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The Age of Autism: Pay no attention

By Dan Olmsted UPI Senior Editor - Mar. 2, 2006 at 2:07PM
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20060302-111157-7494r.htm

There's a Steely Dan album called Pretzel Logic that could be the theme song of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as it struggles with concerns over vaccines and autism.
      At least in our view, it is a bit twisted -- logically speaking -- to simultaneously spend taxpayer money to keep studying whether a mercury preservative causes autism, yet recommend that pregnant women and children get vaccines containing that preservative. Especially so when alternatives are available that are free of the preservative, called thimerosal.
      It is puzzling to urge, as the CDC did in 1999, that thimerosal ought to be phased out as soon as possible from all childhood vaccines used in the United States -- yet successfully fight efforts this year by state legislatures to codify a ban.
      It is peculiar to issue an "Autism Alarm," as the CDC did in 2004 -- then publish a 72-page annual report in 2005 that mentions the perils of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, cryptosporidiosis, leprosy and the four people "killed by rabies transmitted through transplanted organs or tissues in 2004," yet never use the word autism, not once. (Check it out at www.cdc.gov/cdc.pdf)
      Perhaps the oddest, though subtlest, anomaly is the seeming resistance by the CDC to the idea that the autism rate might be declining.
      Our last column reported a new study that suggests it could well be. The study's authors are firmly convinced a drop in autism cases in two separate government databases -- one run by the CDC, the other by the state of California -- proves thimerosal is the big culprit in autism. That's a step we're not ready to take, to the consternation of some in the anti-thimerosal movement.
      But wouldn't even tentative signs of a decrease, for whatever conceivable reason, be welcome and hopeful?
      Instead, the CDC seems keen to clobber any suggestion that autism might be declining. In Thursday's Boston-area Herald News Tribune, reporter Jon Brodkin quotes Dr. Robert Davis, director of the immunization safety group at the CDC, as saying: "I don't think this study can really be taken to provide any evidence one way or another."
      Davis also said one of the databases the study authors used -- the CDC's own Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System -- is unreliable because anyone can report any health problem as a possible vaccine side effect.
      Fair enough, but new cases in that database seem to be declining in tandem with new cases in California's special education system. And those California numbers are widely regarded as the most reliable count of full-syndrome, professionally diagnosed autism cases in the United States. P.S.: The most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Education also dropped.
      But so what, say the CDC and others who are on record (and, let's face it, on the line) backing thimerosal to the hilt and asserting there is no connection between vaccines and autism.
      "The Department of Education numbers are skewed, another official said, because the DOE did not make autism a separate diagnosis until the 1990s," Brodkin reported. "That led to an artificial increase because children who previously had different diagnoses were then considered autistic, said Dr. Marie McCormick, a Harvard professor who chaired an Institute of Medicine committee that dismissed any link between vaccines and autism."
      What's intriguing is how all this dovetails with comments made last summer by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, at a press conference in Washington set up to defend vaccine safety. Here is the question she was asked: "Can you address the ... California study that basically showed that there was an increase in autism in direct relation to the 1990s when the series of vaccines were increased, and now since thimerosal has been taken out there is a slight decrease in autistic cases?"
      Responded Gerberding:
      "The California study, as you know, is an ongoing study and they are addressing the estimates of autism prevalence on a quarterly basis, sort of like the stock market bounces around a little bit. The most recent reading from that study is in fact that the rates are increasing, they have not shown a decline."
      That's one way to look at it. Here's another, from reporter Thomas Maugh II in The Los Angeles Times on July 13: "The number of newly diagnosed cases of autism in California, which had been skyrocketing for more than a decade, has leveled off and may even be declining, according to new data compiled by the state Department of Developmental Services."
      Some parents who listened in on Gerberding's comments did not like comparing the autism rate to the stock market. But the bigger issue is the odd, official resistance to the idea that any autism rate anywhere in the United States might be going down, however slightly, however inconclusively, however briefly.
      So the VAERS data don't count, the California numbers are bouncing, the Department of Education stats are unreliable. Is any of this starting to sound like, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?" And do we all remember who said that?
      --
      E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

The Age of Autism: Less is beautiful

By DAN OLMSTED UPI Senior Editor

Whatever the reason, a big decline in autism diagnoses would be welcome news to anyone who cares about the nightmarish prevalence of the disorder.

The latest signal that something may be going on comes from the father-and-son research team of Dr. Mark R. Geier and David A. Geier. They report in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons that "significant decreasing trends in newly diagnosed NDs (neurodevelopmental disorders) were observed ... from mid-2002 through 2005" in two separate databases.

The first is kept by the California Department of Developmental Services and is widely regarded as the most accurate barometer of full-syndrome, professionally diagnosed cases of autism. Those qualifiers are important because autism spectrum disorders run the gamut from severe (full-syndrome) to milder (Asperger's disorder) to hard to define (the awfully named PDD-NOS, or pervasive developmental disorders, not otherwise specified).

So focusing on the full-syndrome cases -- the most easily identified and indisputable -- is a smart way to go.

The other database is the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System maintained by the federal government, to which health professionals, parents and anyone else can report what they believe are side effects of vaccines.

That's much less consistent and credible, of course, but the Geiers see the VAERS information as an informal confirmation of the California data --companion graphs printed side by side in the study show remarkably similar rise-and-falls in autism.

"The consistency of the effects observed for the spectrum of NDs, including autism and speech disorders, and the agreement between the observations from two separate databases, support the conclusion that the effect is real and not a chance observation. The magnitude of the change in the trend lines is substantial," the Geiers write.

The Geiers also cite another confirmation: "(P)rovisional data from the U.S. Department of Education show a recent decrease of 529 in the number of new autism diagnoses recorded among children 3 to 5 years old, after years of annual increases. There were 1,451 new cases in 2001-2002; 1,981 in 2002-2003; 3,707 in 2003-2004; and 3,178 in 2004-2005."

The Geiers attribute the rise and fall to the increasing use of the mercury preservative thimerosal in childhood vaccines in the 1990s, followed by the phase-out beginning in 1999. While federal health authorities and mainstream medical groups say concern about thimerosal is not founded on good science, the Geiers think the trends ought to prompt a fresh look at the theory.

The people I talk to who think the preservative may indeed have triggered the rise in autism don't know what to make of all these numbers. While the autism rate may be falling as indicated in these databases, they say it's far too soon to make conclusive claims.

Some, in fact, have told me they think it should be falling further, faster if thimerosal is really behind the autism epidemic. Others suspect the connection is already there to see in exactly those numbers.

Then there's the possible confounding effect of flu shots for children and pregnant women, most of which still contain thimerosal. A number of other vaccines retain "trace" amounts of thimerosal.

And despite the welcome trends in data cited by the Geier, some countervailing reports are troubling. For example, reporter Steven Carter wrote in The Oregonian just last week that "(c)hildren diagnosed with autism, a brain disorder that disrupts a child's communication and social skills, jumped from 5,070 in 2004 to 5,637 in December. Over five years, the number of autistic students rose by 67 percent."

I'm sure someone can reconcile that with figures suggesting autism is on its way down, but I can't.

"We wish we knew exactly what is going on," said an admirably tentative Dr. Bob Nickel, a developmental pediatrician who heads the Autism Training Network at Oregon Health & Science University. He told Carter environmental issues could be at work.

Certainly other neurotoxins -- mercury in fish, just to pick an example often cited -- could harm kids' development whether the mercury in vaccines was ever a problem or not. It doesn't take much imagination to connect fish from the Pacific with mercury-laced plumes wafting over from China with a long history of mercury mines in the northwest -- and voila, rising autism in Oregon.

That's rank speculation. But some areas of the country probably do create more autism than others -- "hotspots," as they're called.

All this should make people cautious, humble and, as the scientists always remind us, evidence-based.

Mark Blaxill, a director of the mercury-out-of-medicine group Safe Minds, told me a couple of years ago: "By the time kids born in 2001 turn 5, we'll have a pretty good picture of the thimerosal effect."

That's soon -- but not quite yet.

--

E-mail: consumer@upi.com

This story is heart warming and perhaps the most emailed to
TACA news in the six year history:

Autistic Teen's Hoop Dreams Come True

ROCHESTER , N.Y. , Feb. 23, 2006

Jason McElwain, who's autistic, lets a shot go, on the way to 20 points
in four minutes. (WROC/Rochester)

Quote
"This is the first moment Jason has ever succeeded (and could be) proud of himself. I look at autism as the Berlin Wall, and he cracked it."

Jason McElwain's mother, Debbie McElwain

(CBS)  It was the stuff of Hollywood, but it was real.

Senior Jason McElwain had been the manager of the varsity basketball team of Greece Athena High School in Rochester, N.Y.

McElwain, who's autistic, was added to the roster by coach Jim Johnson so he could be given a jersey and get to sit on the bench in the team's last game of the year.

Johnson hoped the situation would even enable him to get McElwain onto the floor a little playing time.

He got the chance, with Greece Athena up by double-digits with four minutes go to.

And, in his first action of the year, McElwain missed his first two shots, but then sank six three-pointers and another shot (video), for a total of 20 points in three minutes.

"My first shot was an air ball (missing the hoop), by a lot, then I missed a lay-up," McElwain recalls. "As the first shot went in, and then the second shot, as soon as that went in, I just started to catch fire."

"I've had a lot of thrills in coaching," Johnson says. "I've coached a lot of wonderful kids. But I've never experienced such a thrill."

The crowd went wild, and his teammates carried the excited McElwain off the court.

"I felt like a celebrity!" he beamed.

McElwain's mother sees it as a milestone for her son.

"This is the first moment Jason has ever succeeded (and could be) proud of himself," reflects Debbie McElwain. "I look at autism as the Berlin Wall, and he cracked it."

His teammates couldn't be happier.

"He's a cool kid," says guard Levar Goff. "You just get to know him, get used to being around him. A couple of weeks ago, he missed practice because he was sick. You feel different when he's not around. He brings humor and life to the team."

Jason's next goal: to graduate.

Watch it live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYPaNc57Ik&search=autistic%20basketball%20player

And the story continues:

Autistic basketball star Jason McElwain's 15 minutes of fame has gone into overtime. Steve Hartman has an update

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml

(Links don’t always work forever! This page changes as the days new comes and goes. Editors note: Why not give this guy the ball ALL THE TIME???! Why the last game?)

By Jon Brodkin
Thursday, March 2, 2006
http://www.dailynewstribune.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=70814&format=text

Autism diagnoses have dropped nationwide since mercury was removed from most childhood vaccines, according to a new study that some say lends credence to charges that vaccinations were responsible for a huge increase in autism cases.

    About 4,700 families -- including ones from Framingham and Waltham -- have pending claims in a federal vaccine court alleging that mercury in vaccines caused their children to develop autism.

    The allegations are controversial and viewed with skepticism by many government officials and medical professionals. But supporters of a vaccine-autism link say a new report in the peer reviewed Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons proves that the removal of mercury from vaccines has led to a decrease in autism cases.

    "This study is exactly the kind of thing people have been waiting for for three years now," said Richard Deth, a neuropharmacologist at Northeastern University who has testified in front of Congress on this issue. "It was recognized that this type of data would be (necessary) to see whether this theory had validity or not."

    The study by two researchers was criticized by a government vaccination official who said it drew conclusions from unreliable data.

    "I don’t think this study can really be taken to provide any evidence one way or another," said Dr. Robert Davis, director of the immunization safety group at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    But the study was warmly received by Jared Hansen, a Framingham resident with two autistic children who filed a claim in the federal vaccine court.

    "It’s certainly the data we’ve been expecting and waiting for. I’m glad to see it’s been published," Hansen said. "I believe it will swing some people who are sitting on the fence."

    Hansen’s claim is pending in front of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a no-fault system that pays financial settlements from a trust fund consisting of vaccine surcharges. The program is considering claims in one omnibus proceeding from Hansen and 4,700 other parents, including Mike Chmura of Waltham.

    Between 1988 and 1992, the federal government more than doubled the amount of mercury injected into babies by recommending additional vaccines that contain thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury.

    Since then, estimated autism prevalence soared from one out of 2,500 births to one in every 166. Federal officials say the increase is at least partly explained by changes in diagnostic guidelines, but some researchers believe mercury in vaccines is to blame.

    Thimerosal is still used in flu shots, but was eliminated from most other childhood vaccines by 2003.

    A father-son research team determined that new diagnoses of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders have dropped since then after analyzing data from the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, the U.S. Department of Education and the California Department of Developmental Services.

    Additional doses of mercury-containing vaccines were associated with a 2- to 8-fold increase in risk for neurodevelopmental disorders, they wrote in the latest issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

    "Significant decreasing trends in newly diagnosed (disorders) were observed ... from mid-2002 through 2005," wrote Dr. Mark Geier and son, David. Mark Geier is president of the Genetic Centers of America and his son is a graduate student in biochemistry at George Washington University.

    Their study was criticized by officials who said the data bases the Geiers analyzed are not reliable. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System can contain reports filed by anyone, including doctors, patients and lawyers, Davis said.

    The Department of Education numbers are skewed, another official said, because the DOE did not make autism a separate diagnosis until the 1990s. That led to an artificial increase because children who previously had different diagnoses were then considered autistic, said Dr. Marie McCormick, a Harvard professor who chaired an Institute of Medicine committee that dismissed any link between vaccines and autism.

(Jon Brodkin can be reached at 508-626-4424 or jbrodkin@cnc.com.)

The Study:

“Early Downward Trends in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines”

http://www.jpands.org/vol11no1/geier.pdf

---------------------------------

Study Shows Decline in Neurodevelopmental Disorders After Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines

Two Unrelated Government Databases Show Same Downward Trend in Autism Cases

A new study published today ( 3/1/06) shows that the rate of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) in children has decreased following removal of thimerosal, a preservative containing the neurotoxin mercury, from American childhood vaccines. The study, published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, a peer reviewed journal, by Dr. Mark Geier and David Geier examined two independent databases maintained by the government – one national and one state.

The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) database maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and the Californian Department of Developmental Services (CDDS) database each showed the same downward trend for the period from 2002 through 2005. According to the study “[t]he results indicate that the trends in newly diagnosed NDs correspond directly with the expansion and subsequent contraction of the cumulative mercury dose to which children were exposed from [thimerosal-containing vaccines] through the U.S. immunization schedule.”

The study examined the trend for cases of autism during the period beginning 1994 and ending 2002 compared with the period from 2002 to June, 2005. The trends for increases and decreases of cases of autism found in the VAERS national database were consistent with the trends found in the CDDC California database. Most significantly, in each database the increasing and decreasing trends correlate with the time that the exposure to thimerosal through the immunization schedule was increased and then decreased after removal of mercury containing vaccines. “The consistency of the effects observed for the spectrum of NDs, including autism and speech disorders, and the agreement between the observations from two separate databases, support the conclusion that the effect is real and not a chance observation.” The study found that the magnitude of the change in the decreasing trend of cases was significant after removal of mercury from vaccines. Data from the U.S.

Department of Education, a

third database, showed a recent decrease of autism diagnoses that is consistent with the findings in the two databases.

The authors show that the biological plausibility of their statistical findings is supported by recent toxicological and molecular studies that reveal the mechanism by which mercury from vaccines can cause damage to the developing brains of children. A recent study by researchers at the University of Washington has shown that ethylmercury from thimerosal in vaccines can cross from the bloodstream into the brain in toxic amounts which can remain in brain tissue for many years. This finding contradicted the untested view about the toxicity of ethylmercury in vaccines that prevailed in public health for 75 years. Other researchers have shown that minute concentrations of mercury, far lower than previously believed and far less than other toxins such as lead, can destroy neurons and damage DNA within hours of exposure. Such low levels of mercury, which likely are reached in infant brains via vaccine thimerosal exposure, can disrupt cell signaling and metabolic pathways necessary for normal brain development. Studies in mice, rabbits, monkeys, rats and other animals support these findings.

Further studies in children have found evidence of mercury toxicity, metabolic disruption and oxidative stress that is consistent with the author’s statistical findings that thimerosal in vaccines causes autism and developmental disorders.

The authors point out that their finding that the VAERS and CDDS databases show strong associations between thimerosal containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders completely contradicts the

2004 findings contained in a report published by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences – which was based on data controlled exclusively by the Center for Disease Control’s National Immunization Program and unavailable to outside researchers. In arguing that their study’s findings justify additional research the authors point out that the handling of vaccine safety data by the Centers for Disease Control has been called into serious question in a 2005 report published by the Institute of Medicine.

You can view and download a PDF file containing the new study, “Early Downward Trends in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines” by clicking here.

http://www.jpands.org/vol11no1/geier.pdf

It is being published today in Volume 11, Number 1, Spring 2006 of the peer-reviewed Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

National Autism Association Calls for Senate Investigation of CDC Malfeasance in Extending Use of Mercury in Kids’ Vaccines

Nixa , MO - The National Autism Association (NAA) today joined other advocacy organizations in calling for Senate investigations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding its failure to remove thimerosal (mercury) from pediatric vaccines when given the opportunity in 1999.  This comes following a study released this week showing reduced autism diagnoses coincide with the reduction of mercury-containing vaccines given to children.

The study, conducted by Mark Geier, M.D. and David Geier and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, shows reduced autism rates since the removal of mercury from most childhood vaccines.  These findings bolster voluminous studies and data confirming that increased use of mercury-containing vaccines in the 1980’s and 1990’s led to an epidemic of neurological disorders among American children.

In July of 1999, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a joint statement advising mercury be removed from childhood vaccines “as soon as possible.” Newly uncovered documents reveal that just weeks after the PHS/AAP recommendation, vaccine maker Smith Kline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) wrote to the CDC suggesting a significant reduction of mercury exposure to children through use of the thimerosal-free DTaP vaccine, Infanrix, which could meet the U.S. demand at least until mid-2000. The CDC’s refusal to accept this offer has left many in the autism community outraged.

“Hundreds of thousands of children were denied access to thimerosal-free shots because of the CDC’s inexplicable decision to leave the mercury in,” stated NAA President Wendy Fournier. “This dereliction of responsibility to our children’s health is unacceptable. Congress must ensure this agency is held accountable for its role in the autism epidemic.”

Joining the call for Senate hearings regarding CDC’s handling of the issue, environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. stated in an article this week, “It's time for the CDC to come clean with the American public. Its tactics of deception and obfuscation are jeopardizing the credibility of the entire vaccine program, and therefore posing an enormous danger to public health.”

For more information, go to www.nationalautism.org

Evidence is mounting that vaccinations may have played a part in the skyrocketing autism rate
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=oid:79267

PUBLISHED ON MARCH 2, 2006:
By RENÉE DOWNING

What is autism? What causes it? These are hot questions these days, in part because cognitive science keeps turning up new clues about the nature of a disease that's both incurable and deeply strange. The recent discovery of "mirror neurons," for example--brain cells that fire when we do a particular thing and also when we see someone else do it--promises to throw light on how we learn, and therefore, on the nature of autism.

The big news about autism, though, is that it seems to have become much more common during the last two decades.

The Pima County branch of the state Division of Developmental Disabilities addresses four disabilities: autism, mental retardation, cerebral palsy and epilepsy. In terms of the number of causes, autism used to be fourth. It's now third--and closing in on second.

This naturally raises questions about what could be causing so many apparently normal infant brains to go haywire after a year or two, and these are questions that young families are asking with some urgency. Nothing about autism, though, is clear or simple, and some experts even doubt that the apparent increase reflects anything more than improved diagnosis and reporting.

Researcher James Adams, professor of mechanical and chemical engineering at Arizona State University, is an expert on heavy-metal toxicity and the co-author of several studies on the biomedicine of autism. He's also the father of a 13-year-old autistic daughter, and he has strong private opinions on the subject--but he's careful to lay out the facts impartially.

"There is no doubt that the number of reported cases has dramatically increased, from three or four cases per 10,000 20 years ago to one in 166. And according to the best data we have, which is from California, where there's a fixed set of diagnostic criteria and a good reporting system, cases have increased every year that they've been counting--until last year, when there was a slight decrease," says Adams.

"That could be a statistical blip, but coming after an unbroken string of increases, it may be significant."

The numbers from California may provide an argument against increased awareness and reporting as the sole cause of the jump in autism cases: If the trend in California holds, that will seem to support the theory that increased vaccination, and specifically increased childhood inoculations with vaccines containing mercury, is at least partly responsible for the reported rise in autism and other neurological disorders (including ADD, ticking and hyperactivity) and in immune disorders in American children since 1989. The vaccination argument, which is waged with intense conviction on both sides, was made in some detail by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in an article jointly published last June in Rolling Stone and at Slate.com.

Suspicion about vaccination as a cause of autism probably began with the stories, including that of one family interviewed for this story, of children who developed immune-system problems and regressed into autism after an immunization made them sick. (The family in question asked not to be identified, because talking about their experience in the past has provoked hate mail and angry phone calls. Anger against immunization opponents seems to run as hot in the medical community as anti-vaccination feelings do among the parents of autistic children. As one observer at a recent national scientific meeting on autism observed, "We're in a sort of frenzied period right now.")

Then there's the coincidence of the timing of a jump in childhood immunizations and the onset of what some people call the autism epidemic. Autism has increased 15-fold in the U.S. since 1991. That was the year the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration recommended that three additional vaccines, all preserved with thimerosal, a known neurotoxin, be given to young babies. (One of these vaccinations is administered within 24 hours of birth.) In addition, the overall vaccination schedule doubled during roughly the same period. American preschoolers received 11 vaccinations each before 1989; in 1999, they received a total of 22.

Of course, many other things have changed during the last 17 years, but an appearance of concealment on the part of the CDC and FDA hasn't helped reassure parents. In 2001, after reviewing an immediately embargoed 2000 study by the CDC of a possible connection between thimerosal and autism, the FDA "urged" vaccine manufacturers to stop using thimerosal in childhood vaccines, and the mercury compound has been greatly reduced in or eliminated from most vaccines since then (but not in flu vaccines given to pregnant women and young children). Existing stocks of thimerosal-laden vaccines were used in this country through 2003, however. What remained was not destroyed, according to Kennedy, but was sold off for use in the Third World, where there have been scattered reports of "outbreaks" of autism.

Many people who believe that the increase in childhood vaccinations accounts for the increase in autism argue that the drop in reported cases in California is evidence for their position: Autism typically shows itself in the secon