After I spoke it was lunchtime. As the crowd started to mill around, I was approached by Peter Bell, VP of Autism Speaks. We have a history of communication…I email him, he tries to call me at my house. I’ve never felt calm enough to take the calls. This is a common tactic of those out there charged with “making change” in the autism community. They will talk to you on the phone. They will not write anything down for posterity. He approached me to tell me that he had heard what I said about parents having nothing more than I did in the past 7 years, and that AS should have done something about it. He believes I am wrong. AS does have something new that I could share with my patients, he told me. They have a “First 100 Days Kit”. I’m not sure, what do you think? You tell me if this is worth $61 million in donations. Seems like to me that any Thinking Mom could do this by herself for free…and many have.
As I am a good Southern girl, I turned the conversation to kids instead of saying what I wanted to say. I regret it! He went on his way soon enough.
At that point, I was approached by a man with a thick European accent. I still have no idea who he was. He quickly told me that I might be onto something with military kids getting double vaccinated and that I should tell someone…whom it was that he said I didn’t quite interpret. He quickly and nervously walked away after making his comment and I never saw him again.
After lunch, the panel split into four predetermined groups. I decided to observe the group that Mark Blaxill would be participating in. As far as I could tell, he was the only person on this big ole panel who believes exactly as I do about our children. I wanted to see how he would be received. This particular panel was charged with discussing “what could be done to understand ASD trends”. The panel was led by Maureen Durkin, PhD, an epidemiologist specializing in developmental disabilities. I have to admit, I wasn’t taking notes, so the majority of the conversation has been forgotten. Mostly because it was that forgettable…nothing was being said that made me believe they were getting anywhere. A couple of things I will never forget, though. Mark Blaxill out and out just said, almost at the top of his vocal range, “This is what I want. I want us to stand up right now, go to out of this room and to the press and declare a national emergency. This needs to stop now, today.” After a few of seconds of silence from the stunned crowd, the conversation went on as if he’d said nothing. He since has commented that when Maureen Durkin summarized the group, she reported that of all the participants, there was only one who thought the rates had truly gone up and that was Mark. Truly.
At one point in the conversation, I got up to get some water and positioned myself against the wall, much closer and within eye shot of some of the panel. Dr. William McMahon, Chairman of Psychiatry at the University of Utah, decided to speak up. He looked right at me and emphatically announced that he had very little time left in his career, that he had spent 15 years studying the immune system and autism and did NOT plan to spend any more time doing so. It’s true, Dr. McMahon has a few studies under his belt relating to these subjects.
One study Dr. McMahon was involved in was “Autistic disorder and viral infections. J Neurovirol. 2005 Feb;11(1):1-10”. Part of the abstract of this study concludes, “Biological assays lend support to the association between measles virus or MMR and autism whereas epidemiologic studies show no association between MMR and autism. Further research is needed to clarify both the mechanisms whereby viral infection early in development may lead to autism and the possible involvement of the MMR vaccine in the development of autism.” Sounds familiar, no? Further research needed into the possible role of MMR and autism? No wonder he doesn’t want to study it anymore, look what happened to Dr. Wakefield for making this exact same statement!
He has now been tasked with counting our kids. He has a $2.4 million/four year grant from the CDC. That should keep him busy and away from those pesky immune system/MMR questions, right?
After the group break-out sessions, everyone came back together to report on their findings. Before any reports were made, an adult diagnosed with autism named Wolf Dunaway was introduced. It was explained that he wanted to speak at the public comment part of the day but hadn’t gotten the chance (although he was part of the panel and had contributed to the discussion of the day several times). He told a little of his story. At almost 40-years-old, he was very poor and living in public housing. But someone came and helped him, gave him an internship that led to a comfortable job with a federal agency [edited due to corrections by Mr. Dunaway] and now he lives in a beautiful townhome and participates in government functions pertaining to autism. Then he said he just wanted everyone to know that he would rather have autism than the diseases that vaccines protect us from. I am not sure why it bugs me that the government pays him and he has the money to go to events like this to promote his belief in vaccination. What do you think about that?
As the four groups came back together to make their reports of their findings from their individual discussions, the moms who spoke at the public comments just sat with our minds blown, our bodies rigid and our mouths wide open. As it was earlier in the day, there was no urgency. No answers. No desire for meaningful change or exchange. Just another day at the office. How can one sit in the Centers for Disease Control building of our American government in a meeting to talk about a disease that has reached 1 in 110 (soon to officially be 1 in 88? 1 in 60?) of our children and imagine that there would be no urgency? It’s almost like we live in an alternate universe where nothing makes sense, where there is no logic. Quite a different scene than the day when three people died from contaminated spinach, that’s for sure. The CDC had that square footage nailed down in minutes! It’s quite obvious who is left to make the difference here. It’s Thinking Moms and Dads like you and me. And we will win. Our truth will be heard. There’s no way around it.
Autism Speaks has released their own report on this meeting as of yesterday afternoon. You can read it here:
Panel member and Free-Range Aspergian John Elder Robison has also weighed in on the meeting here:
UPDATE: In the year since this meeting, Autism Speaks has published their “accomplishments” for 2011. YOU TELL ME…is there anything on this list that helped you help your child? Thinking Moms want to know…
Tell the Thinking Moms (and Dad) what you think. Let’s make a public record of our thoughts here.
xo,
Blaze
I’m Wolf Dunaway the autistic man referenced in this blog. The things stated in this blog are just filthy lies. One I work for a federal agency but not the IRS. Two I have never lived in Washington DC in my life. I have never ever lived in public housing. No one ever “came to give me a job!” The entire section about me is nothing but bare faced audiacious lies.
I lived in subsidized housing for a time but it was not public housing as in a high rise project or low rise public housing. I have never worked for the IRS. The IRS is an awesome agency but I never wrked for or even with them. I went to college and got my first federal job as an IT by enrolling in the TRIO programs. This led to an internship in DC via the Presidents Workforce Recruitment Program for People with Disabilities.
My internship led to a better paying job with another federal agency and eventual promostions led to my living in a nice home. I shared these facts about my self in hopes it would inspire others and show what autistic people could accomplish with hard work and proper motivation.
The person telling you what I supposedly said got so much of my message just plain wrong I would not trust a word they write here. As for me I continue to do well and help others with autism live better lives. I was told by someone that one is not truly famous until some nut job prints tons of innacurate smears against your character. Well after reading the lie filled garbage about me on this blog I can only conclude I am very famous.
So you didn’t live in “public housing,” but you did live in “subsidized housing”? Dude, that IS public housing: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/federalbenefitprograms/a/publichousing.htm?utm_term=public%20housing%20assistance&utm_content=p1-main-1-title&utm_medium=sem&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=adid-6e57fd39-726b-40ac-b88c-97daae298391-0-ab_gsb_ocode-5930&ad=semD&an=google_s&am=broad&q=public%20housing%20assistance&dqi=&o=5930&l=sem&qsrc=999&askid=6e57fd39-726b-40ac-b88c-97daae298391-0-ab_gsb
Secondly, you say that you never lived in Washington, DC and then go on to say that you had an internship in DC. So . . . correct me if I’m wrong, but most people with internships live in DC (or the surrounding area, which is generally assumed to be included when making such a general statement). So it’s hardly a stretch or “an inaccurate smear against your character” or “lie-filled garbage” to say that you lived in DC.
Thirdly, someone gave you that internship. According to you, that internship was your “leg up” to a better life. Many people are never accorded such helpful positions. You might not say that “someone came and helped” you, but again, it’s hardly a “filthy lie” to characterize it that way.
We’re sorry the author got the agency you work for wrong, and we’ll change it to “federal agency” as you do not specify which it is.
Whether it has occurred to you or not, your presence, as an adult with autism who is making a good living and thinks that vaccines are awesome, was being used to advance the government’s agenda: promote vaccine “compliance” and downplay any problems with autism. It is perfectly reasonable to wonder whether the fact that you have a government job (which means that you are being supported by the government) and the fact that you were there to promote the government’s seemingly unrelated agenda are really as unrelated as they seem.
Excuse me but lets get things straight. Section 8 is NOT public Housing. Public housing refers to the massive project type buildings that were constructed in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Public housing is administered by the housing authority directly. Section 8 is a certificate that is administered by the Housing Authority and even there my version was managed by a medical program for use of patients in the program of which I was one.
Now as for the internship. You ASSUME I lived in DC because I worked in DC and I did NOT LIVE in DC or any of its immediate suburbs. I lived in Columbia Maryland which is in Howard County darling. Howard county is in MARYLAND and quite a distance from Washington DC dearrie. I might be blowing your mind but many people who work in DC live in Baltimore and its immediate environs because; DC is super expensive and Baltimore and its suburbs are not.
There is something called the MARC Commuter Train honey bunch. If you are disabled and I am, you can ride the MARC train to DC from Baltimore \ Columbia every day for a much reduced fare. You can also RIDE The UTRA Bus for a reduced fare.
No one canme to help me dear. I worked at getting good grades in college dear. I had a 4.0 GPA in college no one gave me anything. If I had a leg up as you so quaintly put it, I got ahead because I was smart. Much as you say you are a proactive voice for autistic people that is a lie too. I became a success because of my own HARD WORK. I became a success because I learned to manage my autisma and thirteen disabilities WITHOUT ANYONE’S HELP BUT GOD ALMIGHTY!
No one gave me the internship it was awarded to students who have high grade point averages in college. I am NOT being supported by the government. Support infers an income maintenance program which a job and a career is NOT. SSI, TANF and GPA are all income maintenance programs that provide support for people unable to WORK FOR A LIVING! I do meaningful work that allows people who need my agencies government services to access them as needed and provided by law.
If I had a career at Johns Hopkins Hospital would I be supported by that fine institution NO! Well maybe I would be in your strange world. A job indicates I am being paid for a value added service I supply to the government for an agreed upon price. A person supported by the government sits home and waits for a check without need of providing any service at all to the government. Wow you really are weird, I have to explain what a job is to you. Oh I am a mouthpeice of the government now am I . Excuse me again but my government career is that of Information Technology related pursuits not autism issues. I did not engage in the autism event as a representative of my agency.
If you type AUTISTIC WEREWOLF into a Google Search you will see I speak all over the country at colleges, schools, universities and other institutions and on TV on issues related to autism ON MY OWN TIME love. My work in the autism community is my own way to give back to people on the spectrum. You don’t like what I say and I am fine with that. What I find vile is your attempts to bend and shape the truth into vile lies to further your own agenda.
I don’t specify my agency because; in my autism related work I DO NOT SPEAK FOR MY AGENCY are you too out there to understand this simple concept. When I do my autism related work I am speaking for myself and myself alone. I brought up my agency only to illustrate that people living on the autism spectrum can lead happy, safe productive lives.
Oh and for your information Columbia, Maryland is approximately 30 miles from Washington DC doll so I hardly think it counts as a Washington Suburb. Columbia is in a completely different county from any bordering DC.
You say someone came and helped me why because; I am autistic and unable to do things on my own. If an autistic man makes a success of himself are you saying it is impossible withoout some magical persons help. You mock me as being unable to fend for myself without some magical help yet you dare call yourself an advocate for autistic people. If you an an advocate for autistic people you are pathetic at your job.
NEWSFLASH DEARRIE, I am an autistic man and I did not need your leg up. I did not live in DC, I lived 30 miles away and far closer to Baltimore 10 miles away than DC 30 miles away. I kept a 4.0 GPA in college and that is what opened doors for me in the job market. I had my pick of jobs with a 4.0 GPA it just so happened that government work is what I like because; I enjoy helping the american people. Some people pick public service because; the idea of helping our US citizens live better lives is the most appealing way to earn a living.
What I said about vaccines on the day in question I stand by 100% even today. I know you think otherwise and while I disagree with your stance on vaccines I respect it. I won’t lower myself to the dirty tactics you employ when you change facts of my life and success to suit your weird agenda. You do not know me, you saw me and heard me at a conference and built this tissue of lies based on what you want to hear and believe about me. I know you will never understand the real me because; you cope by blocking out any truth that offends your sensibilities.
I won’t respond to your next pack of lies because; it serves no purpose to keep up this foolishness. I just wanted to respond so reasonable people can here me rebutt your lies in this forum.
Wow, for someone who doesn’t want to be seen as “lesser,” you’re leaning pretty heavily on the condescension there: “honey bunch” “dear” “DEARRIE” “weird.”
Listen, I get that you’re all riled up, but you are continuing to assume a whole lot of things that aren’t true. Did you read the link? Subsidized housing COUNTS as “public housing” whether you think it does or not. It’s not an effort to make you sound bad to call it that. It’s simply a fact.
In addition, the woman writing the piece assumed you lived in DC when you mentioned your internship. I did not assume it, I suspected you lived in the surrounding area as you in fact do. I already deleted the “in DC” because I did not assume it. I think you would also be surprised that many people WOULD consider a 30-mile distance as well within the “suburb” designation for a city the size and importance of Washington. I live in New York City, and I guarantee you that just about everywhere within a 30-mile radius is considered a suburb. Even back in the 1970s, my home which was 50 miles from Manhattan was considered a NYC suburb.
Again, “support” does not imply that you don’t work for your paycheck. Television stations are supported by advertisers, scientific researchers are supported by the NIH, and government workers are supported by the government. You may have chosen to work for the government simply because you enjoy it, but the point is that the government is “the hand that feeds you.” Again, incontrovertible fact whether you like it or not.
And when you say “no one” gave you the internship or helped you in any way, you sound just like all the “self-made” millionaires who are completely unaware of the advantages they received along the way. Again, no one is saying that you didn’t work for it or you didn’t deserve it, I am certain you did and do, but it is an advantage you were given from the government. That would be the case even if everyone who had high grades automatically got an internship — but they didn’t, did they? We all know there are plenty of 4.0 students who don’t get the perfect internship or who couldn’t afford to take it if they did.
No one is “changing” the facts of your life. The woman who wrote the blog got a quick overview from your presentation and did not repeat it entirely accurately, but it was by no means made up or twisted to suit some “weird” agenda. Whether you like it or not, vaccine proponents in the government view you as a very useful asset in advancing their agenda. You may be an eager and willing participant, but that doesn’t change that fact. We too respect your position. We absolutely support your right to choose to vaccinate the hell out of yourself if that is what you wish to do. But we know that many of our children are facing much more difficult lives because of those vaccines, and we simply request the moral right to refuse them.
Oh and when next you say someone is being supported by the government make sure they are on what in government circles is called an “ENTITLEMENT PROGRAM!” SSI, TANF (AFDC), SNAP (Food Stamps), ENERGY ASSISTANCE and similiar programs are all examples of “ENTITLEMENT PROGRAMS!” If my career \ job was an “ENTITLEMENT PROGRAM” I’d be eligible for SNAP, Energy Assistance and all the other safety net programs. A government job is HARD WORK given by me in exchange for an agreed upon rate of pay.
Don’t take my word on it look it up anywhere. An “ENTITLEMENT PROGRAM” any form of support (safety net program) borne at tax payers expense to help the less fortunate. That I have to explain such a simple thing as the difference between government entitlements and paid employment government or private sector is proof you are fatally flawed as a source of useful correct information.
Yes I agree all this research is not helping my 6 year old son eighter.
“…Then he said he just wanted everyone to know that he would rather have autism than the diseases that vaccines protect us from.”
Sounds like someone who believes that the vaccines may actually cause autism, if you ask me.
No I know vaccines don’t cause autism. Yet I was playing devils advocate assuming your suggestions were right and they are not, I said I’d rather risk the vaccine over the diseases the vaccine protects against. I’d gladly risk autism if it prevented me having Polio for example. I did not ask anyone in that audience to adhere to my choices BUT this was an open forum for ideas. I had every right to stand up and share my ideas that ran counter to your own. Or is this a case where you know best and people actually living on the autism spectrum should just shut up and let you speak for us. Are you suggesting that autistic people should remain silent because you are somehow our “betters!”
Everything you say seems to portray you as somehow better than me a lowly autistic man. According to you I got my job out of charity not hard work. Because I once lived in Section 8 housing it invalidates my accomplishments. As an autistic man I had a lot of learning to do before I became job ready and Section 8 housing let me take the time I needed to prepare, I am not ashamed of this fact.
However I won’t bow down and adore you because; you think my past makes me a lesser person. I see you feel the strong need to see yourself as BETTER than the autistic people you claim to care about and that is disgustingly shameful. the more you folk reveal yourself the more sick and twisted you become in the harsh light of reality.
No one here has ever, or would ever, say that you don’t have a right to stand up and share your ideas. Where on earth do you get the idea that anyone here thinks “autistic people should remain silent” for any reason? Nor does anyone here think you are a “lowly autistic man.” Most of the people here, including the woman who wrote this blog, are parents of people with autism that they love very much and would love to see have a good job and reasonably comfortable life such as you seem to enjoy. And no one here wants to speak for YOU. They DO speak for their own children with autism who are either too young or too disabled to speak for themselves. Or would you rather that no one spoke for them, people who are frequently far more disabled by their autism than you apparently are by yours?
Who said that having once lived in Section 8 housing “invalidates your accomplishments”? Who said that there is anything whatsoever to be ashamed of in that? The people who run this website spend time and money lobbying so that people with autism HAVE that kind of support when they need it. No one thinks your past makes you a “lesser person,” and no one thinks they are automatically better than someone with autism simply because they don’t have it. We couldn’t be more delighted by the fact that you were able to use your time in subsidized housing to great effect. It would be absolutely fabulous if all people who ever need public housing had the same sort of success. To assume that anyone here thinks that is a bad thing is to make just the sort of assumptions about us that you claim the writer made about you.
And NO ONE said or implied that your job was an “entitlement program” (which name is actually tremendously insulting of those people who need to use them as you should understand since you are so concerned with people not looking down on you for having used subsidized housing). What the writer said is that you are SUPPORTED by the government, which means that your paycheck comes from the government. That does not in any way imply that you don’t WORK for that paycheck.
By the way, you THINK that vaccines don’t cause autism. It’s not the same as knowing. They may very well have not caused YOUR autism, but that doesn’t say anything about whether or not they cause autism in others, just as the fact my father died of lung cancer even though he didn’t smoke a day in his life has no bearing on whether or not smoking causes lung cancer. There are over 1300 cases of brain injury that were compensated by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. When investigators tracked down 200 or so of them, they found that 40% had autism. That means that, despite government claims to the contrary, over 500 cases of autism have been compensated by the VICP. There are well over 100 research papers and studies that support several different ways that vaccines can cause harm to neurons including those in the brain. When that happens young enough, autism can and does often result. http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2007/06/no-evidence-of-any-link.html
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Thank you, Blaze, for the report. Once again they waste precious time and not really look for answers. What a shame. No one wants to admit that with ASD numbers climbing with year, we ARE IN A STATE OF EMERGENCY!
Thinking mom here. Everything that has helped my child has been what I have implemented MYSELF!! I am so grateful that I had the hope, courage, determination & quite frankly ‘the balls’ to say eff this one, eff that one, nobody knows my child better than me and I call bullsh*t!!
I decided what I needed to read, certainly NOT autism speaks site. I took the time to do extensive research and I realized that my son was over vaccinated & sick. The more I learned, the more it started to make sense. Then I took the bull by the horns & did something about it. Looking back, I am so glad I didnt sit around waiting for some doctors approval. Our journey started one snowy nite in December 2007 when I drove across town by myself, with my 2yo & 2 month old, to the first store I could find selling GFCF food. He went cold turkey that night. 6 mo later we added supplements & other biomed approaches (along w tradnl therapies). 4 yrs later, & we haven’t looked back!
Like many, many others, I got my child back. And HE couldn’t be happier! Call him in ‘managed recovery’ if need be. Call him indistinguishable amongst peers. Whatever. I just call him by his name. And he answers!
You said the numbers might soon officially be 1 in 88 or 1 in 60. I’m actually thinking they might go the other way because remember…Catherine Lord just said on national news that up to 10% of children with autism are suddenly just “growing out of it”!! It’s preposterous–no mention of all the biomedical moms and dads out there detoxing their kids with diet, supplements, etc. And oh yeah, the DSM V is getting ready to slash the numbers even more–wouldn’t want anything to coincide with the beginning of removing thimerosal from the vaccines. On the other hand, I’m still seeing plenty of autism, so it’s hard to say…. I just know I won’t trust whatever they come up with.
The number will go down, b/c of DSM V.
Thanks for being there Blaze! I would love to comment , but frankly your description left me not surprised, but mind blown and speechless. Particularly When Mark stood up and spoke about going out to press and saying this has to stop. Holy sh#$%@T! They just went on like they hadn’t heard. They don’t want to know and they don’t want to help. And the kit and Autism Speaks…. well , yes, I could do that all myself, and what about the next uh… lifetime of days… has anyone from AS covered THAT topic is an easy to buy kit? I am thinking anyone with an adult child would love the next kit… if only it really held useful information, like, uh, what to do while your adult child is on the 17 YEAR waiting list for adult services. Yeah, they don’t have a kit for that, do they? Yes, that is why I am a TMR member Mom, a Autism warrior mom. It will come down to all of us ( and Dads too). And we are making a change. Yes Mark, this does have to stop.
I bet a know a whole slew of autistic kids who would jump at a case of measles or pertussis rather than have to live with their vaccine-induced disabilities. A case of measles does not equal death, especially in a modern country with good sanitation. Even pertussis which has caused death lately (though, possibly a vaccine-resistant form) doesn’t do it very often.
I agree all this Research isn’t helping mychild right now! She already has Autism. Not one of their “accomplishments” has had any effect for her! They spend all this money and yes I do want to know why this happened but the money would be better spent actually helping all our kids learn how to navigate this world! Since the damage has already been done! Thanks for you post….unbelievable!
I have to say that I believe we should spend lots of money on prevention and cause. The damage is already done for our families, but those behind us deserve protection.
I hope that money goes to better things in the way prevention of down syndrome money has been spent. As an autistic person I am a palled at the concept that we might be the next victims of eugenic abortion. 99% of all unborn babies diagnosed with down syndrome are aborted. We autistics do not plan on being the next statistic because we make you uncomfortable . I am a mother I have seven wedding children all of them are on the autism spectrum as are my grandchildren by those autistic children. For us autism is genetic. My father was undiagnosed and on the spectrum. I am on the spectrum. The children that I had whose fathers were not on the spectrum have been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. The two children I have with my current husband who also is on the spectrum have classic Kanner’s autism. The youngest of those two was diagnosed at 18 months and because I fell into the stupidity trap that many first time and autism diagnosis mom’s fall into regarding immunizations I didn’t have my second child with my current husband immunized. At 18 months she was diagnosed with autism and had never had any vaccine. Following her and her brothers diagnoses I was diagnosed my husband was diagnosed and all of my older children were diagnosed. As my older children married and began having families their children became diagnosed. Those babies are now 16 and 14. This many years later I am a much wiser autistic mom of autistic children. Vaccines do not cause autism. Lack of vaccines do calls febrile seizures and serious illnesses that kill children.
With all due respect, vaccines did not cause your daughter’s autism. Just as smoking didn’t cause my father’s lung cancer. And just as smoking can and does cause lung cancer in others, vaccines can and DO cause autism in many others. There is scientific proof. (https://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/category/vaccines-cause-autism/) In addition, they also cause febrile seizures as thousands of our readers can tell you they did for their children, as well as “serious illnesses” that can kill, including the children of several friends of mine. More than 1300 cases of brain injury have been compensated by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, and when investigators tracked down approximately 200 of those cases, they found that 40% had autism. There is indeed a genetic component to autism, but “genes” do not explain the rapid rise or the sudden appearance in many families that have never had autism before.
Right On sista tell them the truth.
While she has told “the truth” from her family’s perspective, “the truth” in many other families is shockingly different and it would be nice if she and others were to acknowledge that “the truth” from their point of view is far from the whole truth.
My strongest suggestion to you is that you have a conversation with someone like wolf or myself or any other functioning adult autistic about how to help your child. We have all developed our own individual why systems for coping in the world we can give you pointers to help your child begin to develop their own personal system. Wolf’s way of doing things is not my way of doing things. My husband is also autistic and he certainly does not do things the same way I do them. If you want to help your child the best thing you can do is begin to have that child develop their own personal system for coping with the world. It is instinctual for us to develop systems to help us navigate and cope in the world. My strong suggestion to you is that you watch a PBS film called Neurotypical so that you might understand how some of us view the world and the coping mechanisms that we have put in place to help us navigate a world that doesn’t come naturally to us.
It occurs to me, as I read the above reports, that they are so intent on the research portion of their findings that they are treating the autistic population as a gigantic science experiment.
“If we do this then….”
“If we look here, then….”
Etc.
It will take decades for them to come to the same conclusions we, the parents, have come to. Sadly, there will be many, many more children for them to observe in their gigantic experiment.
I thought John Elder Robison was perhaps the best at summarizing the findings which seem to be best characterized as “In the end, we know nothing.”
So, yes, it is the thinking moms and dads who will need to make a difference.
Cleaning up the diet, controlling inflammation, finding people to help you drag your child kicking a screaming out of their little world, specific supplements, tears & sweat, and lives laid down to make a difference. That is what is going to save each one of our children. Heaven help those who continue to join our ranks.
Nicely done, Blaze. Thank you for sitting through that complete waste of time and reporting on it so brilliantly.
Since so many people here seem to believe that vaccines cause autism even though there is no empirical evidence that they do; I wish to pose a question to you all. Please, without becoming emotional or attacking anyone, logically explain to me how a child who has never been vaccinated gets autism?
Recent research has made it very apparent that autism is characterized by high levels of brain inflammation; high levels of one specific cytokine, IL-6, have been identified as being a necessary and sufficient condition for the development of autism. Can vaccines cause high levels of IL-6 in the brain? Absolutely. But there are many other ways to achieve the same result. There may be a genetic predisposition to immune activation involving IL-6, or a toxic situation (lower levels required in people genetically unable to detoxify effectively), triggering inflammation in the body that results in high levels of IL-6 in the brain.