Subscribe
Previous Post
An as yet published study shows that as many as one in 58 children in Britain have autism, according to the July 8th Guardian Unlimited. The study was conducted by seven researchers at Cambridge University, six from the Autism Research Centre, under Professor Simon Baron-Cohen. Some 12,000 children at a primary school in Cambridgeshire were studied between 2001 and 2004.
Professor Baron-Cohen, director of the centre and the country’s foremost authority on the condition, said he did not believe there was any link between the three-in-one vaccination and autism. Genetics, better recognition of the condition, environmental factors such as chemicals and children’s exposure to hormones in the womb, especially testosterone, were more likely to be the cause, he commented. ‘As for MMR, at this point one can conclude that evidence does not support the idea that the MMR causes autism.’
Two researchers, Dr. Fiona Scott and Dr Carol Stott, suggest that the MMR vaccine “could be a factor in small numbers of children.”
There needs to be a study comparing vaccinated children with COMPLETELY unvaccinated children. There is no reason other than wild speculation to suppose that the MMR is the only one to blame, and every theoretical reason to hypothesis that ALL vaccines have the risk – hence some children develop autism before the MMR jab, and even later with other jabs.
Most vaccines them contain organic forms of mercury, which autistic children have been proven to store in their bodies in enormous quantities compared to non-autistic children, and they all are known to cause the same gastrointestinal abnormalities that autistic children have been shown to share.
Someone, somewhere, (namely the the vaccine companies and their apologists) is deliberately failing to join the dots, or there would be sensible research into this by now.
1760 days ago
[...] autism “spreading.” It was all right for The Observer to report last week on a “big surge“—a prevalence rate of 1 in 58—that was leaked to the paper, as Stephen Pritchard [...]
1764 days ago
[...] news story announcing that the incidence of autism was 1 in 58 was “alarmist and wrong,” says Professor Simon Baron-Cohen. Anjana Ahuja in the July [...]
1766 days ago
[...] study of children in Cambridgeshire, UK, was reported to show that “as many as one in 58 children may have some form of the condition”—I have been bothered by two paragraphs of [...]
Thats a good point, as to why a prevalence study can be skewed.
When I designed an instrument to discover the levels of undeclared and unrecognised disabiltiy in Coventry, I used a randomisation method to chose which streets to carry out the survey in, and ultimately the survey was repeated in another ward on the other side of town with different demographics.
One needs the full picture to interpret studies, and it seems this one has been prematurely leaked, as the peer review process will surely in time reveal its weaknesses or biases.
It is a study after all, not a definitive global population survey using full diagnostic methods.
The Observer is as guilty as any for distorting that fact, let us hope that the Observer/Guardian redeems itself soon.
Someday I will have to chart the prevalence rate in my town which is quite skewed as a result of there being a strong program in the public schools. Within one minute of our house are 5 autistic children (2 for sure not born in the town).
1766 days ago
[...] Diva, Autism Vox, BadScience, Black Triangle, LeftBrain/Right Brain, Public Address and Breath Spa for Kids , Tim [...]
Maybe we should have all scientific investigation and discussion of autism submitted to a Neurodiversity Political Correctness panel for review and permission before being permitted to enter the public domain?
I absolutely agree about SBC and the danger of his idea that autism is a male thing skewing the reserch even skewing the diagnostics in favour of there being more male subjects available for reserch.
Once again there is the danger of science becoming vanity as one needs ones thery to be correct because the institution paying one demands it and one needs to keep ones status in the social order.
When one goes out to find examples that confirm ones hypothesis rather than looking to see if there are any that do not, then one is certainly not practicing good science.
1766 days ago
[...] MMR Memes in Newspapers Mike Stanton: Cry Shame on Wakefield and MMR Kristina Chew of Autism Vox: 1 in 58 Ms Clark of Autism Diva: Embattled Andy Wakefield Speaks and Wakefield and Walker-Smith: Dishonest [...]
I’ve heard similar stories regarding girls—-when Newsweek did its cover story on Baron-Cohen’s male/female brain theory, a call went out to some NJ email lists to find twins: boy with autism, girl without. Several parents with daughters were aghast at this skewing of the picture.
Baron-Cohen is a pretty problematic figure when it comes to figuring out “what counts as autism.” Unfortunately, while his reasoned stance on the vaccine hysteria is extremely helpful, his wanderings into the high-testonsterone theories have led to some serious problems with regards to recognizing autism in girls and women. Many of the diagnostic criteria are currently skewed towards male behaviors, and autism is starting to be cast as another “boy disease” like ADD–with Asperger’s Syndrome even sometimes being described as a hyper-version of typically male behavior. While this viewpoint may not be as problematic as the quackery of DAN! and the mercury militia, it’s still a really unfortunate misdirection of autism research. Maybe not as dangerous, but a distraction a lot of people are becoming waaaaaay too attached to. I talk to a lot of parents of recently-diagnosed girls, and the road they’ve had to travel to get their concerns addressed is pretty harrowing.
The gender issue, in terms of whose autism “counts,” is at least as huge as arbitrary criteria of high and low “functioning.”
Just to be clear, the number was for children in primary school, not children in one school (please pardon the pedantic input).
Given the location (Cambridge), and the correlations between ASD and certain parental occupations and skill sets (e.g. mathematics and engineering), and ASD and parental IQ scores, it may not be unreasonable to expect the children of ‘the gown’ to be pulling up the figures for ‘the town’.
Having said that, issues of definition, inclusion, etc. are still open until the study is released.
When the study is published we shall be able to comment on it. Meanwhile, the study is being used as a smokescreen for Wakefield ahead of his disciplinary hearing next week. Shame on the Observer for allowing itself to be drawn into this charade
1767 days ago
[...] Diva Autism Vox BadScience Black Triangle Mike Stanton Public Address Shinga Tim Worstall Tony Hatfield [...]
I mean this in good faith (e.g., not unkindly): Do you care?
Quite and I made an eloquent comment on Josephs blog back then.
If one were to look for the last house in London where is it?
In an urbanisation which consists of ribbon development on the fringes, how does one decide what is town and what is country, and what is the circumference of the urban area?
Because autism does not exist as a discrete entity and so far is only measured by observable behaviour that shifts in its description from DSM to DSM what are we measuring anyway?
The surface of the sea?
Put it this way, what does SBC’s quiz measure other than a cultural construct of fin du siecle 20th century geekiness.
Theatre or Museum, Circus Maximus or Senate I dunno.
How much of me is autistic and how much dyslexic, who can say, who cares?
I could be 1 in 58 is the prevalence in that one school. I do get the sense some schools have more autism than others, and it’s not hard to imagine some of the reasons.
Then again, this sort of thing is not surprising as I had anticipated back in February:
http://autismnaturalvariation.blogspot.com/2007/02/moving-toward-new-consensus-prevalence.html
1767 days ago
[...] “counts” as autism?, the question was asked in the post 1 in [...]
A man just ran by me on the path and I saw
“1 in 166″
on the back of his shirt (from the OAR)
and when I asked he had an autistic child, he said he did not and slowed his pace and we jogged and talked; he noted that he’d heard the figure was lower.
“1 in 150″
“1 in 94 here in New Jersey”
I said, and after a few exchanges about the school system (always glad to note Charlie’s doing well), he ran on (this is a town of well-exercised executives, I am not one of them).