{"id":199918,"date":"2007-06-18T22:02:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-19T03:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2007\/06\/18\/autism-debate-strains-a-family-and-its-charity\/"},"modified":"2007-06-18T22:02:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-19T03:02:00","slug":"autism-debate-strains-a-family-and-its-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2007\/06\/18\/autism-debate-strains-a-family-and-its-charity\/","title":{"rendered":"Autism Debate Strains a Family and Its Charity"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a personal stake in this, my son, Charlie has Aspergers, which is either mild Autism, or a condition on the Autism spectrum with is less severe.<\/p>\n

Let me be clear. I do not rule out that there may be environmental factors, but there is no connection it inoculations.<\/p>\n

When Thimerisol was dropped, there was no change in the increase of Autism cases, there have been multiple mechanisms, and they have All<\/span><\/span> been debunked.<\/p>\n

The doctor who made the original claim has been so dishonest that he has had his ticket pulled at the hospital he was working at.<\/p>\n

The connection to vaccinations is bullsh$#. Period, full stop.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, by allowing junk science to pollute public health debates, it has created a vast reservoir of the unvaccinated, who serve to undermine herd immunity, leading to epidemics in some areas.<\/p>\n

These people are endangering not only their children, but the communities in which they live.<\/p>\n

BTW, in Charlie’s case, my wife, a trained special ed professional saw signs of something on the Autism spectrum about ONE WEEK<\/span> after he was born.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Autism Debate Strains a Family and Its Charity <\/a><\/span>
By JANE GROSS and STEPHANIE STROM
Published: June 18, 2007<\/p>\n

A year after their grandson Christian received a diagnosis of autism in 2004, Bob Wright, then chairman of NBC\/Universal, and his wife, Suzanne, founded Autism Speaks, a mega-charity dedicated to curing the dreaded neurological disorder that affects one of every 150 children in America today.<\/p>\n

The Wrights\u2019 venture was also an effort to end the internecine warfare in the world of autism \u2014 where some are convinced that the disorder is genetic and best treated with intensive therapy, and others blame preservatives in vaccinations and swear by supplements and diet to cleanse the body of heavy metals.<\/p>\n

With its high-powered board, world-class scientific advisers and celebrity fund-raisers like Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Simon, the charity was a powerful voice, especially in Washington. It also made strides toward its goal of unity by merging with three existing autism organizations and raising millions of dollars for research into all potential causes and treatments. The Wrights call it the \u201cbig tent\u201d approach.<\/p>\n

But now the fissures in the autism community have made their way into the Wright family, where father and daughter are not speaking after a public battle over themes familiar to thousands of families with autistic children.<\/p>\n

The Wrights\u2019 daughter, Katie, the mother of Christian, says her parents have not given enough support to the people who believe, as she does, that the environment \u2014 specifically a synthetic mercury preservative in vaccines \u2014 is to blame. No major scientific studies have linked pediatric vaccination and autism, but many parents and their advocates persist, and a federal \u201cvaccine court\u201d is now reviewing nearly 4,000 such claims.<\/p>\n

…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a personal stake in this, my son, Charlie has Aspergers, which is either mild Autism, or a condition on the Autism spectrum with is less severe. Let me be clear. I do not rule out that there may be environmental factors, but there is no connection it inoculations. When Thimerisol was dropped, there …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1074,1197],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical","category-special-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}