MORE PIECES FOR AUTISM: The roots of autism seem to be nearly as variable as the individuals who have it, and new large genetic studies are continuing to turn up new genomic links.
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The vast array of behaviors that are seen in autism spectrum disorder seems to cover an even deeper range of genetic complexity just below the surface. And the largest genetic study of autistic children and their parents to date has located a host of new variations in autistic individuals.
By studying rare "copy number variations," which are individual errant insertions or deletions of DNA segments (each of which occur in less than one percent of the population), researchers discovered a new cluster of genes that are affected in some autistic individuals as well as a number of mutations that were present in autistic children but not their parents.
"We now really see how genetically complex autism is," says Rita Cantor, a professor in residence at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies human genetics and psychiatry and is a co-author of the new study, which was published online June 9 in Nature. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)
The researchers tested blood samples from 996 children in the U.S., Canada and Europe who had been diagnosed with autism. They compared genetic analyses of these samples with those from both parents (in 876 cases) as well as from 1,287 healthy children of European descent. The test scanned for about one million of the roughly 10 million gene variants in the human genome.
Results from the analysis confirmed previous findings of some copy number variants already associated with autism, but they also found a host of other genes (SHANK2, SYNGAP1, DLGAP2 and the X chromosome–linked DDX53-PTCHD1 locus) in which mutations seem to be linked to autism. The group also discovered that 5.7 percent of autistic children's variations were not present in either of their parents' DNA, suggesting that these copy errors stemmed from mutations in the egg and/or sperm.
Although "genomic rearrangements have been associated with autism for awhile," finding more of the novel changes is "quite exciting for the field," says Simon Gregory, an associate professor of medical genetics at Duke University's Center for Human Genetics, who was not involved in the study.
The new findings come from work by the Autism Genome Project Consortium, a collaboration of some 120 scientists working at more than 50 institutions in 19 countries, which is just one of many groups investigating the roots of autism.
Location, location, location
Human variation depends on a collection of random mutations across the genome, contributing to differences in appearance as well as behavior.
"While we're all walking around with copy number variants in our DNA, many of us don't have autism," Cantor notes. And rather than the total number of variations, she says, autism seems to be, in part, a result of "where the copy number variation hit." If a copy number variation disrupts certain genes, it is more likely to lead to autism.
"Autistic children have 20 percent more disruption of genes in copy number variants than children who do not have autism," Cantor explains. But the new study has underscored the variability in the copy number variants and genes that can be affected in autistic individuals.
About 10 to 15 percent of people with autism have a disorder linked to a known single-gene mutation, such as fragile X syndrome, or chromosomal alterations. But many more likely have a rare or unique collection of yet to be decoded genetic variations that have contributed to their condition.
"Now we see that perhaps the individual factors themselves are more rare than we expected," Cantor says.
Patterns in chaos
Given the rarity of each copy number variation and genetic glitch in the autism population, "it's going to be tough to suggest that any one of those individually can contribute to the development of the disorder," Gregory says.
He notes that because of the boggling number of potential factors, such as copy number variations, point mutations and epigenetic (inherited mutation) factors involved in autism, it will be important to find common pathways "because the mechanisms interrupting those pathways might be different among individuals."
Nevertheless, researchers are making progress in sorting disrupted genes and pathways. Many of the genes highlighted in the new study fall into certain categories, such as cellular signaling in the brain, which could play a role in the developmental disabilities common in autism.
The researchers also found that many of the disrupted genes in autistic children are the same as those found in children with diagnosed intellectual disability. The overlap is "not surprising," Gregory says, noting that genetic similarities make "biological sense" in terms of brain signaling and development.
"The lines drawn between different disorders are not related to the genes that predispose to the disorders," Cantor notes, explaining that two children can present very similar behavioral patterns but have vastly different sets of copy number variations—and vice versa. Formal disorder delineations have been based largely on behavior-based diagnoses, but the insight into genetic patterns behind these designations has shown the range of causes to be much more complex.
Constellation of factors
Twin studies have shown that identical twins (who share the same genes) are more likely to both suffer from the disorder than fraternal twins, which has demonstrated that "there's a large genetic component to the disorder," Cantor says. Research from other fields, however, is exploring other potential components, including possible epigenetic and environmental risk factors.
"This is so complex that it's not only what's going on in the one gene but the constellation of genes surrounding it—and maybe the environment," Cantor explains. "This, in some sense, is only the tip of the iceberg."
Researchers not involved in the work laud the study's size and scope as a means to obtain a fuller picture of genetic links for autism. "It is only through large genetic studies (such as this one) that we will be able to identify additional rare variants associated with this disorder," Dorothy Grice, an associate professor of clinical child psychiatry at Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, noted in an e-mail.
Despite the size of this study, the new genetic findings likely explain only about 3 percent of autism's genetic roots, researchers behind the new study noted.
And many scientists think that even larger studies are necessary: Cantor says a study 10 times bigger—sampling 10,000 children with autism and as many controls—would be required to see if the results replicate in a larger population as well as uncover new, rare genetic variations, which are almost certain to emerge. Using high-throughput sequencing of whole genomes will also be key in finding other kinds of genetic variation involved in autism, Grice explained.
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61 Comments
Add CommentMore disinformation from the Home Office. I have four children born in the 1990’s, labeled/diagnosed with autism or autism spectrum disorders by Geraldine Dawson’s Family Study of Autism at the University of Washington in Seattle, and vaccinated with the DPT and MMR. The last child was given seven vaccines at a single medical visit in order to "catch up" with the vaccine schedule. While he had been behind in speech and socialization, after this spate of vaccines he stopped talking altogether. It was after this event, that his not so clever mother, started questioning vaccines and the vaccine schedule.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy mother is one of 13 and my father one of 10. I have 60 first cousins. Not a single individual of us, including my husband, his smaller family, nor myself, had a condition remotely resembling that of our children. So you brilliant researchers, have decided that each autistic child in a family cluster, such as my own, has a "rare variant"????? Such a brilliant deduction. Wakefield had the balls to question this medical consensus and it earned him the academic death penalty. Information suppression couldn't stop the truth maintained by Ignacc Semelweis and Joseph Lister. The absurd, genetic etiology of autism hypothesis will eventually be exposed and discarded. Analogously, puerperal fever was said to have a thousand causes. Puerperal fever came to be acknowledged to have one cause, an iatrogenic cause, absence of physician prophylaxis. Autism, likewise,does not have a thousand causes, but only one, an iatrogenic cause, vaccination.
o While it may be true that other environmental toxins may act synergistically with genes to accentuate the adverse effects of vaccination, the primary trigger of autism is the toxin filled vaccination itself, poorly studied, for political and profit motivations. Medical myth would have you believe that one disease, autism, has a thousand causes. It is far more likely that a thousand diseases have one cause, vaccination.
o I've never studied the human Genome, nor am I a genetic epidemiologist, nor do I have any biological or medical degree, but I have studied statistics, econonmics and I am aware of the history of autism and the absence of valid study of vaccination. Autism was not identified as a condition until Kanner observed it in children in the 1940's. Given the fact that medical curiosities of all sorts were reported in medical literature for at least the hundred previous years, it is extraordinary that it would take so long in human history for autism to be identified as a discrete set of conditions. Thus, the conclusion that it is a new condition. The reason I am aware of the vaccine-autism link is not simply due to the absence of solid studies with valid controls, that is, those with the never vaccinated, it is due to being told personally by a biostatistician in the Public Health Department at Yale University that vaccination is the cause of all this autism, both in my children's cases as well as in others.
I really wonder when MMR opponents are going to accept the evidence, and stop inventing their own explanations based on conspiracy, anti-science, and misinformation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany diseases had no name until they were studied in modern times. Having read a great deal of the history of medicine and its development, it is far more likely that victims of autism either died or were labeled "simpletons" prior to the initial studies that isolated this disorder.
Vaccines have done more to improve public health than probably any other medical advance aside from the germ theory itself. One need only study history to see how many millions died prior to the advent of vaccination. Sadly, today's opponents don't have that perspective.
Bravo Mary. I, and many other parents of children with autism, know it has something to do with the vaccinations. Just watch "Vaccine Nation" to see how our "progressive" and industrialized nation came to be the most vaccinated country on the planet, fueled by politics and the big Pharmaceutical companies. Yes, vaccines have saved lives, but at what cost to my child and millions like him? Is the cost too great? Could it be that we have also learned how to prevent disease in other ways, like eating organically and reducing environmental pollutants, to reduce death caused by cancer? Aside from the dangerous and controversial Ovarian Cancer vaccine, there' s been no vaccine for cancer, yet the rates have dropped when people realized the toxins in their environment contribute to or cause their disease. Why are people so eager to embrace the fact that environmental pollutants can cause disease but not be a factor in autism? The same people who think global warming and Bigfoot are real, yet turn a blind eye to the fact that Al Gore has 3 mansions and creates a larger carbon footprint than 100 people. Wake up people! Toxins in our environment cause many problems for humans, including autism. Yes, there may be a genetic pre-disposition to the condition but there has to be an environmental trigger. You can't shoot aluminum, mercury, and other toxins and germs directly into the bloodstream of individuals with a compromised immune system and expect everything to be okay. Let alone 7 or more of them at once!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe should all try to keep an open mind on this subject. There are very likelly genetic causes for various components in the broad spectrum of autism, as is the case with Fragile X for example. However, there may also be sporadic or environmental causes as well. Such is the case with breast cancer, where most cases are diagnosed without a family history or predisposition and yet specific genes (BrCa genes 1 and 2 and others) have been identified as responsible for familial cases. There are likely many other genes yet to be identified, and cases today called sporadic may one day well prove to be genetic in origin. Please do not close your minds to all the possibilities.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf a "thousand diseases have one cause, vaccination" why don't I (I've been vaccinated) have autism, along with these other thousand diseases?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Yes, there may be a genetic pre-disposition to the condition but there has to be an environmental trigger." You're making a huge leap here. There does NOT have to be an "environmental" trigger. The trigger could just as easily be age related. Until you accept this fact, you're going to continue blaming vaccines with no supporting evidence. Andrew Wakefield has been exposed as a fraud. The whole basis for the anti-vaccine paranoia was his defective study.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"You can't shoot aluminum, mercury, and other toxins and germs directly into the bloodstream..." Correct, but vaccines contain no mercury or aluminum. In most cases the "germs" they contain are a killed, i.e. inactive form. Until you can actually demonstrate a link between the two--and every study that's been performed over two decades suggests there isn't one--then you're just guessing.
I will not presume to know enough about the details of autism to say what causes it. What I can say something about is the condition of the medical/pharmaceutical complex in America. Our society is based upon commerce whether we like it or not. Commerce has no morality, nor does it reward moral behavior on the part of the worker bees. Profit is the major force behind all decisions made in the name of commerce. Is it more profitable for a pharmaceutical company to cure a malady, or to manage one through drugs? Now this is a stretch I will admit, but if one considers our society through a filter of what is being offered to us by commerce on the largest of scales; everything that is fed to us in massive quantities is very thoroughly processed. Media, food, medicine, even water has additives. Would it not be profitable for commerce to afflict us with illness? After all if we are not sick the medical industry suffers. Now I do not think that there is a conspiracy per se, I just think that the greed within all of us combined with the current corporate mentality of "I'm just doing what I'm told", and the misconception that there is someone out there looking out for my best interests in regulating what commerce can and cannot do. I picture the food and medical industries teaming up to find out what they can do to keep us ill enough to require medicine but well enough to work. Using our children to fill the prescription quotas. I could go on and on with little coincidental and anecdotal bits that when seen altogether, make me skeptical as to the benign nature of business in America.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat I'm mostly concerned about here is Scientific American getting the science right. In particular, while epigenetic factors can certainly be inherited, it is questionable whether they can be classified as mutations and unquestionable that "inherited mutations" is not a correct definition. Epigenetic factors as used in this article are heritable changes that can affect gene expression but are not coded in the DNA sequence, such as DNA methylation and perhaps histone acetylation. Even if you consider them to be "inherited mutations", this definition does not distinguish epigenetic changes from changes to the DNA sequence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs for the vaccine die-hards, they're right about the dangers of vaccines but wrong about the link to autism. We have chosen not to have our daughter vaccinated, and it had nothing to do with autism. I've read Wakefield's original article, and his linkage to autism was clearly specious - a classic example of trying to infer cause and effect from a correlation. BTW, he was not "exposed as a fraud" (though he is), he was exposed as unethical, and his license to practice medicine in the UK revoked.
So, why didn't we have our child vaccinated? Partly because of mercury (it may not be in there now, but it was 9-1/2 years ago when she was born), partly because there is excellent scientific evidence that the so-called killed viruses in some vaccines are not completely dead. As Billy Crystal's character said in The Princess Bride, "nearly dead isn't dead". In fact, the only cause of polio in the US for many years has been the polio vaccine. Many cases of SSPE, a deadly neurological disease, have been traced to the measles vaccine strain re-emerging decades after the vaccination. Don't believe it? Look it up!
Oh, goody, more of my favorite dimwits: the angry moms of kids with autism who think because they deal with autism that's all it takes to know what causes it. They've been able to nail down the problem that thousands of scientists, researchers and doctors have been working on for decades. Don't you see? You should just ask the mother of a child with autism! They've got it all figured out! They watched a movie that was produced by people with a pro-death agenda!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere's the problem ladies: no, vaccines do NOT cause autism. Period. There's no debate, you're wrong. Just as I refuse to debate people who believe the Earth is flat, so to I choose not to debate dimwits who think vaccines cause autism. You're wrong on exactly the same level as the flat-Earthers. Hundreds of properly done studies OUTSIDE OF "BIG PHARMA" haven't found the slightest shred of a link between the two. The only one that did was the Wakefield study...you know, Wakefield...the guy who was creating his own vaccine and published the study to discredit everyone else's work and thus line his own pockets? Yeah, THAT Wakefield. The one who was rightfully stripped of all professional credentials because he's a giant fraud...of course, you'll probably respond that he's "victim" and that BIG PHARMA's just out to get him, because that's what all of you mindless robots regurgitate.
As to the number of vaccines: meaningless. Your kid gets more germs sticking their favorite toy in their mouths than from the whole suite of vaccinations they get at the doctor. Your anecdotal evidence is meaningless. As this study shows, you wanna know why your kid has autism: it's YOUR fault. Your genes are to blame...I'm beginning to wonder if there's a link between dimwitted parents and kids with autism.
Finally, yes, I called you dimwits. Yes, that's an ad hominem. No, that does not lend ANY credence to your argument nor diminishes mine and the fact that you think it does only confirms you're a dimwit. I don't have to be nice to religious zealots such as yourselves, I choose not to be nice. You're a danger to the world at large, and frankly you should all be rounded up and stored on an island somewhere where you and your non-vaccinated kids can do no more damage.
You know what the worst part is? If you dimwits would shut up and stop coming up with fraudulent things that you insist need to be investigated, we'd have more time and money to concentrate on research in the RIGHT direction.
lotusface - I agree to the extent that pharmaceutical companies are funding research, as their limited objective is primarily to find more effective treatments than those currently in place, thereby making more profit.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile Asperger's Syndrome wasn't often diagnosed much less treated when I was a child, perhaps making my life more difficult, I was fortunately sufficiently functional to eventually prosper, at least to some extent as a result of my 'special abilities'.
While it may provide psychiatrists with simpler diagnostic methods, for all other purposes this collection of symptoms now referred to as 'Autism Spectrum Disorders' includes potentially beneficial if asocial characteristics along with a broad spectrum of serious conditions.
Generalized studies searching for a singular cause for ASD may not lead to progress towards any specific disorder, particularly if there are many disparate causes and potential treatments.
As a result of these approaches to this aggregation method, I can even envision pharmaceutical companies developing a Autism Spectrum Vaccine that includes treatments for a broad spectrum of behavioral 'disorders'. That treatment approach would certainly be the most economic, but wouldn't it be ironic?
As a special educator, I can see how parents want to believe in easy environmental explanations of their daughter's or son's autism. The Wakefield article really made a mess of the whole situation and gave lots of people some false hope. We know that mercury has been removed from the vaccines and there has been no decrease in the incidence of Autism. I agree with SpoonmanWoS that a lot of misguided effort has been put into easy answers like vaccines and parents and other autism advocates need to move past their unfounded beliefs to fund and support future research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe one major complaint I have with this article is that it fails to use people first language. It may seem like nitpicking, but it is a big deal for the person with a disability. Instead of an autistic child, it should be a child with autism. I hate to define a person by their disability. A good link: http://www.disabilityisnatural.com/
Thinking about how our modern world has left indented prints on our genetic structure, mercury vaccines fit. So does electromagnetic radiation of the non ionizing kind. Electromagnetic Fields by B Blake Levitt published in 1997 & amazing republished in 2007. One assumes if the book was fictionalized that the author would have been impoverished, criminalized, and living on the streets. She instead republished. Electromagnetic radiation is cumulative & mutagenic. How does one avoid EMF today?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismary podlesak,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSorry about your children.
My female friend teaches at a private school for autism. (2 years to 16 years old)
Another male friend, who works on a high school level for autism for the city. He has worked with hundreds of kids over the years.
They both say that, there is no connection to the shots! Some of the parents feel that they need to blame something...because autism starts about the same time as the shots...it's an easy way out to blame.
How would you know about your past family history!
In the past the shame of something like this was hidden. Then too...there's different levels. It's also true that many kids died early. Even depression, was not recognized as mental illness yet.
I know it doesn't help much, but I hope something good happens for your family.
Honest... it' not the vaccines, most kids get this without shots, it happens at an age and very genetic.
The "scientific study" that linked autism to vaccinations has been retraced by the medical journal (Lancet) that published it in '98. The retraction was do to poor scientific methodology and ulterior motives by it's author Dr. Wakefield. I understand that parent who's children are suffering from autism are upset and looking for methods to prevent this from happening to others, but please stop spreading misinformation about the vaccines that can save the lives of countless children. I have included one of many links to information about the retraction Please do some scientific research of your own before you make this important decision regarding the life of your child and the children that are around them while they are still to young to be vaccinated themselves.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/02/lancet.retraction.autism/index.html
SpoonmanWoS,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree, it just wastes resources instead of helping the people that need th help.
EntlZha, Until valid double-blind case control vaccine studies are designed and run by investigators independent of the pharmaceutical industry and big government agencies, like the FDA, NIH, CDC and HHS your solumn pronouncement of the safety, efficacy and validity of vaccine research has no merit. Without vaccine studies, particularly long term studies, including the never vaccinated as controls, there is no way such a determination could be made. The "statistics" used to validate the safety and efficacy of older vaccines were gathered by government and subject to data selection and gross bias in favor of vaccination.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSteve Hochhauser,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's not ok to kill large populations of the earth, because as with ALL things, there is a small percent of people with very weak immune systems.
Who, in time, would have caught something else just as deadly.
mary podlesak,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe answer comes many times, by the very thing a person does not say.
Have you, your husband, and other family members had their DNA tested?
Didn't think so...Could you be the link?
Dear SpoonmanWoS, ah, yeah, As far as I can ascertain, your arguments are based upon authority, that is to say, such and such an authority pronounced vaccines safe and effective based upon studies, done ostensibly, with independence from government, the medical establishment and pharmaceutical firms. Please cite all studies of vaccines, long term studies particularly, using the never vaccinated or at least the unvaccinated with the treatment vaccine, as controls. I wrote to Dr. Thomas Jefferson of the Cochrane Group in Rome, which studies, studies. That is to say, they do metastudies. Dr. Jefferson could not cite for me any vaccine studies, short or long term, which use the unvaccinated or never vaccinated as controls.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI suspect Mr. SpoonmanWoS, that you are a coward. You attack from behind a subterfuge, while I do not. I am not afraid to debate this issue in public under my own name. I challenge you to a public debate- at your expense- in a public place. I suspect you work for some agency of our government, tasked with the job of refuting the legitimate arguments of those of us who quetion the "science" behind vaccines. You are just another member of the Borg.
Bops,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhether it's people with weak immune systems who succumb to vaccine caused infections is logical but unproven, and beside the point. The point being that there are very real risks associated with these vaccines. That's real science, not Wakefield's crap.
If I understand you, I think you're saying that a lot of people would have died without these vaccines, and of course you're right. Basically vaccines are a victim of their own success . Herd immunity is now so high that for an individual child in a developed country the risk of being vaccinated is higher than the risk of not being vaccinated (at least we decided it was, based on the scientific evidence available at the time). Nevertheless, I do understand that the risk analysis would change drastically if no one had their children vaccinated and these diseases reappeared in large numbers. I admit it - not having my chold vaccinated was a selfish act. Then again, so is providing her with her own bedroom in a country where so many are homeless.
I have worked within a school dealing with students with severe autism for years now.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany parents there did not have their children vaccinated as they feared that the original study suggesting a link between the MMR and autism was a reality.
Yet their children still have autism. From my perspective and those that work around me, the link is not the MMR but the age that most children have the jab. The timing of this injection is around the time that most children would start to show an impairment of theory of mind anyway.
Many parents of the children in our school have some form of autism themselves, aspergers or HFA and this could suggest a genetic link.
I am not saying that there are not external factor, what I would say is that I do not know for sure. No-one on this forum knows for certain what causes autism, if we did this research would be irrelevent. However, there is no need to attack a persons research because you don't want to believe the results. The research would have been peer reviewed before being published and it seems highly paraniod to suggest that the researchers are in some way trying to directly lie to you to protect the MMR vaccine.
Dear Voiceofreason, Billions of dollars are invested in the vaccine industry and the medical enterprise associated with it. It is entirely plausible that those defending such public and private expenditures would use any tactics that appeared to work, including fraud. The New York Times in the past several years has reported on the fraud in psychiatric drug studies. The fraud is reported to be rampant throughout all medical studies. I have a statistics book written in the 1920's which casts doubt on the integrity of medical studies done at that time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have no confidence in third party reporting of the vaccination status of children diagnosed with autism. Vaccines are very easy to administer and easily forgotten by the parents.
It is not third party recording but within their medical records. But I understand that your skepticism will mean that you will say these have also been doctored in some way.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy suggestion is not that you do not consider the MMR vaccine as a trigger as it is obvious that you have already decided this is the case, but that you consider that there are also other options and that not every case is the same.
Medical records can be rigged. I know children are vaccinated contrary to the parents' expressed wishes. Again, I assert, vaccines are easy to administer, especially by zealots, convinced of the need for "herd immunity", a concept unknown to statistics, and are difficult to detect post administration. It is known that immune response to vaccination varies, so it is possible to multiply vaccinate an individual whose immune system does not respond.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"EntlZha, Until valid double-blind case control vaccine studies are designed and run by investigators independent of the pharmaceutical industry and big government agencies, like the FDA, NIH, CDC and HHS your solumn pronouncement of the safety, efficacy and validity of vaccine research has no merit."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThose studies have been run. Repeatedly. Vaccines, in one form or another, have been around since roughly 1800. During the Civil War, soldiers were vaccinated (some actually vaccinated each other!). This was long before any of your bogeyman agencies existed, and still people knew vaccines saved lives.
Read through "Risk Taking and Analysis" for some further stats on how bad people are at assessing risk. http://criticalenquiry.org/theory/risk.shtml
"Dr. Jefferson could not cite for me any vaccine studies, short or long term, which use the unvaccinated or never vaccinated as controls."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat would be because it's impossible to run those studies without serious ethical concerns. And because the risk increases exponentially the more un-vaccinated people exist in a given population.
If you want a "study" of vaccinated vs un-vaccinated populations, just look at world disease rates prior to the advent of vaccination. You'll find massively higher levels of fatal disease, especially among children.
Mary, you're making wild and unsubstantiated accusations against anyone who disagrees with you. You accused Spoonman of being "a member of the Borg" or in the employ of one of those bogeyman groups you insist on hating. You are incapable of debating this topic rationally, and will never accept any evidence that fails to substantiate your arguments. Your anger and need to blame someone has unbalanced your arguments. I'm sorry about your child, but you're blaming the wrong people.
Mary,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe IOM operates outside of government and big pharma. They conducted a study in 2004 and concluded that "the evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines an autism." Read the report here: http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2004/Immunization-Safety-Review-Vaccines-and-Autism.aspx . This study is a meta-analysis done with good science. I'd be curious to hear specifically where you disagree with it's results.
I am the mother of FOUR children diagnosed/labeled with autism spectrum disorders. The Institute of Medicine has no special claim to virginal objectivity and independence. They, I am certain, have the very same revolving doors found at NIH, FDA, and CDC, between government, the academic medical establishment and the pharamaceutical industry. No studies have been done on any vaccines with the unvaccinated or never vaccinated as controls. Investigation of medical fraud has been done by Senator Charles Grassley, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. I myself have had a doctor perform a procedure on my daughter against my expressed wishes. The MD laughed in my face and said he was going to do it anyway and charge me for the priviledge. The lawyer I saw afterwards said these docs get a pass in the courts for "their judgment". I know they use their "judgment" to vaccinate against parent's wishes. I have seen comments by parents to that effect.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs to the strawman argument that it is "unethical" not to vaccinate study controls in order to study the effects, because somehow vaccines have already been demonstrated to be effective so we can fudge on the adverse effects that they cause, PLEASE, stop insulting my intelligence. This simply begs the question. How convenient for the government, big Pharma, and big Medicine, to make it "unethical" to study the population most likely to demonstrate the vaccuousness of vaccination. With no valid unbiased studies, either epidiemiological or case-controlled (and those historical studies, pre-20th century arn't worth the paper their printed on), the credibility of vaccination whether ancient or modern is a shadow in a mirror. If VALID studies exist, cite them.
"If VALID studies exist, cite them."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPointless. You'd just find some reason to reject them.
One more point, it is falacious to say that vaccine "preventable" diseases were at epidemic levels prior to the development of vaccines. I have a medical sociology book with a complete set of the epidimiological time lines of such diseases with the vaccine's inroduction inserted. It is obvious that each of these diseases was in precipitous decline prior to the introduction of it's vaccine. With the introduction of the vaccine, each of the disease trends leveled off.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe know that cancer does not result form a single cause. We even know that haemophilia is not a single cause (there are many genetic defects that result in simular symptoms so there are several causes of the disease). Autism, a highly variable condition does NOT come from a single cause. To best determine how to treat the condition and maybe (if it is possible) prevent it an open mind is required.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI know some people experience family clusters of the disease and that is heart breaking. But that does not in itself point to a single cause. Perhaps the mother has a slightly lower than required gestation period, perhaps the births are particularly difficult, perhaps the mother or father have previously been exposed to chemicals or drugs that alter their gametes and there was a resultant genetic mutation in all their children, perhaps (as with many diseases) there was a spontaneous mutation in each parent which contributed to the autism (as what occurs for many diseases). Maybe it is a combination of all of these things and more.
Sometimes the holes in the Swiss cheese line up and the bad thing happens.
The vaccination issue has been debunked. Vaccinations are not perfect. Sometimes they kill or maim & but that is irrespective of the age of the recipient and occurs at a much lower rate than the disease the vaccinations are seeking to prevent. Negative reactions to vaccines tend to be very quick and acute.
Mass vaccinations in third world countries have not suddenly resulted in any changes to the number of autistic children. Children, including those in remote villages who have not and could never have been, vaccinated still develop conditions that resemble autism. It is likely that autism was in existence long before vaccinations were invented. Changelings are referred to through history and in fairy stories they are essentially toddlers that are suddenly replaced by a monster that looks like the toddler but grunt and squeal instead of speaking and are very anti-social. The condition described is analogous to autism. Folk law required the changeling be to the forest in the hope your real child would likewise be returned by the creatures of the forest that had supplemented the changeling. In other words historically children with autism were left to die. Individuals with a higher functioning spectrum of the disorder were less likely to be afforded the opportunity to breed.
Please, focus on helping families dealing with severe examples of this condition rather than fixating on erroneous paranoid conspiracy theories of blame
For anyone else following this thread, Mary's name is all over the Internet as a virulent vaccine opponent. Her mantra on discussion groups is the same as is seen in many anti-evolution, anti-science types:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1) claim to have evidence, but never reveal the actual name, author, etc. Label all opponents as "members of the Borg" or otherwise involved in the conspiracy.
2) Offer to debate publicly, but never actually accept an invitation from experts.
3) Ignore the "unbiased evidence" of vaccine efficacy and safety she demands, even when a long list is presented.
4) Resort to the "Pharma Shill Gambit" (http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2006/09/the_pharma_shill_gambit_1.php) in attempts to dismiss opponents.
In other words, ignore her. She posts the same rants on a regular basis. Just Google her name and judge for yourself.
While certain genetic alleles might affect the propensity to develop autism, if we accept the CDC' Morbidity and Mortality Weekly statistics, the incidence of autism has increased some 10 fold in a generation. This can not be due to a generational change in genetics. Therefore we have environmental/infectious etiologies to consider. Seeing as a significant minority of parents of autistic children have stated that their child's autism developed subsequent to a vaccine inoculation and considering these vaccines often contain preservatives designed to "kill cellular life", this provides a very reasonable avenue for intense investigation. Or will we just call them the "refrigerator mothers" of the 21st century?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPaul Maher, MD MPH http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/
While certain genetic alleles might affect the propensity to develop autism, if we accept the CDC' Morbidity and Mortality Weekly statistics, the incidence of autism has increased some 10 fold in a generation. This can not be due to a generational change in genetics. Therefore we have environmental/infectious etiologies to consider. Seeing as a significant minority of parents of autistic children have stated that their child's autism developed subsequent to a vaccine inoculation and considering these vaccines often contain preservatives designed to "kill cellular life", this provides a very reasonable avenue for intense investigation. Or will we just call them the "refrigerator mothers" of the 21st century?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com
@Philip: as others have said, autism often develops at about the age at which vaccines are being administered. Most people are confused over the concept of causation vs correlation (i.e. "if it rains after I wash my car, did washing the car make it rain?). And there are numerous cases in which all children in the same family developed some form of autism, even though some of those children weren't vaccinated. This speaks for a genetic cause, not for vaccines as the cause.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs I tirelessly insist, valid case-control studies or epidiemologicalstudies wouldnecessarily take into considerationthe unvaccinated and/or the never vaccinated. Without these groups as controls there is novalid unbiased way of determining the benefits and adverse effects of vaccination. By definition you are biasing and confounding effects by not having valid control groups. It is true, I cannot claim I know of such studies with those attributes. It is up to those who make positive claims for vaccination to cite such studies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have never been offered an invitation to debate in public - again - at the expense of the medical profession, our government public health departments or the pharmaceutical firms. I never received such an invitation in my email. Apparently, they are afraid of a 56 year old mother of 4 autistic children. Surely, it cannot be because they cannot afford it.
If you can cite studies with "unbiased evidence", do so. I will be happy to evaluate them. Ad hominum attacks will not deter me, nor the truth. I am not the only trained statistician with these views of vaccination. However, I am not a wage slave and as a result, more difficult to silence, as most statisticians are in need of a paycheck from our government, big Pharma or big medicine.
Wow Mary. You have a huge amount of anecdotal evidence there and a definite correlation between vaccine events and the onset of Autism. Please get back to us when you have any actual evidence and/or can show an actual causal relationship. Otherwise, you may want to look for a different scientific icon to follow other than Dr. Jenny McCarthy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthank you. all the children i know have had the same vaccines and yet my son is the only one who has autism. curious, isn't it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy biostatiistician professor friend at Yale is my source for validation of the vaccine-autism connection, not Jenny McCarthy. I have degrees in Statistics, Economics and Industrial Engineering with a concentration in Operations Research. My thesis, under my advisor, a graduate of Johns Hopkins school of Public Health, was a Simulation of Ambulatory Care.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe reason why so many vaccinated children do not become autistic is because they do not possess the genetic predisposition to autism when vaccinated, which is present in a subset of the population, of which, my children and myself are members.
Mary: Seriously:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1) "valid case-control studies or epidiemological[]studies would[]necessarily take into consideration[]the unvaccinated and/or the never vaccinated" - simply not true
2) " It is up to those who make positive claims for vaccination to cite such studies." - No. It is up to those like yourself who dispute the current overwhelming body of controlled scientific studies to justify your scientificaly unsupportable and effectively anti-social position.
3) "I have never been offered an invitation to debate in public" - Of course not. Who would bother? Your arguments are illogical and insensible at the outset.
4) "If you can cite studies with "unbiased evidence", do so. I will be happy to evaluate them." As your statements describe so far, your "evaluate" means you will blindly refute them based on your assumed corporate or profit based bias, or some other excuse. What basis would anyone bother with your evaluation against the medical opinion of thousands of trained medical professionals?
5) "attacks will not deter me, nor the truth" Oh, yes. At least your are personally honest here. You have already decided on what the 'truth' is. You certainly will not be swayed by anything so irrelevant as contrary evidence.
6) "most statisticians are in need of a paycheck from our government, big Pharma or big medicine." - If you really believe 'big medicine' is out to get you, might you consider a professional counseling group to join to help with paranoid beliefs like this?
If it helps you, good luck with your 'truth', I guess. I'm sure your life is not easy.
@Mary: it's up to you to actually provide legitimate citations for the studies you claim to have. As in other fora, you're using very McCarthesque "I have a list!" tactics as your alleged evidence, but no one ever sees that list.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs for studies supporting vaccination and refuting the claim of its correlation to autism, all you need to do is visit http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/01/the_skepchick_versus_barbara_loe_fisher.php and go to posting #51, which details at least a dozen such studies. But then you already know about this list, since you also participated in that discussion and ignored it when it was posted.
As for "I am not a wage slave and as a result, more difficult to silence, as most statisticians are in need of a paycheck from our government, big Pharma or big medicine. " -- Thank you for proving my point. You accuse others of resorting to ad hominems, yet you do so with appalling regularity by accusing your opponents of intentionally skewing/suppressing evidence. Until you produce evidence proving this is occurring, you're just throwing stones.
A few more for 'typhoid' Mary. You say:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1) "Please cite all studies of vaccines, long term studies particularly, using the never vaccinated or at least the unvaccinated with the treatment vaccine, as controls." - How about this: No. You are in the minority, often scientifically incorrect 'camp', whose leading proponent (Wakefield) was just stripped of his professional credentials and had his research invalidated, whose second biggest proponent is 'Dr' Jenny McCarthy (is that of Yale or Harvard metical school?). Instead, you produce your 'evidence'
2) "I suspect Mr. SpoonmanWoS, that you are a coward." Just to help you out here: Someone is not a coward simply because they say things you do not want to hear. The word you mean to use is 'annoyance'
3) "I challenge you to a public debate- at your expense- in a public place." How generous of you (not). I'm sure you will retreat to your fantasy word and twist the certain non-response to your 'offer' to charge someone to talk to you as an admission of their incorrectness. I offer you the same challenge: Pay me to debate you (or else I can assume I am right).
4) "I suspect you work for some agency of our government, tasked with the job of refuting the legitimate arguments of those of us who quetion the "science" behind vaccines. You are just another member of the Borg." - Wow. Do you really believe this? Again, I have some advise to help you with this (paranoid) issue: Seek professional counseling.
You need to read the sciene and see how in the 1800's vaccines came to fruition to really understand that vaccines have never been tested, they don't eradicate diseases and they cause illness and sometimes death. You can't base safety on the studies we always hear about -- funded by pharmaceutical companies. Vaccines are a multi-billion dollar a year business. They do not want to kill this cash cow. In March, an independent research group found fragments of Pig virus in the rotateq vaccine (given at 2, 4 and 6 months). These pig viruses cause pigs to die and have been linked to cancer in humans. The CDC and the FDA were alerted to this and their response, "we think it is safe, we don't know if it will be a problem over time." Yet, they decided to keep it on the vaccine schedule as is. They will never tell mom about that when she holds her beautiful 8 lb. baby while they give him pig virus -- yet she has a right to know and she has the right to refuse.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMary, the truth is tireless:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"My biostatiistician professor friend at Yale" - 'biostatiistician' is an unusual name. It's not even capitalized (or are you not naming actual names, as you demand of others)
"my advisor, a graduate of Johns Hopkins school of Public Health" - again obfuscation.
"The reason why so many vaccinated children do not become autistic is because they do not possess the genetic predisposition to autism when vaccinated, which is present in a subset of the population, of which, my children and myself are members." - And the study that supports this? This is a bold and (singularly sourced) set of claims. Which genetic tests have been performed on all members of your family that show this? At this point, current research indicates the causal genetic factors are myriad and likely interrelated. How is your personal research so far ahead of the aggregate medical research community? Is the supporting study, by any chance, called the Self-Serving Wild Accusation Study?
i can think of a handful of other conditions in which the manifestation is due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors.While,it would be nice to point to vaccines as this 'environmental factor',the reality is it is not.vaccines do not cause autism.In the same way a green eyed child can be born to a very large extended brown eyed family,children can be autistic.If you want to increase your chances of not having an autistic child,have all your child before 35,make sure your husband isn't past 39 either.test your tap water,car exhaust,air conditioner emission,wall paint and clothing.never eat sushi again.don't smoke for at least 5 years before you give birth and make sure your partner isn't smoking either(cigarettes and otherwise)..this list can go on and on,that's just the point. we have to focus our resources on things that are really making leaps and strides;like this study,not the pseudo science mumbo jumbo that is draining resources causing children to come down with perfectly preventable illnesses they could have avoided via vaccination.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can understand how a mother would want to blame someone other then her own faulty genetics, or that of her husband's. As we understand genetics now, when a child shows signs of a genetic disease, the parents are powerless to protect their child and make sure their child becomes a healthy, happy adult. Rather then accept the how powerless it makes the parents feel, it's much easier to blame it on "Big Pharma or "the Borg."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMary, I am so sorry that your children have autism. I cannot imagine how difficult your life is. I can understand how you cling to this idea that someone else caused your children's autism. Sometimes, when we feel so powerless, we need to have a bogeyman, a monster in the closet that we can fight against. Something that we can do to make sure this doesn't happen again.
That is fine, when it doesn't endanger other people. But this does. When you talk about how vaccines cause autism, with no actual scientific evidence, with sources cited, to show this, you could potentially be making it so that uninformed people don't vaccinate their children. Those children now have the chance to get measles, mumps, polio, etc. that they would otherwise have avoided.
The debate here shouldn't be about whether or not you are correct. The scientific evidence clearly shows that you aren't. The debate should about what can be done to help parents with autistic children and what can be done in the future to treat, cure, or prevent autism. There needs to be more information on schools, support groups for parents, ways for parents to help their autistic children.
Autism is real. We need to find the true causes and find ways to prevent those causes. This article is showing some correlation between genetics and autism. That is not something to be ignored.
ats003 - Strangely enough, all the kids I grew up with in the 1950s who suffered greatly from polio seem to have disappeared over time. Must of been UFO abductions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow, as I understand, improper development of the oral polio vaccine may have developed the human HIV virus, but that's another story...
Um, 'Vaccine Nation' is a totally discredited self-serving puff piece made by the misguided Dr (not an MD) Gary Null (PhD in human nutrition and public health sciences from The Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio). Here is an annotated excerpt from their web page:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Vaccine Nation"
"At the end of the eighteenth century, British physician Edward Jenner, with highly questionable medical credentials [by the standards of the day he was highly qualified], initiated the theory and practice of live virus immunization that continues to serve as the scientific basis [plus thousands of modern controlled studies] for the ever increasing vaccination of the worlds citizens [saving the lives of milions]. With the number of vaccinations given to infants and children rising [in reality, only a single new vaccine has been added in the last 25 years], kids are receiving doses of toxic mercury [actually less than 1/100th of half a can of tuna] and other heavy metals [actually, no other metals are involved in any way] well above environmental safety levels [but actually well below defined maximum levels].
"Yet the medical evidence is clear. [yes it is, but not with this conclusion] Mercury, known as thimerosal [no, thimerosal is the mercury compound C9H9HgNaO2S, though no longer present in many vaccines], and other heavy metal additives [that are not in any vaccines] are highly toxic and threaten children with neurological damage [if ingested in quantities more then 2 orders of magnitude larger than present in modern vaccines]. The long-term efficacy of global vaccination remains controversial [in the minds of the wholly uninformed], inconclusive [in those same minds] and is suspect in light of the powerful corporate interests [if you are paranoid of those sorts of things], lobbying efforts, and profits associated with a multi-billion dollar vaccine industry..
"In his [so called] documentary film Vaccine Nation, award-winning investigative film director Dr. Gary Null challenges the basic health claims by government health agencies and pharmaceutical firms that vaccines are perfectly safe. This is one of the most critical questions facing todays children and future generations to come [if you are more worried about small unproven risks compared to known fatal disease risks]. If inoculation with a large regimen of vaccines is safe [as hundreds of studies have shown], what can account for the rapid increase in autism and other mental disabilities that are now at epidemic proportions [if you ignore all other genetic and environmental factors]?
Most of the disorders are because of the fast changing living environments. If an apple tree connot grow in tropics or an orange tree cant grow in polar region does not mean that they have any genetic disorders. Unfortunately it is the minority that suffers because of the changes created by us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisvaccines contain no mercury? Last year I visited 3 vaccination sites and asked for the ingredients. Who do you represent?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe just lost a dear friend last week. 4 days after the vaccination she became paralyzed, could not walk and one eye became droopy. Of course we suspected stroke or guillam barre syndrome. 3 dr. visits and not ONE dr. would acknowledge it could be from the shot at all. But if you read the possible side effects on the inserts, guillame barre is one of them. What kind of crock is this? Research needs to be done with people not connected to big pharma.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@geauxp: Our condolences, I think. Which 'vaccination' was this? Each one has a name, if you didn't know. What was the person's age, existing medical state, etc. Name these doctors who would not acknowledge a suspected connection. Or do these details not actually exist? Actual events that occur have these details and, for this unusual newsworthy event, where is the reference link? It is unusual for an adult to be receiving a vaccination, in any case. Also, how much more research, not backed by 'big pharma' beyond the many studies that have already need done do you need? 20 more studies, 50 more studies?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm leaving it up to the family to see how much they want to do. Will post details if they become available.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@geauxp: I will be very interested to hear what happened. Honestly, I will.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEverything in our environment is fraught with problems, including modern medicine and vaccines. People have been known to get sick or die from vaccines. That is very true. People that say otherwise are doing a disservice to this debate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn the other hand, it is incalculable how many lives vaccines have saved. One study suggests that vaccines save the lives of over three million children a year. In the eighteen hundreds smallpox was responsible for eight to twenty percent of the deaths in European countries. No longer, thanks to vaccines.
Could vaccines cause autism? Probably not. Scientists have been trying to find links between vaccines and autism over and over. None have been found. Autism is a complex set of diseases that is still poorly understood, but probably not from something as simple as childhood vaccines. Even unvaccinated children can and do get autism.
How awesome is it that something as simple as childhood vaccines can make children have potentially healthier, happier lives? There should be no debate on whether vaccines are good or bad for humans, they are unarguably good. There are a small percentage of people that have the potential to get allergic reactions, etc. from vaccines. I know, I've seen it. But, having seen the rare side effect, I would not hesitate vaccinating my child. The dangers of being unvaccinated are simply much scarier then not vaccinating.
Source: Andre, Frances E. Vaccinology: Past Achievements, Present Roadblocks and Future Promises. 19 November 2002.
@geauxp: We're still waiting for the link to the news story covering the event you described. If true, it certainly would have been newsworthy. With no independent reference, it looks more like it is just a story you made up to spread misinformation attempting to refute the safety of vaccines.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy Mom and one of her cousins had polio when they were children (they are now 70). Because of that her cousin still walks with a cane and my Mom is having the muscles that were affected slowly weaken again through Post Polio Syndrom.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy Great Grandmother's older sister died of Diptheria. My Grandmother had tetnus.
My sibs and I, our children and our Grandchildren have all been vaccinated. We KNOW what those diseases do. We KNOW how devastating they are. I don't have much sympathy for those who have chosen to believe an unethical Dr about his disproved claims. You are giving into paranoia, and you are giving these diseases a good chance of becoming prominent again.
This whole thread just makes me sad. I have an autistic child (an adult now) and have been pretty active in autism fundraising, I have sure known a lot of parents who were vaccine-conspiracy theorists. And i want to just make a few points:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this- it is TERRIBLE to have a disabled child-- like a bleeding wound that never heals. People cope as they can, and some people find that having someone to blame is the only way they can cope. I feel sorry for Mary and the other parents here, even though i think they are a problem, not just because they opppose vaccines and vaccines are important, but because they make it Harder to raise money for
Autism research because they have so politicized it.
- As tsprague just pointed out rather forcefully, I dont see how any rational person can say vaccines are a bad thing -- does anyone on this thread know a parent who has lost a child to smalo\lpox or diphtheria or tetanus or pertussis?
- Here is the problem with conspiracy theorists -- evidence that they are wrong becomes evidence that they are right - because it just shows how complete the conspiracy is. That is as true of 9/11 "truthers" or JFK assassination people as it is of autism/vaccine people.
If I was guessing - and I am no scientist, so it is only a guess, but I have known a lot of autistic kids and their parents - I would guess that the cause is a combination of genetic predisposition and some environmental factor or factors. The reason I think the environmental factor is there is because the spikes in incidence are so localized -- not just by country but by region. But it is hard to imagine that the environmental factor is vaccines...that's about the only possibility that has been studied to death.
I liked this article. And I am glad the genetics of autism is getting more attentoion.
And one last thing -- the name-calling needs to go. On all sides. It sure isn't helping the autism sufferers.
When ever the cash cow of vaccination or medicine is threatened by common sense observation the doctors go scurrying home to their mama, namely genetics. And of course the newspapers fall right in line with the headline “Unlocking The Genetic Secrets Of Autism” as though that was the holy grail.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have just a few problems with their findings. The article says that 1 in 100 children today are diagnosed with autism. In the 1991 it was 1 in 2500, that is a huge jump. So let’s see in order for your theory to work the genetics of the children in the USA changed in 30 years. Really, well that would make it a scientific miracle, you must be proud. Now you can put those activist parents of the autistic children in their place.
I have a better reason for those numbers. In the 1980’s the number of vaccinations was 8 and today it is 36. Wow, those drug companies are really rakin it in, huh. Another reason was banned in Europe but not in the USA; would not want anything like the 2nd most toxic substance on Earth next to plutonium to get in the way of profits would they. That’s right that famous down played substance that medicine just can’t let go of, mercury in the form of Thimerosal.
Oh but Thimerosal has been found innocent by a number of studies in Europe. Oh ya, those studies, the ones that were in prestigious, New England Journal of Medicine (don’t they check those studies) and triumphantly plastered all over the media. Also let’s not forget that Thimerosal was found innocent in a trial at about that time, bull. If you haven’t heard the news it’s because it never came out. The quack, err, scientist who conducted those studies is up on fraud charges and for trying to take off with a couple of million. Turns out he cherry picked his stats to support the CDC’s stand that the mercury in all those vaccines was safe for children. Also interesting he was working on these studies in the same neighborhood as the CDC, coincidence, hmm. Well now I feel better, excuse me but my blood gets up when I read garbage like that.
Since the genetics of autism are so complicated, this further seems to prove the theory that there are going to eventually end up being many different types and subtypes of autism, each a result of a different genetic mutation, and each requiring a different kind of treatment - whether this be diet, chelation, behavior therapy or what have you. I believe that a person can be genetically predisposed to be sensitive to too high amounts of mercury found in vaccines, just as they can be predisposed not to be.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a good site in learning more about general topics in autism and Asperger's, if anyone is interested. http://www.aspergerssociety.org/articles/toc.htm
Autism research has a long way to go in figuring out causation but this is a good start.
If vaccinations are the cause of Autism, why don't all people that have been vaccinated have it? If vaccinations are the cause I should have it, but I don't. I have been vaccinated with all rounds of shots 3 times (military lost my shot records). Plus I have had extra vaccinations that only military personnel get.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this