Posted on 12/08/2005 6:15:13 PM PST by agsloss
It's a far piece from the horse-and-buggies of Lancaster County, Pa., to the cars and freeways of Cook County, Ill. But thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in metropolitan Chicago have at least two things in common with thousands of Amish children in rural Lancaster: They have never been vaccinated. And they don't have autism. "We have a fairly large practice. We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children that we've taken care of over the years, and I don't think we have a single case of autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines," said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, Homefirst's medical director who founded the practice in 1973. Homefirst doctors have delivered more than 15,000 babies at home, and thousands of them have never been vaccinated....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I have an autistic grandson who is neither retarded or schizophrenic.
God has blessed him with unbelievable intellect. He is now 15 and doing unbelievably well. He didn't speak clearly until age 6 and it's been interesting watching his progress.
When he was little, it was as if there were two little boys rolled into one. The one little boy was advanced beyond his years intellectually but the other little boy was lagging in social development. Now the two little boys have pretty much converged but I suspect he may always have some social problems.
I really only care about the real truth regarding autism. Do I think vaccines are a problem? I don't know for sure but there are plenty of moms of austic children who swear there is and their instincts should be considered.
I think Aspergers more accurately describes my grandson but he was called "autistic" when little and seemed somewhat profound. The kid is a math genius but he's also good at all subjects. He recently was applauded by his classmates after he told them all the story of Romeo and Juliet. He has their respect. He's been elected two years in a row to the student council.
I'd love to see that, if you'd have the time. Thanks.
In many places, skipping vaccinations (or giving placebos) is forbidden by law. That's a fairly derious problem for conducting a study.
In the UK the core medical degree is MB ChB, the latin acronyms for Batchelor of Medicine and Surgery. Some also take a year out to complete an "intercalated" BSc (=BS).
Advanced specialist training and examination in surgery, gynae or whatever takes place under the auspices of the relevent Royal Collage, so most Brit doctors are not technically doctors at all in the academic sense unless they have also done a PhD which would likely happen only if their career was particularly research focussed.
By convention junior doctors, whatever the specialty, are referred to a "Doctor". You only get to be referred to as "Mister" when you are appointed consultant, which is the top of the clinical career track.
Ping.
He hates bugs. He was here one am when we had a small snow. I asked him if he liked snow. He thought a moment and then said, "Actually, I do, it gets rid of bugs." I cracked up.
I think everyone likes to be around him because of his intellect.
He walks on his tip toes which drives me crazy.
He does not seem to want to go too far from home.
Mr. CGG and I recently had our 50th wedding anniversary celebration but Adam was not there because at the same time there was a student council "convention" in another city and he was to go there to stay overnight. We thought it more important to spend the night away from home with peers. I understand he had a good time. We would have liked to have had him with us but this seemed more important in his life.
I cannot tell you the immense joy this boy is in our lives.
That is good news. Must have been a good idea to quit using it.
Thank you for the ping -
Are you trying to say that the use of mercury to "cure" syphilis could possibly have lead to cases of autism?
Perhaps. But I have yet to see any credible scientific study (even epidemilogical, which are the weakest type) that supports the Vaccination -> Autism connection. That is surprising as trial lawyers know there are billions of dollars to be made if such a connection is found and there is little doubt that such studies have been attempted in private by the trial lawyers. There's a reason their results are still private.
I always cite Love Canal as a caution. As far as any reputable statistician can tell, that was statistical noise that cost our society hundreds-of-millions of dollars.
This statement is just silly. There are entire industries built around taking action against the medical industry--trial lawyers, paralegals, expert witnesses, documents analysts. A large subset of them throughout the entire nation specializes in taking action only against the medical industry.
Thanks for the info. I think things are a little different over here in the colonies.
"even epidemilogical, which are the weakest type"
Would there be epidemological data if the cause were as random as that? An occasional unshaken bottle causing an occasional case?
There wouldn't even be clusters. Seems like that would be really hard to read from data.
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To follow up on Ladydoc's observations... as a special education teacher in my little corner of Virginia, I have seen this very thing happen. There are kids that are indeed autistic and these are the ones that are identified early on --around 18 months to 3 years. I do not work with early ed, so I will leave comment on that to others who do. But in upper elementary school and middle school I have seen about 20 times or so kids who are low to very low functioning, but not so low they are mentally retarded. These kids hav behaviors that range from bizarre to quirky to just flat, depending on the kid. They do not perform well in school, so eventually they come up to a special education referral. When we look at their WISC and WIAT scores nothing pops up as learning disabled but a savvy parent will hone in on the fact that the child's behavior does not mimic those around them. That opens the door to an educational autistic label--not medical--educational. The child then receives communication services or accommodations as a child with autism.
I've also seen this happen when the child shows signs of an emotional disturbance. It is easier for parents to accept an autistic diagnosis rather than emotional disturbance.
I dont have a comment over whether or not this is "right" or not. Many times the parents are desparate for help and this is the way to go. But in my opinion kids that are diagnosed autistic older present different needs than those diagnosed younger. And I think the younger a child is diagnosed with autism the more likely it is a true medical diagnosis, not a educational one.
No, I think the article states or implies that they many of them were homeschooled and that others got a religious exemption, although they were not apparently Amish.
I don't know what the department of education rules are around Chicago, but I suspect that if you tell the school that you have religious objections to having your child vaccinated, it may be like declaring that you are a conscientious objector when you are drafted. You would have to make a plausible case, but that shouldn't be too hard to do.
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