|
|
|
|
|
Autism Group Softens Stance on Vaccines |
|
| Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
|
| August 16, 2009 |
|
| "The autism wars aren't over -- but they
may have entered a new phase. Autism Speaks, the nation's largest autism
advocacy group, recently made its clearest public statement yet that
minimizes the link between vaccines and autism. In a prepared interview
posted on the Autism Speaks Web site, the group's chief science officer, Dr.
Geri Dawson, says that scientific studies have found no link between
thimerosal, a mercury preservative used in certain vaccines, and autism. Nor
have they found a connection between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and
autism..." |
|
New Autism Charity Hopes to Carve Out Its Niche, Despite Tough Times |
|
| Chronicle of Philanthropy |
|
| August 12, 2009 |
|
| "Few nonprofit leaders would consider
2009 an ideal time to start up a charity. But Alison Tepper Singer isn't
letting the recession deter her. What she believes is an important gap in
autism research can't wait for the economy to rebound, she says. Ms. Singer
created the Autism Science Foundation,..." |
|
Autism Activist Says It's Time to Acknowledge There's No Autism-Vaccine Link |
|
| AAFP News |
|
| August 4, 2009 |
|
| "It's been a rough year for the
anti-vaccine movement. In February, three federal judges ruled in three
separate cases that there is no association between vaccines and autism. In
April, Alison Singer resigned from her role as executive vice president of
Autism Speaks, the nation's largest private supporter of autism research,
citing a disagreement with the organization's decision to continue to fund
research into a possible link between vaccines and autism despite mounting
evidence that vaccinations do not cause autism spectrum disorders..." |
|
Opinion: The New McCarthyism |
|
| Winnipeg Sun |
|
| July 19, 2009 |
|
| "I recently met Jessica, one of Jenny McCarthy's friends who was worried about the strong arguments against immunizations that Jenny has made on autism…" |
|
Resignations Highlight Disagreement on Vaccines in Autism Group |
|
| Science Magazine |
|
| July 10, 2009 |
|
| "A prominent member of the science
advisory board for Autism Speaks, the largest private funder of autism
research, resigned last week citing his disagreement with efforts to study
vaccines as a possible cause of autism. Eric London, a psychiatrist and
chief science advisor for the New York State Autism Consortium, says that
funding such research, in addition to being wasteful, unduly heightens
parents' concerns about the safety of immunization. London's departure is a
sign of growing frustration in the research community, says Alison Singer, a
former high-ranking leader of Autism Speaks who resigned from the group in
January..." |
|
Autism May Be Linked to Mom's Autoimmune Disease |
|
| Health Day News |
|
| July 6, 2009 |
|
| "Children of mothers who have autoimmune
diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and celiac disease
have up to a three times greater risk for autism, a new study finds.
Although the association between autism and a maternal history of type 1
diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis had been found in earlier research, the
researchers behind the new study say that theirs is the first to find a link
between autism and celiac disease. People with celiac disease cannot
tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye and barley… " |
|
Dr. Eric London Resigns from Autism Speaks |
|
| Autism Science Foundation |
|
| June 29, 2009 |
|
| Press Release: "Dr. Eric London has announced his resignation from the Autism Speaks Scientific Affairs Committee..." |
|
AMA Rejects Call for More Research on Vaccine Link to Autism, Reaffirms Immunization Policies |
|
| AAFP News |
|
| June 26, 2009 |
|
| “There's no need for more research into a possible link between vaccines and autism. But there is a continuing need for support of ongoing research into the true etiology of autism and its treatment. And physicians should continue to take a lead role in extolling the benefits of vaccines to health policymakers and the public. Those were among the messages recently sent by the AMA House of Delegates, which met June 13-17 in Chicago. A resolution submitted by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law initially 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. Although delegates at the meeting overwhelmingly supported the first and third resolves, they steadfastly opposed the request for a council review of vaccine research…" |
|
|
Opinion: Kids' Vaccines Aren't the Problem |
|
| Cherry Hill Courier Post (NJ) |
|
| June 21, 2009 |
|
| "Over the years, there has been
considerable controversy concerning vaccines and their possible link to
autism. More recently, some people have claimed that infants and young
children receive too many vaccines at one time, and that as a result
they somehow overwhelm the immune system. However, researchers from The
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the University of
Pennsylvania, UCLA and other institutions recently found instead a
genetic link to autism. Lead researcher Dr. Hakon Hakonarson of CHOP
said he hopes this breakthrough will help dispel fears that autism is
triggered by vaccines..." |
|
|
Parental Knowledge of Vaccinations Important |
|
| Reuters |
|
| June 10, 2009 |
|
| "When parents are more knowledgeable
about vaccinations' their children are more likely to get them' a new
study shows. The study' which included parents of 630 Spanish children'
found that while most children received the recommended vaccinations'
parents' vaccine knowledge influenced the likelihood. When parents
scored below the average on a test of vaccine knowledge' their children
were 55 percent to 60 percent less likely to be on schedule with their
immunizations' according to findings published in the online journal BMC
Public Health. The findings suggest that if doctors do more to inform
parents about vaccine effectiveness and safety' they will be more likely
to keep their children on the recommended schedule' according to the
researchers' led by Dr. Eva Borras of the Department of Health in
Barcelona..." |
|
|
Risks: Pertussis Protection? Not From the Herd |
|
| New York Times |
|
| June 8, 2009 |
|
| "The theory of herd immunity holds
that when most people in a group are vaccinated' everyone is protected —
even those who refuse the vaccine' as many families are doing these days
out of a belief that vaccinations cause autism and other illnesses. But
the theory does not appear to work well with whooping cough. Researchers
studied children enrolled in a Colorado health plan in the period 1996
to 2007' and found 156 laboratory-confirmed cases of pertussis. They
recorded the vaccination status of each and matched them to 595 randomly
selected control subjects. After controlling for sex' age' season of
infection and other factors' they found that the unvaccinated children
were about 23 times as likely as vaccinated children to get whooping
cough. In other words' about 1 in 20 unvaccinated children were
infected' compared with 1 in 500 who were vaccinated. The study appears
in the June issue of Pediatrics..." |
|
|
Is Oprah Winfrey Giving Us Bad Medicine? |
|
| Toronto Star (CAN) |
|
| June 7, 2009 |
|
| "We've all speculated about why the
anti-scientific emotion-based notion that vaccines somehow must cause
autism persists in spite of mountains of evidence to the contrary, but I
think the question goes much deeper than that. The anti-vaccine movement
is but one of the most visible components of a much deeper problem in
our public discourse, a problem that values feelings and personal
experience over evidence, compelling stories and anecdotes over science.
I'm referring to the Oprah-fication of medicine..."." |
|
|
Why Advice on Oprah Could Make You Sick |
|
| Newsweek |
|
| June 5, 2009 |
|
| "Wish Away Cancer! Get A Lunchtime
Face-Lift! Eradicate Autism! Turn Back The Clock! Thin Your Thighs! Cure
Menopause! Harness Positive Energy! Erase Wrinkles! Banish Obesity! Live
Your Best Life Ever!..." |
|
|
Editorial: A Dangerous Denial; Parents Who Choose Not to Vaccinate Are
Imperiling Public Health |
|
| Baltimore Sun |
|
| June 1, 2009 |
|
| "People believe all kinds of strange
things' and most of the time it doesn't matter. Trouble arises' however'
when their odd beliefs affect other people's health. Such'
unfortunately' is the case with parents who choose not to immunize their
children against diseases that killed and crippled millions before
vaccines were developed and made widely available. The anti-vaccine
movement is driven largely by parents who believe that certain vaccines
can cause autism' a suspicion that has been thoroughly investigated and
authoritatively debunked..." |
|
|
Will This Doctor Hurt Your
Baby? |
|
By Jason Fagone
Philadelphia Magazine |
|
| June 1, 2009 |
|
| "Thanks to celebrity anti-vaccine crusaders like Jenny McCarthy and
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.' Children's Hospital doctor and
vaccine inventor Paul Offit gets death threats from parents frantic
about autism - and worse. He's had enough. He's taking
his critics on. A few years ago' Paul Offit found himself in a small
room with a bob-haired American mother of three who was
so mad at him she had tears in her eyes' and she was standing above him'
sort of rearing up - this is his recollection - as
if she was preparing herself' mentally' physically' to call him
something cutting and mean'..." |
|
|
Why Does the Vaccine/Autism Controversy Live On?: Research has soundly
disproved the alleged connection, yet fears about vaccines continue to
be a major risk to public health. |
|
| Discover Magazine |
|
| June 2009 |
|
| "Vaccines do not cause autism. That
was the ruling in each of three critical test cases handed down on
February 12 by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C.
After a decade of speculation, argument, and analysis—often filled with
vitriol on both sides—the court specifically denied any link between the
combination of the MMR vaccine and vaccines with thimerosal (a
mercury-based preservative) and the spectrum of disorders associated
with autism. But these rulings, though seemingly definitive, have done
little to quell the angry debate, which has severe implications for
American public health..." |
|
|
Blog: Should a Former Playboy Model Trump an Experienced Health Care
Expert? You Decide |
|
| Huffington Post |
|
| May 22, 2009 |
|
| "This weekend' Chicago-area parents
wondering whether or not to vaccinate their babies' toddlers' school-age
kids or teenagers face a tough decision when it comes to expert advice:
should they listen to Jenny McCarthy or to their pediatrician? McCarthy
is slated to give the key-note speech at the Autism One conference in
Rosemont on Saturday..." |
|
|
Editorial: New Perspective for Vaccine 'Refusers' |
|
| Star Tribune (MN) |
|
| May 28, 2009 |
|
| "At first glance, there seems little
in common between Danny Hauser's Minnesota family and a group of
Colorado parents
causing concern in a sobering recent medical journal article. The
Hausers, who made headlines in refusing chemotherapy for
their cancer-stricken 13-year-old, eke out a living with their seven
other children on a farm near Sleepy Eye. The Colorado
parents needed only routine care for their children and tended to come
from metro neighborhoods indicating a 'higher
socioeconomic status,' according to the study published in June's issue
of Pediatrics..." |
|
|
Editorial: Refusing to Immunize Raises Kids' Health Risks |
|
| Denver Post (CO) |
|
| May 27, 2009 |
|
| "Parents who ignore the research and
refuse to have their kids vaccinated increase the risk for everyone.
It's a selfish stance. So many horrible diseases have been all but
eradicated over the years by routine vaccinations that it's easy to lose
touch with the devastation those illnesses can inflict. Polio-stricken
children in wheelchairs are images typically confined to old
photographs. The terrifying wheeze of a child with whooping cough is
virtually unknown. And who among us has seen someone gone rigid with
tetanus? Unfamiliarity with the horrors of such diseases is likely one
reason why a small minority of parents decline to vaccinate their
children against preventable diseases..." |
|
|
Blog: Should a Former Playboy Model Trump an Experienced Health Care
Expert? You Decide |
|
| Huffington Post |
|
| May 22, 2009 |
|
| "This weekend, Chicago-area parents
wondering whether or not to vaccinate their babies, toddlers, school-age
kids or teenagers face a tough decision when it comes to expert advice:
should they listen to Jenny McCarthy or to their pediatrician? McCarthy
is slated to give the key-note speech at the Autism One conference in
Rosemont on Saturday..." |
|
|
Essayist: Vaccines Under Scrutiny – Again |
|
| Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (NY) |
|
| May 22, 2009 |
|
| "The Center for Disease control
reported 503, 282 measles cases in the United States in 1962. In 1998:
67 cases, most due to importation from unprotected countries with
measles related death rate totaling between one and five percent.
Vaccines, injections of less virulent or inactive viruses that promote
the development of an immune response, have directly contributed to
decline in mortality rates associated with infectious disease. Unlike
previous generations, Americans of the twenty-first century are
virtually free from infectious diseases such as polio, mumps, measles,
rubella, human papilloma virus, hepatitis, and a host of other
diseases..." |
|
|
Autism Drug Lupron: Father-and-son team's crusade shows cracks |
|
Chicago Tribune
By Steve Mills and Tim Jones |
|
| May 21, 2009 |
|
| "Dr. Mark Geier has, he says, solved
the riddle of autism. He says he has identified its cause and, in the
powerful drug Lupron, found an effective treatment — what he calls a
'major discovery.' But behind Geier's bold assertion is a troubling
paper trail that undercuts his portrayal of himself as a pioneer tilting
against a medical establishment that refuses to embrace his novel ideas.
Time and again, reputable scientists have dismissed autism research by
Geier and his son, David, as seriously flawed. Judges who have heard
Mark Geier testify about vaccines' harmful effects have repeatedly
called him unqualified, with one describing his statements as
'intellectually dishonest'..." |
|
|
Another Nail in the Coffin for the Thimerosal-Autism Thesis |
|
| PointofLaw.com |
|
| May 14, 2009 |
|
| "Maryland's High Court confirmed its
intermediate appellate court and made it more difficult for plaintiffs
to qualify as expert witnesses in vaccine cases. In a suit against
vaccine maker Wyeth, the Blackwell family claimed that their son's
autism and mental retardation were caused by thimerosal-containing
vaccines given when the boy was young. However, attorneys for Wyeth
asserted that the scientific community generally does not accept the
causal connection between thimerosal and autism and said the family's
five experts were not qualified to testify under the state's version of
the 'Frye rule.' The court held that none of the five expert witnesses
had sufficient "knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education,
primarily in the field of epidemiology, to proffer reliable expert
testimony on matters of complex and novel scientific inquiry. ..." |
|
|
Say It Ain't So, O |
|
| Slate |
|
| May 7, 2009 |
|
| "Chastising a celebrity is an
exercise in futility. You feel like a kitten being held by the scruff of
its neck, scrabbling wildly in the air without drawing blood. Pointless
as this may be, though, I will try to talk some sense into Oprah
Winfrey, who has decided to go into business with vaccine skeptic Jenny
McCarthy. There is abundant evidence that vaccines don't cause autism.
More than a dozen studies, as well as trend data from California and
other states, show that neither the mercury-containing preservative
thimerosal nor the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism. In
March, a federal court dismissed both of these theories in a most
definitive way after hearing weeks of testimony and gathering thousands
of pages of evidence. Jenny McCarthy begs to differ..." |
|
|
CHOP, Penn Research Points to Genetic Link in Autism |
|
| Philadelphia Inquirer |
|
| April 29, 2009 |
|
| "By analyzing DNA from more than
2,000 autistic children, researchers have uncovered the best evidence
yet for genetic links to the disorder - all tied to the way brain cells
form and dissolve connections. The research effort, led by Hakon
Hakonarson at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, used much larger
samples than had been analyzed before to identify genetic differences
between autistic subjects and controls. The CHOP group collaborated with
Penn, UCLA, and other institutions, announcing their findings in two
papers in today's issue of the journal Nature. One paper revealed the
first common genetic variation found to occur more often among autistic
people. The other paper announced 13 rarer genetic mistakes that are
strongly associated with autism. Both papers back the consensus that
there is no single autism gene, but perhaps 100 ways to develop the
disorder..." |
|
|
What If Vitamin D Deficiency Is a Cause of Autism? |
|
| Scientific American |
|
| April 24, 2009 |
|
| "A few researchers are turning their
attention to the sunshine vitamin as a culprit, prompted by the
experience of immigrants that have moved from their equatorial country
to two northern latitude locations. As evidence of widespread vitamin D
deficiency grows, some scientists are wondering whether the sunshine
vitamin—once only considered important in bone health—may actually play
a role in one of neurology's most vexing conditions: autism..." |
|
|
Vaccine Bill Has Passions Flaring: A face-off over a measure once
believed to be dead |
|
| Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL) |
|
| April 22, 2009 |
|
| "Florida pediatricians are doing
battle in the final days of the state's annual lawmaking session, trying
to head off the passage of a law they say will create the least
protective immunization standard in the country. 'If this thing goes
we'll be the laughingstock of the nation,' said Dr. Jerome Isaac, a
Sarasota pediatrician and the president of the American Academy of
Pediatrics' Florida chapter. 'It's simple. If we do this, children will
die.' The proposed law would ban the ingredient thimerosal, a
mercury-derived preservative some people believe causes autism, from
vaccines given to pregnant women and children 4 and under. It would also
allow parents to delay giving children vaccines until they enter school.
Federal standards call for vaccinations beginning at birth..." |
|
|
Why Fever Helps Autism: A New Theory |
|
| TIME |
|
| April 7, 2009 |
|
| "The autism wars go on and on, and
the debates go round and round. Is the number of afflicted kids climbing
or are we just overdiagnosing the condition? If mercury in vaccines
isn't the culprit (the metal has been removed from nearly all of them),
then it must be environmental toxins. But if that's so, why aren't we
all showing symptoms? Too often, what's lost in all the finger-pointing
over what's to blame for the problem is the salient question of how to
fix it. A paper just published in the journal Brain Research Reviews is
taking a stab at that, suggesting a brand-new strategy--one that focuses
on a very particular part of the brain. The brain region that drew the
attention of the authors is known as the locus coeruleus, a small knot
of neurons located in the brain stem..." |
|
|
Op-ed: Science Trumps Speculation: MMR not linked to autism |
|
| American Medical News |
|
| April 6, 2009 |
|
| "A special vaccine court dismissed
claims that the vaccine can cause the cognitive disorder. The pitched
debate regarding the purported link between autism and the measles,
mumps and rubella vaccine -- a battle viewed on both sides as critical
to shielding the defenseless from harm -- took the encouraging turn for
which many physicians were hoping and landed in favor of protecting
public health..." |
|
|
Progress Is Slow in the War Against Autism |
|
| CNN.com |
|
| April 2, 2009 |
|
| "William Searing is an Eagle Scout
who loves hiking, adventure, art and sports. At age 19, he's in an
education program that bridges the gap from high school to getting a
job. Wil has autism. The neurological disorder was diagnosed when he was
18 months old. Mia Newman's epilepsy and autism weren't diagnosed until
she was almost 3 years old. Now 9, she and her family still face many
challenges in coping with her conditions. It's been a year since the
first U.N.-declared World Autism Awareness Day. In those past 365 days,
nobody has discovered the cause of autism, which the most recent
statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest
affects one in 150 children. Nor has a cure been found. However, new
research and major court decisions have emerged to explain further what
may contribute to the developmental disabilities of the brain known as
"autism spectrum disorders" or ASDs..." |
|
|
Autism Rates Higher in Some Somali Children |
|
| New York Times |
|
| April 1, 2009 |
|
| "Confirming the fears of Somali
immigrants in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Health Department agreed
Tuesday that young Somali children there appeared to have higher than
usual rates of autism. Though health officials emphasized that their
report was based on very limited data, they concluded that young Somali
children appeared to be two to seven times as likely as other children
to be in classes for autistic pupils..." |
|
|
Concern over Vaccination Rate in N.J.; Responding to a reported drop, a
doctors' group says parents and government must do more |
|
|
The Philadelphia Inquirer |
|
|
March 30, 2009 |
|
|
"Both parents and government must do more to ensure timely
vaccination of children, a New Jersey doctors' group says, pointing to a
new national survey that suggests the state may have dropped from the
top 10 in the country to the bottom 10 in less than a year. "We live in
the most urban state in the nation," Robert Morgan, a pediatrician and
member of the Medical Society of New Jersey, said in an interview. "When
you choose not to vaccinate your child, you are making choices for every
other child as well." It is not clear that the latest National
Immunization Survey results in New Jersey accurately reflect actual
vaccination rates. The survey, conducted from July 2007 through June
2008, found that 70.5 percent of children in New Jersey had received the
standard series of vaccines - down from 80.5 percent during the
January-to-December 2007 period..." |
|
|
California Schools' Risks Rise as Vaccinations Drop |
|
|
Los Angeles Times |
|
|
March 29, 2009 |
|
|
"Parents fear shots more than measles or mumps. A rising number of
California parents are choosing to send their children to kindergarten
without routine vaccinations, putting hundreds of elementary schools in
the state at risk for outbreaks of childhood diseases eradicated in the
U.S. years ago. Exemptions from vaccines -- which allow children to
enroll in public and private schools without state-mandated shots --
have more than doubled since 1997, according to a Times analysis of
state data obtained last week. The rise in unvaccinated children appears
to be driven by affluent parents choosing not to immunize. Many do so
because they fear the shots could trigger autism, a concern widely
discredited in medical research. But with autism rates rising, some
parents find that fear more worrisome than the chance that their child
could contract diseases that, while now very rare in this country, can
still be deadly..." |
|
|
New Blueprint Will Guide Autism Research: The collaborative plan
emphasizes searching for causes and helping families find resources |
|
|
AMA News |
|
|
March 24, 2009 |
|
|
"Washington The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, an
advisory panel of federal officials and public members, released a plan
March 5 to guide research on possible causes of the developmental
disorder. The research also is directed toward establishing services and
supports for individuals with autism and for their families. The IACC
was established by the Combating Autism Act of 2006, which required the
committee to develop and annually update a research plan. The disorder
was recently in the news when a special vaccine court rejected the
theory that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine combined with the
preservative thimerosal triggered autism..." |
|
|
Autism Research Gets Stimulus Money for a Short-Term Boost |
|
| Street Journal Health Blog |
|
| March 24, 2009 |
|
| "The National Institutes of Health is
trying to kickstart autism research with $60 million in grant funding
from the stimulus bill. It is the largest-ever funding opportunity for
research into the neuro-developmental disorder, says the NIMH, the NIH’s
mental-health arm. The CDC estimates that autism now strikes 1 in 150
U.S. children, and the epidemic spurred the government to put out a
research plan in January. President Obama himself has made autism a
priority, promising to put $1 billion in funds towards research. The
NIMH grants support research on topics like early intervention and
diagnostic testing. All this urgency is because there are few options
for autistic children beyond behavior and diet modifications..." |
|
|
This Scientist's Passion: Ending the scourge of parasitic diseases |
|
|
USA TODAY |
|
| March 23, 2009 |
|
|
"Even as a child, Peter Hotez held a grown-up's fascination for the
tiny creatures living in the creek near his house. Inspired by Paul de
Kruif's Microbe Hunters, a popular book on disease detectives, Hotez
persuaded his parents to buy him a microscope. He spent hours watching
little animals wriggle in a glowing circle of light, and, at an age when
most kids were reading The Hardy Boys, he read about parasites. His two
brothers were baffled by his obsession..." |
|
|
An Outbreak of Autism, or a Statistical Fluke? |
|
|
New York Times |
|
|
March 17, 2009 |
|
|
"Autism is terrifying the community of Somali immigrants in
Minneapolis, and some pediatricians and educators have joined parents in
raising the alarm. But public health experts say it is hard to tell
whether the apparent surge of cases is an actual outbreak, with a cause
that can be addressed, or just a statistical fluke. In an effort to find
out, the Minnesota Department of Health is conducting an epidemiological
survey in consultation with the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention..." |
|
|
Dr. Dustin Ballard: Don't blame autism on shots |
|
|
Marin Independent Journal (CA) |
|
|
March 15, 2009 |
|
|
"Did you know that the more ice cream you eat, the thinner you are?
It's surprising, but true. If you track the average person's weight over
the course of a year, you'll find that they are lighter when they eat
more ice cream and heavier when they eat less. Before you rush out to
stock up on pints of Cold Stone Creamery and shares of Ben & Jerry's, I
should mention that people eat more ice cream in the summer. They are
also more active and have higher metabolic rates in warmer weather. So,
perhaps it's not the ice cream that leads to weight loss but rather
seasonal variation in calorie burning. What's the lesson here? That
causality can be elusive..." |
|
|
Girl's Death Raises Questions About Alternative Therapies |
|
| NewsChannel 5 (TN) |
|
| March 13, 2009 |
|
| "More and more people are turning to
alternative therapies to deal with serious medical problems. But now, a
little girl's death is raising serious questions about some of those
therapies. 'NewsChannel 5 Investigates' discovered that authorities want
to know whether the six-year-old girl may have been harmed, instead of
being helped, by the treatment she received..." |
|
|
Book Review: Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and
the Search for a Cure |
|
|
The New England Journal of Medicine |
|
|
March 12, 2009 |
|
|
"In recent years, the public has been increasingly concerned about
adverse events that have been attributed to vaccines. Although such
safety concerns have existed since the days of Edward Jenner, modern-day
opponents of vaccines are waging a particularly aggressive and personal
campaign against advocates of vaccines. Paul Offit notes in the opening
lines of his book that he has been the target of such personal attacks,
partly because of his public support for the safety and efficacy of
vaccines and partly because of his relationship with the pharmaceutical
industry in the licensure of his rotavirus vaccine..." |
|
|
Linking Vaccines, Autism Tantamount to Crying 'Fire' Where There Isn't
One |
|
|
CBC News (CAN) |
|
|
March 12, 2009 |
|
|
"It is a story that began when British gastroenterologist Andrew
Wakefield and colleagues reported in 1998 that they had found a link
between 12 children's vaccinations — for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)
— and the onset of autism. But then when the findings couldn't be
replicated - analyses of large numbers of Finnish children, for example,
produced no connection between MMR and autism rates — people such as
British journalist Brian Deer began to look again at Dr. Wakefield's
research and methodology..." |
|
|
Evidence Supports Vaccines |
|
| Joliet Herald News (IL) |
|
| March 11, 2009 |
|
| "A new book defending childhood
vaccines, along with a recent court decision affirming that there seems
to be no connection between vaccines and autism, should calm the nerves
of anxious parents, physicians say. The book, 'Autism's False Prophets,'
by pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit, is meant to shoot down celebrities and
the handful of physicians Offit calls, 'fringe scientists' who believe
childhood vaccinations, or the mercury preservative once used in them,
cause autism in children..." |
|
|
Op-ed What vaccine dilemma? |
|
| Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
|
| March 8, 2009 |
|
| "The vaccine-autism controversy
continues, as reflected in last Sunday's front-page article in the
Post-Gazette bearing the unfortunate title, "The Vaccine Dilemma." There
is no vaccine dilemma. It's true that the number of cases of autism in
the United States is on the rise, with the diagnosis applied in 2007 to
1 of every 150 children. Significant reasons appear to be improved
detection, increased awareness and a broader definition of what
constitutes autism. While these explanations may not account for the
entire increase in cases, science has firmly established the role that
vaccines and vaccine preservatives play: NONE! There is NO LINK between
vaccines and autism. It is essential that people understand how
epidemiologists detect the causes of disease..." |
|
|
Gene Could Link Autism, Digestive Problems |
|
| USA TODAY |
|
| March 2, 2009 |
|
| "Researchers are studying a gene that
may cause both autism and gastrointestinal disorders, a study in
Monday's Pediatrics reports. More than 30% of people with autism also
have some kind of stomach or intestinal problem, compared with fewer
than 10% of people who aren't autistic, says study author Daniel
Campbell, research assistant professor at Vanderbilt University..." |
|
|
Landmark Ruling Finds No Link Between Vaccine and Autism: Physicians
applauded the special court's finding and hope parents who had refused
vaccines will now have their children immunize |
|
| American Medical News |
|
| March 2, 2009 |
|
| "Vaccine supporters rejoiced Feb. 12
when judges in a special federal court rejected the theory that the
measles, mumps and rubella vaccine combined with the preservative
thimerosal caused the disabling autism that affected three children and
their families. The three had served as the petitioners in test cases
representing about 5,000 families who sought damages from the National
Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The families believed vaccines,
particularly the MMR vaccine administered to their children as infants,
caused the disorder..." |
|
|
Op-ed: A dose of reality on vaccines and autism |
|
| Los Angeles Times |
|
| February 25, 2009 |
|
| "A special court found no significant
link between the two, but that probably won't mean anything to a vocal
group of parents who keep the debate alive. The unsubstantiated belief
that vaccines are to blame for increasing rates of autism has diverted
too much attention from the quest to find the causes of this complex
syndrome. Sadly, a decision by the nation's vaccine court won't make
much difference to the very vocal parents who refuse to let this theory
die..." |
|
|
Anatomy of a Scare: When one study linked childhood vaccines to autism,
it set off a panic |
|
| Newsweek |
|
February 21, 2009
From the magazine issue dated March 2, 2009 |
|
| "Like many people in London on that
bleak February day in 1998, biochemist Nicholas Chadwick was eager to
hear what the scientists would say. The Royal Free Hospital, where he
was a graduate student in the lab of gastroenterologist Andrew
Wakefield, had called a press conference to unveil the results of a new
study. With flashbulbs popping, Wakefield stepped up to the bank of
microphones: he and his colleagues, he said, had discovered a new
syndrome that they believed was triggered by the MMR (measles, mumps,
rubella) vaccine..." |
|
|
Judging Autism |
|
| Salon.com |
|
| February 19, 2009 |
|
| "Health and medicine got a big
headline last week: "Vaccines Didn't Cause Autism, Court Rules." The
details have been extensively discussed, but here's the gist of the
story: Three special federal judges working for the government's Vaccine
Injury Compensation Program issued three separate decisions in what's
become known as the Autism Omnibus Trial. The trial is a class-action
lawsuit in which almost 5,500 families have sued the government,
claiming routine childhood vaccines caused their children to develop
autism. Last Thursday, each judge, known as a special master, reviewed
the claim of one family, and in each case, ruled against it. Physicians
praised the decisions, calling it great day for children and science.
Anti-vaccination activists declared it unjust, wrong and unfair..." |
|
|
Vaccine Book Brings Out Hidden Support: Author |
|
| Reuters (UK) |
|
| February 18, 2009 |
|
| "When the letters and e-mails started
to pour in, Dr. Paul Offit braced himself. The pediatrician and vaccine
inventor is a prominent defender of childhood vaccines, tackling those
who have argued that immunizations can cause autism. His book, 'Autism's
False Prophets,' takes on British researcher Dr. Andrew Wakefield, whose
now-debunked 1998 study in the prestigious Lancet medical journal linked
the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism. It also criticizes
organized groups that advise parents to avoid vaccinating their children
for fear the vaccines may cause autism. The issue is at the center of a
vociferous and often vicious debate, despite the preponderance of
scientific opinion in favor of vaccination..." |
|
|
Editorial: Autism and Vaccines |
|
| The Star-Ledger |
|
| February 18, 2009 |
|
| "That fallacy is what lies at the
root of the hysteria over a supposed link between autism and the Measles
Mumps Rubella (MMR) vaccine. Last week a federal court confirmed what
has been the mainstream view of the scientific community from the
beginning: The vaccine does not cause autism. The decision by a special
court set up to evaluate claims for compensation was a blow to families
who feel they have been victimized by vaccine makers. The court
concluded those families have, in fact, been victimized by 'bad science
conducted to support litigation.' Backing that up was an article in the
London Sunday Times that detailed how doctors in England had distorted
data to create the vaccine panic..." |
|
|
Op-ed: Shot of Good Sense |
|
| Wall Street Journal |
|
| February 14, 2009 |
|
| "Science got a booster shot this week
when a special court in Washington confirmed what scientists and
pediatricians have been saying for years: Vaccines are not a cause of
autism in children. The verdict, which came in a case seeking
compensation from the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program,
should help reassure parents who haven't been sure whom to trust about
their child's health. "It was abundantly clear that petitioners'
theories of causation were speculative and unpersuasive," the court
wrote..." |
|
|
MMR Scare Doctor Andrew Wakefield Makes Fortune in US |
|
| Times Online |
|
| February 14, 2009 |
|
| "The doctor who triggered an
international scare over the MMR vaccine, contributing to a resurgence
of measles cases in Britain, has admitted that his claims are 'not
proved.' Andrew Wakefield, who is the subject of a disciplinary inquiry
by the General Medical Council, told The Times that he was unrepentant
about his theory linking the combined MMR vaccine to bowel disorders and
autism..." |
|
|
Austin's Center Officials Sharply Criticized on Autism; Wakefield's
Colleague Misled Patient's Family, Judge Says |
|
| American-Statesman (TX) |
|
| February 13, 2009 |
|
| "A special master's decision sharply
criticized Austin's Andrew Wakefield for his work in suggesting a link
between autism and a common measles vaccine, and lambasted Dr. Arthur
Krigsman, Wakefield's colleague at the Thoughtful House Center for
Children on Bee Cave Road. The two men figured prominently in a case in
which thousands of parents sought compensation from the federal
government claiming the vaccine had caused their children's autism..." |
|
Commentary by Campbell Brown: Get Your Children Vaccinated for Measles
Watch the video |
|
| February 13, 2009 |
|
| "What I am about to say, I know, is
controversial. And I know that a lot of people are going to disagree
with me. But as a mother, with a second child on the way, I believe this
is vital to the safety of our children and must be said. The verdict is
in. There is no connection between vaccines and autism. And it is time
that all of us get our children vaccinated..." |
|
|
Maybe Vaccine-Autism Scaremongers Will Quit Ruining It for the Rest of
Us Now |
|
| Examiner.com |
|
| February 12, 2009 |
|
| "Appropriately titled 'Ruining It for
The Rest of Us,' the program reported on a San Diego measles outbreak
caused by a child whose parents opposed MMR vaccination. The consensus
of the medical and scientific community has long been that 'there is no
causal relationship between the vaccine and autism,' yet thanks to the
anti-vaccination community and its fearless leader, Jenny McCarthy,
'This Life' had difficulty getting researchers to speak on the radio.
One researcher told 'This Life' about a colleague at the CDC who's
received so many death threats for debunking the vaccine-autism
connection that he requires bodyguards... 'Many, if not most, of the
younger siblings [of autistic children] never have any vaccinations,'
UCal Irvine pediatrician Pauline Filipek told Scientific American last
August. 'And they are as autistic as the day is long.'..." |
|
|
Editorial: Vaccines Exonerated on Autism |
|
| New York Times |
|
| February 12, 2009 |
|
| "A special federal vaccine court
issued three devastating verdicts on Thursday that should help demolish
lingering fears that childhood vaccines can and have caused autism. The
verdicts won’t satisfy die-hard adherents of the theory that the medical
establishment is recklessly harming their children. But the vast
majority of parents ought to accept the verdicts as persuasive evidence
that no child need forgo vaccinations against dangerous diseases out of
fear that the vaccines might cause autism..." |
|
|
Court Says Vaccine Not to Blame for Autism |
|
| New York Times |
|
| February 12, 2009 |
|
| "In a blow to the movement arguing
that vaccines lead to autism, a special court ruled on Thursday against
three families seeking compensation from the federal vaccine-injury
fund. Both sides in the debate have been awaiting decisions in these
test cases since hearings began in 2007; more than 5,000 similar claims
have been filed. In the three cases, each decided by a judge called a
special master, the court found that the families had not shown that
their children’s autism was brought on by substances in the vaccines —
either the measles virus in the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, or
its combination with thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was
used in most childhood vaccines until 2001..." |
|
|
Court Rules Autism Not Caused by Childhood Vaccines |
|
| Washington Post |
|
| February 12, 2009 |
|
| "Thousands of parents who claimed
that childhood vaccines had caused their children to develop autism are
wrong and not entitled to federal compensation, a special court ruled
today in three decisions with far-reaching implications for a bitterly
fought medical controversy. The long-awaited decision on three test
cases is a severe blow to a grass-roots movement that has argued --
predominantly through books, magazines and the Internet -- that
children's shots have been responsible for the surge in autism diagnoses
in the United States in recent decades. The vast majority of the
scientific establishment, backed by federal health agencies, has
strenuously argued there is no link between vaccines and autism, and
warned that scaring parents away from vaccinating their youngsters
places children at risk for a host of serious childhood diseases..." |
|
|
U.S. Vaccine Court Denies Family's Autism Case |
|
| Reuters |
|
| February 12, 2009 |
|
| "A special U.S. court ruled against
three families on Thursday who claimed vaccines caused their children's
autism. The Vaccine Court Omnibus Autism Proceeding ruled against the
parents of Michelle Cedillo, Colten Snyder and William Yates Hazlehurst,
who had claimed that a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine had combined
with other vaccine ingredients to damage the three children.
"Unfortunately, the Cedillos have been misled by physicians who are
guilty, in my view, of gross medical misjudgment," Special Master George
Hastings, a former tax claims expert at the Department of Justice, wrote
in the 183-page Cedillo ruling..." |
|
|
MMR Doctor Andrew Wakefield Fixed Data on Autism |
|
| Times Online (UK) |
|
| February 8, 2009 |
|
"The doctor who sparked the scare
over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported
results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with
autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found..."
See all articles in this series by Brian Deer
Hidden Records Show MMR Truth
How the MMR Scare Led to Return of Measles
MMR: Key Dates in the Crisis |
|
|
Researchers See no Autism-Vaccine Link |
|
| United Press International |
|
| February 2, 2009 |
|
| "U.S. researchers have published a
review summarizing the many studies refuting the claim of a link between
vaccines and autism. The review, published online ahead of the Feb. 15
print issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, examined three main
hypotheses and showed how epidemiological and biological studies shoot
down these claims. 'When one hypothesis of how vaccines cause autism is
refuted, another invariably springs up to take its place,' Dr. Paul
Offit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, co-author of the review,
said in a statement..." |
|
|
Vaccines Still Blamed for Autism |
|
| Science News Examiner |
|
| January 30, 2009 |
|
| "A new study published in Clinical
Infectious Diseases is taking on one of the most bitter battles in the
medicinal world: the link between autism and vaccines. Complied by
researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the article
considered large-scale experiments conducted all over the world and came
to a conclusion that has already been made by scientists: there simply
is no evidence that vaccines cause autism..." |
|
|
Vaccine Study Backs Safety of Chemical |
|
| Atlanta Journal-Constitution |
|
| January 26, 2009 |
|
| "A new study of about 1,400 children
exposed to thimerosal in routine vaccinations during the 1990s adds
further evidence to the safety of the mercury-based preservative for
children. Brain-function tests of the children who received two
different levels of the preservative via routine inoculations revealed
only one case of autism 10 years later, and that was in the group that
received a lower level of thimerosal. The study, published in the
February issue of the journal Pediatrics, was funded by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention..." |
|
|
This Question Has Been Asked and Answered |
|
| Newsweek.com |
|
| January 16, 2009 |
|
| "A top exec quits a major autism
group because she doesn't think vaccines cause the disorder. The warfare
over vaccines and autism is heating up yet again. This week, Alison
Singer, the executive vice president of communications and awareness at
Autism Speaks, one of the nation's leading autism advocacy groups,
announced her resignation, citing a difference of opinion over the
organization's policy on vaccine research. "Dozens of credible
scientific studies have exonerated vaccines as a cause of autism," she
wrote in a statement. "I believe we must devote limited funding to more
promising avenues of autism research." Singer, who has an 11-year-old
daughter with autism, joined the organization when it launched in
2005..." |
|
|
Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade |
|
| New York Times |
|
| January 13, 2009 |
|
| "A new book defending vaccines,
written by a doctor infuriated at the claim that they cause autism, is
galvanizing a backlash against the antivaccine movement in the United
States. But there will be no book tour for the doctor, Paul A. Offit,
author of "Autism's False Prophets." He has had too many death
threats..." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chelation Therapy Trials Halted |
|
| Journal of the American Medical
Association |
|
| November 19, 2008 |
|
| "The federal government and
investigators have called off or suspended enrollment for 2 clinical
trials testing chelation therapy as a treatment for autism or coronary
artery disease. Critics charged that the studies had little scientific
merit and exposed participants to unacceptable safety risks. The US Food
and Drug Administration has approved chelating agents, which bind and
remove heavy metals from the body, for treating acute toxicity of heavy
metals. But, according to the National Center for Complimentary and
Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), off-label uses of chelating agents
contribute to an estimated 800 000 physician visits annually..." |
|
|
In a Novel Theory of Mental Disorders, Parents’ Genes Are in Competition |
|
| The New York Times |
|
| November 11, 2008 |
|
| "Two scientists, drawing on
their own powers of observation and a creative reading of recent genetic
findings, have published a sweeping theory of brain development that
would change the way mental disorders like autism and schizophrenia are
understood..." |
|
| Op-ed: When Not to Write About Autism |
|
| New Scientist |
|
| November 4, 2008 |
|
| "USA Today heads its story: Study: Counties with more rainfall have higher autism rates. The BBC has Rainfall autism theory suggested, while The Daily Telegraph opts for Heavy rainfall could be linked to autism, scientists claim. These were some of the headlines in stories reporting a paper from scientists at Cornell University showing that between 1987 and 1999, counties in Washington, Oregon and California that got more rain had more cases of autism. But should the story have been reported in the mainstream media at all? It offers nothing useful for the general public, parents, and even physicians. And press reports, blogs and other accounts of the study could even mislead the public..." |
|
| Doctor Disputes Autism, Vaccine Link |
|
| Video link: www.msnbc.com |
|
| NBC: Today Show |
|
| October 30, 2008 |
|
| "In his book, “Autism's False Prophets,” Paul A. Offit, a national expert on vaccines, recounts the history of autism and challenges the idea that vaccines lead to autism. An excerpt. From the prologue: Although most of my hate mail mentions my work with Merck on a rotavirus vaccine, that alone doesn’t explain why some people hate me..." |
|
| Stomping Through A Medical Minefield |
|
| Newsweek |
|
| October 25, 2008 |
|
| "Paul Offit—salt-and-pepper hair, wire-rimmed glasses, Phillies fan—hardly seems like the kind of guy who'd receive a death threat. He's a father who likes to hang out with his teenage kids, a doctor who wears khakis until they're frayed. But Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the nation's most outspoken advocate for childhood immunizations, is at the center of a white-hot medical controversy. He believes passionately in the safety of vaccines; his enemies, many of them parents who blame these shots for their children's autism, do not. He believes passionately in the safety of vaccines; his enemies, many of them parents who blame these shots for their children's autism, do not. In his new book, 'Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure,' Offit takes on his critics full-force, challenging them to prove the science wrong..." |
|
| First National Public Opinion Survey: Americans’ Knowledge and Understanding of Autism |
|
| School of Psychology, Florida Institute of Technology |
|
| October 2008 |
|
| "The first national survey of the public’s knowledge and understanding of autism was conducted for the School of Psychology at Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida. The survey includes responses from 1000 men and women, 21 years old or older, randomly selected from throughout the nation. The poll has a plus or minus 3.1% confidence interval at a 95% level of confidence. The telephone interviews were conducted between August 1 and August 29 by GDA Education Research, Mount Pleasant, SC..." |
|
| Op-ed: Healthy People Need Healthy Information |
|
| The Statesman (NY) |
|
| October 13, 2008 |
|
| "Although there are many diseases that still need cures and many people worldwide who need medicine, the most important problem that needs to be addressed in the United States today is the lack of information easily available to the average citizen about medical issues. In a society where much of the funding for medical research comes from public funds in order to treat the public, it is vital that the people who scientists and doctors are seeking to treat understand the causes and consequences of specific diseases that they or their loved ones may be suffering from..." |
|
| Blog: Autism and vaccines, Chapter 10,000 |
|
| Los Angeles Times Blog: Booster Shots |
|
| October 1, 2008 |
|
| "Haven't read enough about autism lately? Even if you have -- and we're betting that you have -- you might nonetheless head on over to Scienceblogs.com for their ScienceBlogs Book Club, which right now is a multi-blogger review of a new book on the vaccine-autism brouhaha. 'Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure' by Dr. Paul A. Offit (Columbia University Press, 2008) examines the rise of the autism-vaccine theory after the (later-debunked) research of the British surgeon Dr. Andrew Wakefield (you can read a summary of that research here) and a second assertion, by parent advocacy groups, that use of the mercury preservative thimerosal in vaccines was to blame for a rise in autism cases. Offit, who is chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, says that he was driven to write the book after study upon study failed to find an autism-vaccine link -- and yet, as a result of those studies, the press took the matter up and continues to present the issue as if it were a controversy. It's not, he says -- at least not a scientific one..." |
|
| Charlatans to the Rescue |
|
| Wall Street Journal |
|
| September 23, 2008 |
|
| "Ever since psychiatrist Leo Kanner identified a neurological condition he called autism in 1943, parents whose children have been diagnosed with the most severe form of the illness -- usually in the toddler stage, before age 3 -- have found themselves desperately searching for some way not to lose their children to autism's closed-off world. Unfortunately, such parents have often found misguided doctors, ill-informed psychologists and outright charlatans eager to proffer help..." |
|
| Inside the Vaccine-and-Autism Scare |
|
| Salon.com |
|
| September 22, 2008 |
|
| "Early in Dr. Paul A. Offit's new book, "Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure," he describes a threatening letter he received from a man in Seattle. The threats against him and his family have come not from antiabortion advocates, but rather from anti-vaccine crusaders who believe that vaccines cause autism. Offit, it turns out, has been targeted by them because he helped to develop a vaccine that prevents rotavirus, a serious gastrointestinal infection in children, and because he has been staunchly pro-vaccine in a time when there are many doubts about their safety. Offit begins by tracing the history of the anti-vaccine movement to its roots in England in 1998..." |
|
| Defending Vaccines in the Autism Debate |
|
| Philadelphia Inquirer |
|
| September 21, 2008 |
|
| "Next to clean drinking water, vaccines are arguably the most important advance in public health in the last 300 years. Thanks to vaccines, we have eradicated smallpox, wiped out polio virus in the Western hemisphere, closed in on measles, and brought many other once fatal or debilitating diseases under control. But despite the indisputable track record of vaccines in lowering mortality and morbidity here and around the world, the American public has been embroiled, over the last decade, in a heated debate about whether vaccines are safe. In particular, the notion that vaccines cause autism has taken hold of the public imagination and refuses to let go, even in the face of growing scientific evidence to the contrary. In Autism's False Prophets, Paul A. Offit, co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine and chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, helps to explain why..." |
|
| Blog: NIH Wakes Up |
|
| Discover Magazine Blog |
|
| September 21, 2008 |
|
| "The National Institutes of Health has shut down a study based on antivaccination garbage. Hurray! The research was looking into chelation, the idea that an amino acid can be pumped into the bloodstream where it will remove some potentially toxic metals. What spurred this? The nonsense that mercury is present in the blood due to childhood vaccines...So why was the study stopped by NIH? The board determined that there was no clear evidence for direct benefit to the children who would participate in the chelation trial and that the study presents more than a minimal risk. In other words, they looked into chelation, and it doesn’t work well enough to risk performing it on children. In fact, it can do substantial harm, and can even be fatal: children have died because they were chelated. Isn’t it bad enough that antivaxxers want to see kids suffer through preventable diseases like measles and rubella? Do we have to make people sicker or even kill them to make some antiaxxers happy? I’m actually happy the NIH saw fit to look into this — it’s always better to investigate and be sure — and I’m not surprised they found it to be not worth the risk, especially given that it was based on nonsense to start with..." |
|
| Autism-Treatment Study Dropped |
|
| LA Times: Science Briefing |
|
| September 20, 2008 |
|
| "A government agency has dropped plans for a study of a controversial autism treatment that critics had called an unethical experiment on children. The National Institute of Mental Health said in a statement Wednesday that the study of the treatment -- called chelation -- has been abandoned. The agency decided the money would be better used testing other potential therapies, the statement said. The study had been on hold because of safety concerns after another study published last year linked a drug used in the treatment to lasting brain problems in rats..." |
|
| Op-ed: Debunking an Autism Theory |
|
| New York Times |
|
| September 9, 2008 |
|
| "Ten years ago, a clinical research paper triggered widespread and persistent fears that a combined vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella — the so-called MMR vaccine — causes autism in young children. That theory has been soundly refuted by a variety of other research over the years, and now a new study that tried to replicate the original study has provided further evidence that it was a false alarm..." |
|
| Editorial: Measles is Dangerous; Vaccine for It Is Not |
|
| San Jose Mercury News (CA) |
|
| September 8, 2008 |
|
| "A serial killer is on the loose: Measles, which killed 400 to 500 Americans annually before a vaccine went into use in 1963, is back as more parents reject vaccination for fear it causes autism. Those fears have put children at risk of measles without protecting them from autism, which keeps rising even as parents reject the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine..." |
|
| Study Finds No Autism Link in Vaccine |
|
| Washington Post |
|
| September 4, 2008 |
|
| "A CDC official said that in the first eight months of 2008, 91 percent of the 131 children with measles had not been vaccinated or had uncertain status. A common vaccine given to children to protect them against measles, mumps and rubella is not linked to autism, a study published yesterday concludes. The new study comes as the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington is in the midst of evaluating evidence on whether children's vaccines are implicated in causing autism. A special master is evaluating three different kinds of claims -- two of which specifically link the MMR vaccine with autism..." |
|
| Researchers Look for Autism Links |
|
| Rocky Mount Telegram (NC) |
|
| July 22, 2008 |
|
| "Kristina Day's gut tells her that her youngest son does not have autism. In his short, 6-month life, William Day has not shown any of the symptoms, but she is not willing to rule it out. She said she was burned too badly before her oldest son, Matthew, 4, was diagnosed with the disorder..." |
|
| Doctor Dismisses Link of Autism to Vaccines |
|
| St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) |
|
| July 14, 2008 |
|
| "Until doctors find a cure for the 1 in 150 children living with an autism spectrum disorder, parents will continue to search for solutions and answers. In the meantime, Dr. Rolanda Maxim, a developmental pediatrician, weighs in with one answer to a well-publicized dispute: No scientific evidence links childhood vaccines with autism..." |
|
| Autism and a Link to Brain Development |
|
| US News and World Report |
|
| July 11, 2008 |
|
| "It's been an amazing year for discoveries about autism and genes-and it's only July. The latest news: Some genes involved in the disorder may affect the brain's ability to develop in response to experience, a key aspect of learning..." |
|
| Mental Activity May Affect Autism-Linked Genes |
|
| Washington Post |
|
| July 7, 2008 |
|
| "Study Suggests That Altering Ill Children's Experiences Could Change the Disease..." |
|
| Some Key Dates in Autism History |
|
| Washington Post |
|
| July 1, 2008 |
|
| "1943: Based on a study of 11 socially withdrawn children, child psychiatrist Leo Kanner identifies autism as 'lack of affective contact, fascination with objects, desire for sameness and non-communicative language before 30 months of age'..." |
|
| New Autism Research May Allow Earliest Ever Detection |
|
| City News (Canada) |
|
| June 24, 2008 |
|
| "It is one of the most baffling syndromes that doctors, parents and families have to deal with. And it continues to be a mystery because the person suffering from it can't tell anyone what's wrong with them..." |
|
| Conference Sheds Light on Autism |
|
| Palo Alto Daily News |
|
| June 6, 2008 |
|
| "Fearing that a hospital birth might increase her son's chances of developing autism, Nicole Mytels decided to have her baby at home. For the same reason, she skipped vaccinations commonly given to newborns..." |
|
| Vaccines and Autism Revisited — The Hannah Poling Case |
|
| Author: Paul A. Offit, MD |
|
| New England Journal of Medicine |
|
| May 15, 2008 |
|
| "On April 11, 2008, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee took an unusual step: in the name of transparency, trust, and collaboration, it asked members of the public to help set its vaccine-safety research agenda for the next 5 years. Several parents, given this opportunity, expressed concern that vaccines might cause autism — a fear that had recently been fueled by extensive media coverage of a press conference involving a 9-year-old girl named Hannah Poling..." |
|
| Study Links Child's Autism, Parents' Mental Illness |
|
| Reuters |
|
| May 5, 2008 |
|
| "In another sign pointing to an inherited component to autism, a study released on Monday found that having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems roughly doubled a child's risk of being autistic..." |
|
| McCain, Obama, Clinton Push Dangerous Vaccine-Autism Myth |
|
| Salon.com |
|
| May 5, 2008 |
|
| "Last week federal health officials announced an alarming health stat: The United States is on track to see its highest incidence of measles since 2001, an increase that reflects many new infections in children whose parents, citing "personal beliefs," eschew vaccinations..." |
|
| Op-ed: What the Autism Studies Show Isn't Reflected in What the Candidates Say |
|
| Washington Post |
|
| April 22, 2008 |
|
| "Two leading presidential candidates have now wandered into an exceptionally emotional medical debate in which they have no known scientific expertise. Several advocacy groups and families of children with autism are embroiled in a long-running court case seeking billions of dollars in damages because of alleged links between autism and a preservative in vaccines given to children at a young age. While some doctors have testified that there is a link, the medical establishment in the form of the World Health Organization, the Institute of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has dismissed the allegations as scientifically unfounded..." |
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| Op-ed: Don't Blame Vaccines for Autism |
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| Roanoke Times |
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| April 20, 2008 |
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| "Confusion swirls around the issue of vaccines and autism. The government's concession that vaccines led to Hannah Poling's "symptoms of autism" is partially to blame..." |
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| Not More, Just Different |
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| Economist |
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| April 10, 2008 |
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| "Fashion is a strange thing, and many fields are susceptible to it—not least, medicine. There has, for example, been a vogue (among commentators, if not among doctors) to ascribe the rising number of cases of autism diagnosed over the past couple of decades to childhood vaccinations against measles, mumps and rubella. That this is fashion rather than reality is suggested by the fact that the explanation proffered in Britain has been that such vaccines provoke an immune response that damages the nervous system, whereas Americans have blamed residual mercury in the same vaccines..." |
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| High Rate of Autism Signs Found in Children Born Extremely Prematurely, Researchers Find |
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| Associated Press |
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| April 2, 2008 |
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| "A small study of toddlers finds that about one-quarter of babies born very prematurely had signs of autism on an early screening test..." |
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| Correlation, Causation, Vaccination |
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| The Atlantic Monthly |
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| March 25, 2008 |
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| "You would have to be harder hearted than I to ignore the anguished search of parents of autistic children for the cause of their child's condition. "I saw it," they say; "one shot, and then the child who had talked and laughed started retreating into himself." It's hard to argue with someone's pain..." |
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| Op-ed: No Link to Autism |
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| Rocky Mountain News |
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| March 10, 2008 |
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| "Colorado parents should not hesitate to have their children vaccinated, even though a Georgia family recently won a settlement by claiming that their 9-year-old daughter's autism-like symptoms are linked to vaccinations she received as a toddler..." |
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