Autism and Vaccine Safety - Has the Scientific Method Been Abandoned?

There is currently a persistent and strenuous effort being made to end discussion of possible vaccine connections to autism spectrum disorders. Led by vaccine patent holder Dr. Paul Offit the mainstream media and Internet based forums alike have been regurgitating ad nauseum Offit's position that the science is done, the evidence is in, that it has been proven conclusively, forever and ever and ever and ever, that vaccines and vaccine ingredients do not and can not ever cause autism disorders in children. But is that how science actually works? Does the scientific method actually involve arriving at an absolute truth not to be challenged forever? Or is such a position more properly characterized as idol worship?

Those who ask questions about the golden calf, about vaccine programs, are denounced as heretics, irresponsible and selfish types that refuse to protect the herd, and their own children, by having their children immunized for everything recommended, this month, or the next, by public health authorities. If someone, somewhere, dies from some disease whether it be measles or swine flu, there will be someone will blame the death on parents concerned about the safety of injecting chemical and biological materials directly into their child's bloodstream on a frequent basis. But is demonizing those concerned about vaccine safety part of the scientific method? Is rejecting forever challenges to the theory that vaccines do not cause autism in any children the way the scientific method is supposed to proceed?

TutorVista.com has an article on the Scientific Method simple enough for this lowly parent to follow. It lists a number of steps which it describes as constituting the scientific method. One of the points highlighted in the article is the provisional nature of a scientific theory or law :



Provisional essentially means temporary, conditional or transitional:

provisional adjective 1. temporary, interim, transitional, stopgap, pro tem <<> Collins Essential Thesaurus 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2005, 2006 .

The scientific method recognizes that further evidence may refute a generally accepted theory. The scientific method encourages further evidence and challenge to accepted theories. Dr. Bernadine Healy, who has pointed out some of the limits of the existing epidemiological studies has also questioned the policy set out in the IOM 2004 report on vaccine safety, and pushed in the media by Dr. Paul Offit, of discouraging further research of possible vaccine autism connections as being contrary to the scientific method.

TutorVista also emphasizes the importance to scientific investigation of control sets:



Dr. Bernadine Healy, Dr. Julie Gerberding and Dr. Duane Alexander have all called for comparison of autism rates in vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. Those who oppose such research complain of costs and complexity. Some claim that the science is done, the evidence is in.

To this humble parent, and small town lawyer, it seems that the voices who have declared that the science is complete have in fact abandoned science when it comes to vaccine autism issues. Because of the important role played by vaccines in fighting diseases it is no longer acceptable to raise concerns about the chemical and biological agents which we inject, with increasing frequency, into the bloodstreams of our children. No one may ask whether autism, and other neurological disorders, may be triggered by these chemical and biological agents. No more research may be done on vaccine safety. The theory that vaccines do not contribute in any way to the onset of autism disorders will not be tested any further. Vaccine safety will be exempt, for public policy reasons, from further research or challenge as the scientific method contemplates.

Dr. Paul Offit is the high priest of the official public health religion that worships the golden calf of vaccine programs. In this religion no questioning of the golden calf will be permitted. The ultimate form of questioning, scientific investigation, will be forbidden.

The comparative studies of autism rates amongst vaccinated and unvaccinated populations will not be conducted.

If Dr. Offit prevails idol worship will replace scientific method.

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Autistic Children Still Languish on Ontario Wait Lists

In Auton and Wynberg Canadian courts ruled, in essence, that autistic children do not have a substantive Constitutional right to effective treatment or education. It is up to government to decide whether autistic children in Canada will have access to evidence based effective treatment for their autism disorders or to a real education.

In Ontario the McGuinty government has demonstrated what happens when treatment and education are left to the whims of government. Five years after the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Auton many autistic children in Ontario still languish on waiting lists for IBI(ABA) treatment. Schools in Ontario are still toying with pilot programs and do not provide ABA based education for most autistic children.

The story of autistic children in Ontario is one that has been told throughout the ages - the weak, the vulnerable, and their families, must fend for themselves.

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Lead Babies and Autism: Does Lead Plus Mercury Equal Autism?

Grandview Corners in Surrey BC is the location of a launch for the book Lead Babies by Joanna Cerazy, who has a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership a and Sandra Cottingham M.Sc. and Ph.D. and twenty plus years of classroom experience with regular students and students with special needs.

I have not yet read Lead Babies. The book is reviewed in an article by Alex Browne in the PeaceArchnews.com. Both educators noticed a rise in developmental problems including attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, autism, delinquency and violence. They conducted research across a variety of research disciplines and concluded that lead was the culprit behind the increases of these developmental problems and disorders:

“We wanted to know what’s going on,” she said. “We started researching various toxins and realized that lead was causing it – that even a low level of lead exposure can cause very serious problems.”

While the toxic effects of lead have been known for years, Lead Babies gathers together the latest research concerning in utero transfer of lead from mother to baby, showing that lead – from a multitude of apparently harmless sources – can pass into the brain and other organs of unborn children.

The Alex Browne article indicates that there is also a section in the book dealing with mercury:

“But there’s a significant increase in the toxic effect of mercury when there is lead in people’s systems. There’s a synergistic effect. It’s a missing piece of the puzzle, one you might not see if you’re only looking at mercury. But lead is such a key piece.”

And lead is pervasive. It is all around us:

The lead industry is still flourishing, Cerazy and Cottingham report. Lead is an important component in many cosmetics, and is a key ingredient in plastics that are required to be bendable, including toys. It can even be found in some kinds of imported candy.

I do intend to read Lead Babies. I will be interested in seeing what the gathered research says about the harmful impact of lead on development. But I will pay particular attention to the section dealing with lead and mercury and their combined or synergistic effects.

Does lead and mercury equal autism? Lead Babies may not answer that question but it is not often that you see any mention of the possible synergistic effects of the many toxins with which we pollute ourselves ... and our children.

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Tell the People and Rulers of Iran that the World is Watching

On twitter and on blog sites Bloggers Unite for a Free Iran today.

Tweet or blog your support today for the freedom seeking people of Iran.

It may not seem like much but each tweet and each blog tells the people AND the rulers of Iran that the world is watching. Hopefully someday the people will rule Iran.

Today I humbly express my support for the people of Iran in their struggle for freedom.






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Autism, Vaccines and Public Trust: AMA Votes to Continue Sit Down and Shut Up Approach

The AMA has rejected a proposal by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law that asked the AMA Council on Science and Public Health to review the most recent research on vaccines and autism.

In rejecting any further review the AMA is essentially telling people like Dr. Bernadine Healy, Dr. Julie Gerberding and Dr. Jon Poling that their critiques of the epidemiological study limitations or the desirability of conducting comparative studies of vaccinated and un-vaccinated groups are invalid or unworthy of consideration. In citing the three recent vaccine court decisions rejecting any vaccine-autism link the AMA makes no mention of cases like Banks and Poling where the government settled vaccine autism injury claims in favor of the plaintiffs. In rejecting any further review of a possible vaccine autism link the AMA has shown that it does not have a clue about how to restore public trust in vaccine programs.

The full resolution considered by the AMA proposed that:

• the AMA reaffirm its support for universal vaccination,
• asked the AMA Council on Science and Public Health to review the most recent research on vaccines and autism, and
• urged the association to continue to support research into the etiology and treatment of autism.

The AMA rejected only the second element of the three part resolution. How it would continue support for research into the etiology and treatment of autism while preordaining that the etiology can not include consideration of the possible role of vaccines is beyond me. The AMA is apparently saying that "we don't know the causes of autism but we do know that the causes do not include any of the biological or chemical ingredients injected into your child's bloodstream." Not a very convincing position. Of course I am just a dumb, ignorant parent of a child with autism.

In addition to dismissing the concerns raised by some health care professionals and researchers the AMA is essentially telling the many parents concerned about possible vaccine autism connections that they should sit down, shut up and do as they are told by "the doctors".

The AMA is apparently unaware that the sit down and shut up approach to restoring public confidence in vaccine safety has not worked.

In continuing this approach the AMA has shown it lacks understanding of how to restore public confidence in vaccine safety.

In continuing this approach the AMA is ensuring the continuation of the vaccine-autism war.

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Iran's Brutal Military Dictatorship

I am breaking from my usual commentary on autism to express some thoughts about Iran and the brutal suppression of the Iranian people by what is clearly nothing more than a military dictatorship. Even if one's life is affected by autism, as mine is with the severe autism of my youngest son, we still live in a larger world and can not simply ignore profoundly significant events.

I do not profess to be an expert on Iran, far from it. In my limited, ill informed understanding of Iran I had believed that it was a theocratic autocracy, a theocracy, which had begun experimenting with democratic processes. My vague, obviously ill informed, view of Iran has been shattered in recent weeks and days. I do not understand how any religious based government could unleash murders upon their own people. I do not understand how any legitimate government, and certainly not a government which professes to subscribe to one of the world's great religions, could decide to execute people like the beautiful young woman known as Neda, slain, murdered, executed by a cold blooded, cowardly sniper's bullet.

CNN has strengths and weaknesses as a news organization. One of its shining lights is unquestionably Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, whose Sunday afternoon show on CNN focuses on intelligent, well informed discussion of international events with key world figures and analysts. This week Mr. Zakaria was questioned briefly by Wolf Blitzer about the events taking place in Iran. He noted that in the short term the people with the guns and money would probably prevail as they usually do ... in the short term. In the long run this could be the beginning of fundamental change in Iran.

When any government relies on guns alone to maintain control, to the point of executing their own innocent people with snipers' bullets, that government has only one ideology - power at any costs. That to me is the essence of a dictatorship, a military dictatorship. They can claim to worship God if they wish but what such a government really worships is the power of the gun.

Fareed Zakaria knows much more than I do about international affairs and events in Iran. He is probably right about the short term picture in Iran. In the long term though I hope the people of Iran achieve the freedom they are desperately seeking.

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Autism Treatment Study Using ABA and TMS - Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

The University of Louisville has received NIH funding to conduct a clinical trial of an autism treatment that combines magnetic stimulation with ABA therapy. My first reaction when I read about magnetic stimulation as a possible autism treatment was to assume it was some wonky swimming with dolphins type of autism "treatment". But the University of Louisville news release provides an interesting explanation for the theory behind magnetic stimulation as a possible autism treatment.

A previous pilot study had shown that "repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), creates an electric current that enhances specific cells’ ability to protect the brain from sensory overload in one region of the brain". The researchers believe this eases sensory overload permitting greater focus on learning. The new study will use a higher frequency, twice the number of sessions and will also utilize ABA therapy.

Obviously TMS is not, at this time, an evidence based treatment for autism. The only way that new treatments can be developed and acquire an evidence based status is through study and experimentation. I assume that with the involvement of the NIH and the University of Louisville all necessary ethical and safety protocols for the participants will be followed. Hopefully the results will indicate a way to help enhance the learning abilities of persons with autism. As I read the press release the study may also disclose more information generally about brain connectivity issues and autism disorders:

NIH to fund U of L clinical trial of autism treatment

EUREKA award recognizes high impact, innovative research

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A promising treatment of autism has earned National Institutes of Health funding for University of Louisville researchers. This award will fund a clinical trial that combines magnetic stimulation with behavior therapy in people with autism. Researchers believe this approach will ease major symptoms of autism, which in turn will help participants focus on therapy to improve social interactions.

“This study, which builds on discoveries made here at UofL in the last five years, offers a new kind of hope for people with autism. It has the potential to change science’s way of thinking about autism treatment,” said Larry Cook, UofL executive vice president for health affairs.

“We have focused on using our new understanding of brain function to treat autism, instead of using medications to remediate its consequences,” explained neuroscientist Manuel Casanova.

The $900,000 NIH award will fund a four-year clinical trial.

Casanova and a team of researchers previously mapped the way tiny strands of brain tissue called cortical cell minicolumns develop and connect. Their research suggests that minicolumn defects interfere with information processing because a lack of “sound-proofing” between minicolumns leads to sensory overload, which magnifies underlying social and communication deficits.

A pilot study confirmed that people with autism have fewer tantrums and repetitive behaviors symptomatic of sensory overload after a low-frequency magnetic field is pulsed around their brains through a coil placed near the scalp. This process, known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), creates an electric current that enhances specific cells’ ability to protect the brain from sensory overload in one region of the brain.

“Neurological and psychological test results and brain activity measurements tell us that TMS helps with the symptoms that people with autism find most distressing,” Casanova said. “We believe that relief will give them the opportunity to learn to be more social adept and emotionally responsive.”

In this trial, patients will receive a higher frequency of magnetic stimulation and more than twice the number of sessions administered in the pilot study. This treatment will be paired for the first time with applied behavior analysis (ABA) to help participants learn and practice socially appropriate methods of relating to other people.

This study also makes use of new understanding about the brain’s innate connectivity. The brain of a person with an autism spectrum disorder is structured to make short, local connections between minicolumns as it processes information. The TMS treatment focuses on cells in specific regions of the brain and then relies on the cells’ connectivity to communicate the change to other regions.

“This connectivity allows us to train other regions of the autistic brain to manage the noise that causes sensory overload without sacrificing the talents that result from the natural brain structure,” Casanova said.

The National Institutes of Health’s EUREKA (Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) program funds researchers who are testing exceptionally novel, unconventional research that could yield an extremely high impact on research.

Researchers are targeting children from the Louisville metropolitan area for this trial. Parents who want to inquire about the study should call 502-852-0404.

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