The recent article in the NEJM has the results of a carefully researched genomic analysis that included scientists from several institutes. The study was elegant -- comparing families and children with autism spectrum disorder (all independently adjudicated) with controls that did not along with those that had a bipolar diagnosis and therefore shared a genetic duplication and deletion on Chromosome 16p11.2 The analysis was run a three platforms and cross referenced to assure inter-reliabiity of results The consortium found that "a region of chromosome 16p11.2 influences susceptibility to autism when it is either deleted or duplicated" in about 1 percent of all cases. This adds to the growing body of knowledge that autism has multiple genetic sources
But that won't stop the fanatics and their propagandists like David Kirby who claim that it is something else, even if it isn't thimerasol, just as long as it is something that corporations are pushing in a dark conspiracy with the government:
"All that said, thimerosal may well not be a factor in a single case of autism. But what if one day, we discovered it had caused, say, one percent of all cases? With estimates of autism as high as 1.5 million in the country, that would mean 15,000 Americans who were ravaged by thimerosal (not to mention everyone overseas).
But if thimerosal is vindicated, or shown to be a very minor player, then what about other vaccine ingredients? And what about the rather crowded vaccine schedule we now impose upon families of young children? And what about reports of unvaccinated children in Illinois, California and Oregon who appear to have significantly lower rates of autism? Shouldn't we throw some research dollars into studying them?
You can answer that, no, we shouldn't, because the vaccine-autism debate is over.
But I am willing to wager that it has only just begun."
I hear the black choppers whirling overhead.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa075974
But that won't stop the fanatics and their propagandists like David Kirby who claim that it is something else, even if it isn't thimerasol, just as long as it is something that corporations are pushing in a dark conspiracy with the government:
"All that said, thimerosal may well not be a factor in a single case of autism. But what if one day, we discovered it had caused, say, one percent of all cases? With estimates of autism as high as 1.5 million in the country, that would mean 15,000 Americans who were ravaged by thimerosal (not to mention everyone overseas).
But if thimerosal is vindicated, or shown to be a very minor player, then what about other vaccine ingredients? And what about the rather crowded vaccine schedule we now impose upon families of young children? And what about reports of unvaccinated children in Illinois, California and Oregon who appear to have significantly lower rates of autism? Shouldn't we throw some research dollars into studying them?
You can answer that, no, we shouldn't, because the vaccine-autism debate is over.
But I am willing to wager that it has only just begun."
I hear the black choppers whirling overhead.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa075974
