September 2008 Archive
| Date: | 09-30-2008 |
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| Title: | Toddlers' Focus May Signal Autism Severity. |
| Author: | UPI |
| Publication: | UPI |
| Article: | NEW HAVEN, Conn., Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Two-year-olds with autism look significantly more at the mouths of others, and less at their eyes, than typically developing toddlers, U.S. researchers say.
Lead author Warren Jones and colleagues at the Yale School of Medicine Ami Klin and Katelin Carr used eye-tracking technology to quantify the visual fixations of 2-year-old children who watched caregivers approach them and engage in typical mother-child interactions, such as playing games like peek-a-boo. After the first few weeks of life, infants look in the eyes of others, setting processes of socialization in motion. In infancy and throughout life, the act of looking at the eyes of others is a window into people's feelings and thoughts, Jones said. The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found that the amount of time the autistic toddlers spent focused on the eyes predicted their level of social disability. The less they focused on the eyes, the more severely disabled they were. These results may offer a useful biomarker for quantifying the presence and severity of autism early in life and screen infants for autism, Jones said. "The findings offer hope that these novel methods will enable the detection of vulnerabilities for autism in infancy," Jones said in a statement. |
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| Date: | 09-30-2008 |
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| Title: | Citing Duplicative Efforts, Schwarzenegger Vetoes Autism Bill. |
| Author: | Arnold Schwarzenegger |
| Publication: | Letter |
| Article: | SB 1563 Would Have Required State Agencies Dealing with Health Insurance To Create Workgroup On Health Insurance Coverage for People With Autism Spectrum Disorders and Other Developmental Disabilities
By Marty D. Omoto Director/Organizer California Disability Community Action Network Just days after the end of the three month State budget stand-off, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed on Saturday (September 27) legislation that would have required two state agencies dealing with health care insurance to establish a workgroup to examine issues impacting health care insurance coverage for people with autism spectrum disorders, and also people with other developmental disabilities. The Governor, in vetoing the bill that is closely watched and supported by many disability advocacy groups, including a wide range of groups advocating for children and adults with autism and their families, said his veto message that the goals of SB 1563 could be accomplished "administratively", meaning that it is something that state agencies could do without legislation. The bill was one of 9 bills, plus one resolution, recommended by the California Legislative Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism that was created two years ago by legislation authored by outgoing Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (Democrat - Oakland). Governor's SB 1563 Veto Message To the Members of the California State Senate: I am returning Senate Bill 1563 without my signature. The provisions of this bill are currently being accomplished administratively through the Department of Managed Health Care. Therefore, this bill is unnecessary and duplicative of existing work. For this reason, I am unable to support this bill. Sincerely, Arnold Schwarzenegger Governor Has Hundreds Of Bills Remaining On His Desk Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, facing a State constitutional deadline of September 30th to sign or veto nearly 900 bills passed by the Legislature in August, has so far approved nearly 200 bills and vetoed close to 130 bills. Over 560 bills remain on the Governor's desk, including several significant bills that range from health care reform (SB 840, the health care reform single payer bill) to access compliance and enforcement (SB 1608) to durable medical equipment (SB 1198). Among bills he has approved include an important bill dealing with changes to Medi-Cal eligibility, as required by the 2005 federal "Deficit Reduction Act" (DRA), SB 483 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (Democrat - Santa Monica) The Governor however, citing the State's worsening financial situation, with a likely budget shortfall for next year that many feel will be at least $5 billion, has vetoed scores of bills. The California Disability Community Action Network, is a non-partisan link to thousands of Californians with developmental and other disabilities, people with traumatic brain injuries, the Blind, the Deaf, their families, community organizations and providers, direct care, homecare and other workers, and other advoc ates to provide information on state (and eventually federal), local public policy issues. Posted on September 28, 2008 |
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| Date: | 09-25-2008 |
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| Title: | Celebs, Stop Taking Poisonous Shots at Vaccines |
| Author: | By SALLY PIPES, CEO of the Pacific Research Institute |
| Publication: | Wednesday, September 24th 2008, 6:40 PM |
| Article: | Earlier this month, researchers at Columbia University concluded that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine doesn't raise a child's risk for autism. It was the most rigorous look at the issue to date. Since 1998, more than 20 scientific studies have reached the same conclusion.
With all that data, one might consider the matter settled. But many activists and celebrities - most notably comedian Jim Carrey and actress Jenny McCarthy - are continuing to perpetrate the myth linking autism and vaccination. In the process, they're endangering public health. McCarthy, for example, said in an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live" earlier this year, "parent after parent after parent says I vaccinated my baby, they got a fever and then they stopped speaking and then became autistic." In an article authored for CNN.com, McCarthy and Carrey wrote, "We believe autism is an environmental illness. Vaccines are not the only environmental trigger, but we do think they play a major role." Actress Holly Robinson Peete attributes her son's autism to the MMR vaccine, despite the evidence to the contrary. "My study is my kid," she said. "I took him to get his shot, and he was never the same after that." But the facts are clear - vaccination stands out as one of the most effective medical advances in human history. Using vaccines, we've been able to eradicate such diseases as smallpox, polio and measles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that vaccines save an estimated 33,000 lives a year. That hasn't stopped activists from latching onto a half-baked hypothesis that thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative sometimes present in trace amounts in vaccines, causes autism. These advocates claim that many children are diagnosed with autism right around the time they receive their measles-mumps-rubella shots. The contention is flawed for a number of reasons. First, the so-called thimerosal hypothesis has been debunked over and over again, in numerous studies addressing the problem from a variety of experimental angles. Second, thimerosal is not even present in the vast majority of vaccines anymore. Public health officials and manufacturers agreed in 2001 to eliminate thimerosal from virtually all vaccines as a precaution. Even so, the number of autism cases diagnosed has increased steadily. If thimerosal were linked to the disorder, autism rates would be going down, not up. Denmark's statistics on autism provide even more compelling evidence. Authorities there eliminated thimerosal from vaccines back in 1992, and yet autism rates among Danes continue to rise faster than they did prior to 1992, according to Drs. Benjamin Kruskal and Carole Allen of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates. It's far more likely that autism rates are going up because health professionals have expanded the definition of what it means to be autistic. Increased awareness of autism has led to the diagnosis of cases that might have previously gone undetected or unreported. Meanwhile, the hubbub over the supposed thimerosal-autism connection has led many confused parents to keep their kids from being inoculated. Such action poses an enormous threat to the health of both their children and the public at large. For example, before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, between three and four million people were stricken with the disease annually. Between 400 and 500 of those afflicted died each year. Today, we're seeing similar effects as a result of fewer vaccinations. In the first seven months of this year, 131 cases of measles were reported, according to the CDC. That's the highest total in over a decade. Ninety-five of those 131 cases were in children who were eligible for vaccination but did not receive a shot. In Britain, where the bogus link between vaccines and autism first gained popularity, decreased immunization rates have led to measles epidemics that have killed several kids, according to Dr. Gary Freed, director of general pediatrics at the University of Michigan. Autism exerts a heart-wrenching toll on the families affected by it. But that doesn't excuse the campaign of misinformation advanced by celebrities and prominent activists against vaccines. "The bottom line is that vaccines prevent life-threatening and life-risking diseases," says Dr. Julia McMillan of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Parents should ignore the junk science peddled by anti-vaccine activists and make sure that their kids are inoculated. Pipes is president & CEO of the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book, "The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care," will be released this fall. (2008) |
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| Date: | 09-22-2008 |
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| Title: | Study Indicates MMR Vaccine May Not Be Linked to Autism. |
| Author: | ABC World News |
| Publication: | ABC World News |
| Article: | ABC World News (9/3, story 9, 2:00, Gibson) reported that new research "offers the most powerful evidence yet that there is no link between autism and the MMR vaccine, given to millions of children to protect them against measles, mumps, and rubella," according to a study published online in the journal PLoS ONE.
The Washington Post (9/4, A2, Vedantam) reports that these "findings contradict earlier research that had fueled fears of a possible link between childhood vaccinations and a steep increase in autism diagnoses." Ten years ago, The Lancet "published a study by British researcher Andrew Wakefield of 12 children with autism and other behavioral problems that suggested the onset of their behavioral abnormalities was linked to receiving the MMR...vaccine." The Post notes that "the new study comes as the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington is in the midst of evaluating evidence on whether children’s vaccines are implicated in causing autism. A special master is evaluating three different kinds of claims -- two of which specifically link the MMR vaccine with autism." This study "is the latest of more than 20...that have dismissed a link between the vaccine and autism, and is aimed at reassuring parents of the benefits of vaccinating against childhood diseases," Bloomberg (9/4, Lopatto) adds. The 1998 study published in The Lancet "touched off a wave of anxiety among parents, including many who refused to inoculate their children, leading to an increase in U.S. measles cases this year." Ian Lipkin, M.D., of Columbia University ’s Mailman School of Public Health, and colleagues, pointed out that this study is the first "to rigorously examine MMR vaccination and autism." The researchers also noted that "the scientific community had not addressed" this "issue with definitive research, and this study was undertaken to fill that specific void." New York’s Newsday (9/4, Ricks) explains that "the study was not designed to address other rumored theories of autism’s cause, such as thimerosal, the much-debated mercury-based preservative in some other vaccines," according to the authors. Instead, it "replicated a controversial analysis by British physician Andrew Wakefield." Dr. Wakefield’s theory "suggested measles viruses gravitate to the intestines where they persisted after vaccination, causing an inflammatory cascade that ultimately results in neurological damage and lifelong gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances." Therefore, during this study, the researchers "searched for traces of genetic material linked to the virus in intestinal tissue taken from 25 children with autism and gastrointestinal problems. They compared the samples to those from 13 children without autism, but with intestinal problems." The investigators "found slight traces of measles-vaccine virus in only two" children, AHN (9/3, Sharma) noted. In addition, "only five of the 25 kids with autism got their MMR vaccine before getting bowel disease and autism." WebMD (9/3, DeNoon), the Wall Street Journal’s (9/3, Rubenstein) Health Blog, and the AP (9/4, Neergaard) also covered the story. |
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