing from lawyers who were mounting a case against vaccine manufacturers. The Lancet, which published the original Wakefield paper, retracted it. In a series that ran early this year, The British Medical Journal concluded that the research was not just unethically financed but also “fraudulent” (that timelines were misrepresented, for example, to suggest direct culpability of the vaccine). . . "
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/magaz ... ism-t.html

All that said, I still think it's possible that **some** cases of autism, not the toxicity of mercury itself, but some kind of funky autoimmune reaction. For example, look at PANDAS, look at Guillain-Barre. The immune system is complicated and we don't know everything about it.

(I myself got the flu vaccine both this winter and last, but I did not go particularly out of my way to get it. That is, if we were to run the numbers, most flu self-limiting but occasionally causes either direct viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia, both treatable, risk vs. risk, it may not be both the risk of an extra motor vehicle trip. But if one happens to be in a pharmacy anyway and has the time, sure, probably worth it.)

i read that rediculous article on autism speaks yesterday.read leo kanner read hans asperger and even bruno bettleheim.asperger and kanner both said they saw the shadow of autism in the parent.bruno bettlehiem's refrigerator mother theory was proved wrong but his observations are still useful in that the parents of autistic childen caried a shadow of the disorder.these writings show autism is clearly genetic.i did read something useful on autism speaks yesteday.musician david byrne has aspergers

Imelda: The Nightclub Years
The Guardian UK [Link]
By Andrew Purcell
29 January 2007
http://www.davidbyrne.com/here_lies_lov ... ardian.php

‘ . . . For three years, Byrne has been keeping a journal on his website, by turns revealing and thought-provoking, always with more questions than answers. "I was a peculiar young man," he wrote last April. [2006] "Borderline Asperger's, I guess."

‘"I'd only heard of Asperger's a few years ago," Byrne says now, "when a group out of Stanford proposed a spectrum that goes from autism to Asperger's to sort-of-good-at-math. I thought, 'Wow, I see a lot of myself in that.' Not that I was good at math, but I could be very focused on certain projects, and painfully shy - although I'd get up on stage, and then be incredibly shy the minute I stepped off.

‘"And it fits that at some point, after a couple of decades, it wears off. I thought that the bits of therapy I've had, and making an effort to be more social, really paid off, but it could just be that it wears off by itself." . . ’

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I don’t agree with this last part. Whereas, within any given six month period, I might add three new social skills that in certain situations make a really big difference (including trying less hard, be more open to ping-ponging back of forth, being less perfectionist of myself and others), that is a far cry from my autism “wears off.”

Autism is not something I “have.” Autism is part of who I am. It brings gifts, as well as deficiencies. If someone wants to say it is both a difference and a disability, okay, I will agree with that.

So, we have this famous guy who wonders aloud whether he’s on the spectrum. And that probably overall helps us. Okay, so he might be Aspie, he might not. Let’s try and be open and welcoming either way. He might be just a highly creative person who marches to his own drummer, and that’s fine. Either way, it keeps the conversation going.