most of us think of our own health but what about the kids (autism)

[yellow]

Nevermind that Dr Seneff is a computer scientist.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/...-new-bogeyman/

I'm not pro- or anti-anything because there is too much I don't know or understand. However, I do believe in real science.

http://www.compoundchem.com/wp-conte...ad-Science.pdf

[Eden]

sigh…

and let us not forget that in 1975 autism was only the diagnosis in the most profound and defined cases, while these days many things that would have been labeled with other names are now all called "autism spectrum disorder" so it is specious to even begin your argument that diagnosis are up at a rate that is out of control and growing with really, really thoroughly examining what we call autism and how it's diagnosed today as compared to earlier years. In fact… even to this day autism is a diagnosis that can *only* be made through observation of behavior - there is no blood test for it, no radiological exam that can prove or disprove it. If a biomarker of some type is ever discovered, we may find that what we call autism today is a group of disorders with similar behaviors or we may find that even more people have it on a broad spectrum of mild to severe - but at this point no one knows.

[Crankin]

As a person who actually deals with autism in the professional world, I say be very careful what you believe. We now have a whole generation of kids who are getting whooping cough because someone didn't vaccinate his/her kid. Truth is, there are a lot of neuroscientists and cognitive specialists trying to figure out what causes autism spectrum disorders. While we've come a long way from blaming a "cold mother" for ASD, we still don't know the answers. ASD has always been around, as have depression, PTSD, and ADHD. Back in the day, we just threw those people out of school, families kept them at home, or they ended up in state institutions. And we didn't talk about it, either. I am not advocating a return to that, just pointing out that numbers are skewed when looking at prevalence of mental health or brain disorders. We simply didn't acknowledge them, even when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s.

[Eden]

We have had a resurgence and some outbreaks of pertussis and measles here, especially in certain communities because of vaccine dissenters and geography.

[salsabike]

Those are two really good references, yellow. Thanks.

[smilingcat]

hmm went to her web site with links to refereed papers... It's not in New England Journal of Medicine, not in Science, not in ... I surely would not call entropy a research and peer reviewed publication. And Journal of Toxicology is kind of iffy if you ask me. And the places where she has given a talk isn't at a research conference where the papers were reviewed crtically.

maybe I've been hood winked somewhat.

But I think its worth talking about it. I think Eden is right, we recognized only the most extreme form of Autism in the past. And what if we use the same metric as today, would the number have gone up, stayed the same?? I don't know.

We also need to look at the benefit against the harm it may cause. In case of vaccination, it seems it does more good than bad. Its just that people forget how bad things were before anti-biotics. Go to a street in India, and if someone is coughing up a storm, everyone will steer clear of him by 100 feet or more, less they get TB.

[Jolt]

We also need to look at the benefit against the harm it may cause. In case of vaccination, it seems it does more good than bad. Its just that people forget how bad things were before anti-biotics. Go to a street in India, and if someone is coughing up a storm, everyone will steer clear of him by 100 feet or more, less they get TB.

Well said...the benefits (not getting all these diseases) outweigh the small risk of having an adverse reaction to the vaccines. As for autism, I am no expert on the subject but I do think, like others, that part of what we are seeing is that it is diagnosed/acknowledged more now. And, if it really is becoming more prevalent, maybe there is something in the environment that is contributing to that--but vaccines aren't it.