The autism epidemic cometh

[geni]

It is a shame that research dollars can be wasted by quack claims that put parents in a flurry. Chelation will not address real causes of autism, and it is dangerous.

However the cost compared to real research is pretty low.

Too bad those dollars can't be spent on helping autistic persons to hear better and process information to help them in the long run. The media is no help, because quacks go to media and make a hype over their unfounded ideas. Real research is done over time and only goes to the public domain in trickles, since researchers have nothing to gain by flirting with the media the way quacks do.

I've seen quite a spectrum of researches trying to do science by press release.

However, researchers need to realize the consequences of not utilizing the media to get the real messages across to the public who are now influencing what research now gets the most attention.

Researchers are not PR people. In adition "we think we've made some slight progress" is not going to be able to compete with "Death drug killed my sister and lowered house prices". Of course various pharmaceutical companies do have PR departments that do their best but well how much do you trust them?


Consider NASA they are exploreing mars are produceing nice photos and have real PR people. Tend not to get tabloid front pages and even with broadsheets only get onto the front page if they manage to time a new pretty picture on a slow news day and that is where you have easy to understand science that has historicaly managed to capture the public imagination. The public tends to be less interested in brain devlopment pathways.

 

[Eos of the Eons]

In adition "we think we've made some slight progress" is not going to be able to compete with "Death drug killed my sister and lowered house prices".

NOt only that, but mix in all the lies about science not making ANY progress on the cause of autism, and you have the public believing that vaccines are the only possible cause (even though autism rates still go up when vaccination uptake decreases).

Then the media omits information to highlight other information, like in the
Hannah Poling case. She would have been more injured by the actual disease, but since the vaccine did what the disease would have done her, then the media downplays the actual cause-which was the disorder she had to begin with. If she didn't have the mitochondrial disorder, then the vaccine nor the disease would have been such a threat.

So, the public is miseducated in so many ways by idiot journalists. We have generations of people who will have no clue what to really think of all this, and outraged at the wrong people. Fun.

 

[dustbunny]

Most of the real scientists and doctors already know this stuff (like DeeTee). The only ones who are pushing the "MMR causes autism" are usually those who are trying to make a buck off of scaremongering. Check out The Great Autism Rip-Off (it is actually a Daily Mail article!).

Here is a comparison of some of the studies that have been done:
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p4026.pdf

Thanks. From a parents point of view you really do get sick and tired of the scaremongering. While ever we have those who are reaping in the benefits for their "MMR causes autism" theory the true cause of autism gets lost amidst the feuding over it. We're grateful for any helpful information but not for scaremongering.