And one of those articles....
Jul. 12th, 2005 01:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Click if you like....
Notable quotes:
Just a decade ago, most Americans would have to be "Jeopardy" champions just to identify the substance, but parents today are more and more aware of it because many medical researchers believe it is linked to the astounding increase in autism.
Note that he doesn't mention how many more researchers have the data to show it is not linked to the "astounding increase in autism". Many people believe that the world was created in seven days, but reputable scientists don't give this theory much truck.
If you're in your 20s, you had a 1 in 10,000 chance of ending up autistic. Today, that chance in the United States is about 1 in 166 births, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The change in these numbers is statistically incredible, and indicates a health problem of epidemic proportions.
Well, it would if the statistics from 20 years ago were even roughly comparable with current statistics. Except they're not. The diagnostic criteria for autism have made it much more likely that your average child-with-problems will be diagnosed autistic instead of, say, childhood schizophrenic or mentally retarded. The concept of the autistic spectrum has expanded the definition of autism so much that people who could never have gotten a diagnosis back then now can. Additionally, since knowledge of autism has increased, even without the expanded diagnostic criteria, more children are likely to be identified as autistic than 20 years ago.
As almost every concerned parent now knows, autistic children -- many of them once normal infants and toddlers -- display heartbreaking social withdrawal, loss of speech, reduced eye contact, temper tantrums, repetitive hand-flapping, seizures, constant sleep disturbance, aversion to eye contact, a seemingly weakened immune system, and odd repetitive behaviors such as walking on their toes. The symptoms of infant mercury poisoning are almost exactly the same.
Aw, it's so heartbreaking. Just on a lark, I decided to copy Keven Leitch and look up the symptoms of mercury poisoning. Interesting stuff. If Wikipedia is to be believed, back 200 years ago, children routinely were given mercury as a laxative and dewormer. It was also given for such things as toothaches and even depression, such as it was back then. Hm. I don't remember hearing about all those poor autistic kids in the 1800s. Must've missed something.
Oh, right, the symptoms. Tremors (not the same as stimming, no matter how much you try to lump them together), headaches, short-term memory loss, incoordination (hm. That might fit), weakness, loss of appetite, altered sense of taste and smell (that might fit, maybe), numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, insomnia, and excessive sweating. Psychiatric effects are also seen after long-term exposure (mad hatters, anyone?). Acrodynia can result from repeated exposures to mercury-containing latex paint fumes. Acrodynia is usually seen in younger children. The symptoms include chills, sweating, body rash, irritability, sleeplessness, leg cramps, swelling of the cheeks, nose, hands and feet, light-sensitivity to the eyes and peeling skin layers on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.
Yes, that sounds so much like autism. I am stunned and amazed. Really, am I missing something here? I must be.
(Russia, often described in the American media as abysmally backward in scientific matters, banned thimerosal from vaccines 20 years ago. So have Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Denmark and Japan.)
So, those countries should have a lower incidence of autism, right?
England's rate is about 60/10,000. That's, um, let's see.... 6/1,000 or 3/500 or 1/166. I worked that out in my head, maybe my numbers are wrong. I couldn't find information for Russia or Norway, and I was too lazy to look up the rest. It's probably just a fluke anyway.
Instead, from documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and an anonymous source who was present, Kennedy learned a CDC epidemiologist at the meeting had declared that 100,000 medical records of children in the CDC medical database had showed thimerosal was "directly related to the dramatic rise" in the autism epidemic.
I am *very* lazy today, but I did think I read something about how much of his article was exaggerated, or outright distortions...? If anybody can help me out here, amabo te.
For instance, the CDC and other thimerosal defenders keep pointing to one of the studies that allegedly shows a big increase in autistic children in Denmark after that country disallowed use of the substance in its vaccines. Wouldn't that show conclusively that thimerosal is not to blame for autism increases?
One would think so, until one learns from Kennedy that Denmark -- before banning thimerosal -- was used to registering in its studies only autistics who were hospitalized. That number represented only 20 percent of those truly afflicted. After banning thimerosal, Denmark began also counting out-patient children who showed autistic symptoms, four-fifths of the total autistic population. Apples and oranges, not scientific parallels. Of course, it appeared like the numbers spiked following the ban. A whole new category was being counted. The clever CDC, of course, never mentions this.
No, you didn't. No, you fucking didn't. You didn't just accuse people of doing the exact same thing you're doing here, right in this selfsame article! It's important to bring this up, sure - but not if you're also lying and pretending that the changed diagnostic criteria don't exist, not if you're ignoring the fact that some states used to estimate the number of autistic children they had, and surprise, surprise found the numbers went up when the children were actually counted.
Well, I just repeated what everyone else has said, and no doubt got it all wrong anyway. I'm funny like that. But man, that pisses me off. Not that some "I've got a Pulitzer!" can write an editorial with... well, blatant distortions, or ignorance, in some hack of a paper, but that other people believe things like this and don't do any research one way or another.
Notable quotes:
Just a decade ago, most Americans would have to be "Jeopardy" champions just to identify the substance, but parents today are more and more aware of it because many medical researchers believe it is linked to the astounding increase in autism.
Note that he doesn't mention how many more researchers have the data to show it is not linked to the "astounding increase in autism". Many people believe that the world was created in seven days, but reputable scientists don't give this theory much truck.
If you're in your 20s, you had a 1 in 10,000 chance of ending up autistic. Today, that chance in the United States is about 1 in 166 births, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The change in these numbers is statistically incredible, and indicates a health problem of epidemic proportions.
Well, it would if the statistics from 20 years ago were even roughly comparable with current statistics. Except they're not. The diagnostic criteria for autism have made it much more likely that your average child-with-problems will be diagnosed autistic instead of, say, childhood schizophrenic or mentally retarded. The concept of the autistic spectrum has expanded the definition of autism so much that people who could never have gotten a diagnosis back then now can. Additionally, since knowledge of autism has increased, even without the expanded diagnostic criteria, more children are likely to be identified as autistic than 20 years ago.
As almost every concerned parent now knows, autistic children -- many of them once normal infants and toddlers -- display heartbreaking social withdrawal, loss of speech, reduced eye contact, temper tantrums, repetitive hand-flapping, seizures, constant sleep disturbance, aversion to eye contact, a seemingly weakened immune system, and odd repetitive behaviors such as walking on their toes. The symptoms of infant mercury poisoning are almost exactly the same.
Aw, it's so heartbreaking. Just on a lark, I decided to copy Keven Leitch and look up the symptoms of mercury poisoning. Interesting stuff. If Wikipedia is to be believed, back 200 years ago, children routinely were given mercury as a laxative and dewormer. It was also given for such things as toothaches and even depression, such as it was back then. Hm. I don't remember hearing about all those poor autistic kids in the 1800s. Must've missed something.
Oh, right, the symptoms. Tremors (not the same as stimming, no matter how much you try to lump them together), headaches, short-term memory loss, incoordination (hm. That might fit), weakness, loss of appetite, altered sense of taste and smell (that might fit, maybe), numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, insomnia, and excessive sweating. Psychiatric effects are also seen after long-term exposure (mad hatters, anyone?). Acrodynia can result from repeated exposures to mercury-containing latex paint fumes. Acrodynia is usually seen in younger children. The symptoms include chills, sweating, body rash, irritability, sleeplessness, leg cramps, swelling of the cheeks, nose, hands and feet, light-sensitivity to the eyes and peeling skin layers on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.
Yes, that sounds so much like autism. I am stunned and amazed. Really, am I missing something here? I must be.
(Russia, often described in the American media as abysmally backward in scientific matters, banned thimerosal from vaccines 20 years ago. So have Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Denmark and Japan.)
So, those countries should have a lower incidence of autism, right?
England's rate is about 60/10,000. That's, um, let's see.... 6/1,000 or 3/500 or 1/166. I worked that out in my head, maybe my numbers are wrong. I couldn't find information for Russia or Norway, and I was too lazy to look up the rest. It's probably just a fluke anyway.
Instead, from documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and an anonymous source who was present, Kennedy learned a CDC epidemiologist at the meeting had declared that 100,000 medical records of children in the CDC medical database had showed thimerosal was "directly related to the dramatic rise" in the autism epidemic.
I am *very* lazy today, but I did think I read something about how much of his article was exaggerated, or outright distortions...? If anybody can help me out here, amabo te.
For instance, the CDC and other thimerosal defenders keep pointing to one of the studies that allegedly shows a big increase in autistic children in Denmark after that country disallowed use of the substance in its vaccines. Wouldn't that show conclusively that thimerosal is not to blame for autism increases?
One would think so, until one learns from Kennedy that Denmark -- before banning thimerosal -- was used to registering in its studies only autistics who were hospitalized. That number represented only 20 percent of those truly afflicted. After banning thimerosal, Denmark began also counting out-patient children who showed autistic symptoms, four-fifths of the total autistic population. Apples and oranges, not scientific parallels. Of course, it appeared like the numbers spiked following the ban. A whole new category was being counted. The clever CDC, of course, never mentions this.
No, you didn't. No, you fucking didn't. You didn't just accuse people of doing the exact same thing you're doing here, right in this selfsame article! It's important to bring this up, sure - but not if you're also lying and pretending that the changed diagnostic criteria don't exist, not if you're ignoring the fact that some states used to estimate the number of autistic children they had, and surprise, surprise found the numbers went up when the children were actually counted.
Well, I just repeated what everyone else has said, and no doubt got it all wrong anyway. I'm funny like that. But man, that pisses me off. Not that some "I've got a Pulitzer!" can write an editorial with... well, blatant distortions, or ignorance, in some hack of a paper, but that other people believe things like this and don't do any research one way or another.
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