Longer term readers will remember Robert F. Kennedy Junior’s rather absurd articles in Salon about how autism is caused by mercury in vaccines and the CDC etc is covering it all up. In June 2005 I covered RFK’s manipulation of the facts and quote mining, as well as a more detailed review of his quote-mining of the Institute of Medicine report. Many others blogged about it too. I wondered aloud if Kennedy really believed the nonsense he was spouting, or if he just hadn’t read the reports he was writing about.
Reader Kim just sent me this link to the Going All the Way blog where blog owner Gabolicious described how she was present recently at a talk given by RFK. And it seems RFK is still spouting the same old nonsense, judging by this response to a question from the mother of an autistic child:
[RFK’s] response was a good ten-minute rant about how our vaccines are making kids autistic because of the mercury in them, how American pharmaceutical companies introduced autism to China because of the vaccines they sent over, how more and more kids are being diagnosed with autism every year because there is so much mercury everywhere, that the Amish don’t have autistic kids because they don’t vaccinate their babies, the Christian Scientists and Scientologists don’t have autistic kids, either, for the same reasons…
Same old nonsense. (Incidentally, I also wrote in August 2005 how Kennedy was wrong about the Amish claim and his conclusions. Nothing has changed and Kennedy is still just as wrong about this as he was then.)
Later at the same meeting, Gabolicious got to meet RFK as he worked the room, and she asked him what he would say to a family who has just learned their child was autistic:
He said yes, chelation is a tough issue, you know, our bodies don’t produce as much of this hormone/ chemical anymore, and it is one of the big things we need to process and extract mercury…
As Gabolicious points out, this doesn’t even make sense. If autism has increased because of increased mercury in vaccines, then why is our supposed recent inability to produce as much of a hormone as before, even an issue?
Obviously I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the above report, but Gabolicious, as an apparent admirer of RFK in other areas, seems genuine in how she reports these events. So it seems that RFK probably really does believe the nonsense he spouts about autism. Although autism numbers are not falling, despite the removal of mercury from childhood vaccines, RFK is apparently still a true autism conspiracy believer. Ho hum.
Heh,
I missed RFK's suggestion about studying the Amish.
I grew up near an Amish community in PA. I don't know if it's autism or not, but children with mental development problems are actually pretty common.
Posted by: John Marley | February 18, 2007 at 01:52 PM
RFK can't even pull it over Gabolicious, some teenager who writes about her imaginary flirtation sessions with her TAs - bwahahaha!
If he teams up with David Kirby, together they could combine their powers of persuasion to convince some sorority ladies to drink a beer.
Posted by: Bartholomew Cubbins | February 19, 2007 at 09:47 PM
If he teams up with David Kirby, together they could combine their powers of persuasion to convince some sorority ladies to drink a beer.
There are a LOT of reasons why that would never happen.
Posted by: anonimouse | March 19, 2007 at 04:07 PM
As someone with Asperger's from a family of people with ASD I think there are some pretty simple explanations for the rise in the diagnosis of PDD.
Asperger's Syndrome was not internationally recognised until the early to mid 1990's. Hence it didn't come into general psychiatry as a diagnosis until that time and after - meaning that only the current generation (children) are being diagnosed. Worldwide, adults are generally being diagnosed as the children in their families are diagnosed or as they become aware of what Asperger's and PDD are and seek help. As we also know, the diagnostic criteria for other PDDs has widened.
Asperger's and HFA show a tendency to run in families (anecdotally because 3/4 of people with Asperger's or HFA marry someone else with Asperger's or with Asperger's like behaviours).
Many adults with Asperger's and HFA have come to terms with their condition without the help of diagnosis, medication or psychiatry and many of these adults will never be diagnosed or officially counted. And so the figures will continue to be skewed towards the current under 30's generation as these children are discovered during their school career.
As an Aspie and a parent and partner of Aspies, yes, I would love for there to be a simple explanation. It would be great to point to mercury and say that I can be confident that my grandchildren will never have Asperger's, HFA or another PDD. I can understand those folks who do. It's just unfortunate that all that devoted, loyal and stubborn parental energy is going to waste on a red herring. I don't know the entire cause of Asperger's or any other PDD, but we have to accept that we don't know exactally where it comes from. And we have to accept that it is probably far, far more complex than simply blaming one chemical, one source or one cause.
Posted by: Rosemary | March 25, 2007 at 08:55 PM
RFK Jr. recently gave a talk at Illinois State University. They have posted the audio of his talk and Q&A session online. During the Q&A a parent of an autistic child thanked RFK Jr. for his work and asked why parents of autistic kids have less political pull than pharmaceutical companies. RFK Jr. then went on at great length about thimerosal and autism. It sounds quite a bit like the monologue described above. The link to the Q&A session is:
http://www.ilstu.edu/home/anniversary/Q_and_A_FINAL.mp3
The part about autism is about 3 minutes into the audio.
Cheers
Posted by: W. Danvers | April 04, 2007 at 07:48 AM