Congressional Hearing on the Federal Response to Autism on C-Span

[Mirzam]

I watched this yesterday and it was fascinating. The committee members were talking about an epidemic of autism and vaccinations in the same sentance, questioning the number of vaccines given to babies. Dr Colleen Boyle from the CDC and Dr Guttenmacher from the NIH, looked like a pair of shifty used car salesmen trying to sell of a lemon. 

Here is an account from someone who attended the meeting, and includes a link to a video recording of the hearing:

http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/great-what-now/

[Mosaic]

Thanks, Mirzam. I'll definitely make time to watch this!!

[Mirzam]

Adding AoA's report:

http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/11/landmark-autism-hearing-held-in-dc-yesterday.html

This was one of the highlights for me, the congressman called Poul Thorsen a 'scum bag'!

It didn't help that the CDC's Coleen Boyle testified under oath that fraudster Poul Thorsen had only been involved in a couple of studies with the CDC. Shortly thereafter, a congressman introduced into evidence a list of more than 20 he had worked on. I feel like calling the CDC and asking: "Has Ms. Boyle retained counsel in anticipation of a possible perjury charge?"

[Mirzam]

Canary Party's report on the meeting:

Congress slams NIH, CDC reps for evading vaccine/autism evidence

Quote:

"Does autism in history predate vaccines?” asked Rep. Darryl Issa (R-Calif.), chair of the U.S. House of Representatives House Oversight & Government Reform Committee. Yes, according to agencies administering the shots; no, according to legislators, physicians and parents filling in the gallery, who reported that their children regressed after receiving vaccinations.

Quote:

Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Penn.) asked Boyle if she had ever seen a statistical trend with such an accelerating pace in a 6-year period; she said, “The only one that showed an increase was hyperactivity attention deficit disorder.

[WildKingdom]

And, God knows, the US congress always gets it right on medical issues.

Right, Congressman Aiken?  

[BeckyBird]

Originally Posted by WildKingdom 

Right, Congressman Aiken?  

I guess this means that all Congressmen are bad then. When one messes up, that means you can't trust any of them. Like doctors, right?

[chickabiddy]

"Does autism in history predate vaccines?” asked Rep. Darryl Issa (R-Calif.), chair of the U.S. House of Representatives House Oversight & Government Reform Committee. Yes, according to agencies administering the shots; [b]no, according to legislators, physicians and parents filling in the gallery, who reported that their children regressed after receiving vaccinations[/b].

It is a matter of fact that autism in history predates vaccines.  I have posted sources on this before.  If there is any question I can dig them up again later tonight.

[WildKingdom]

oo

Originally Posted by BeckyBird 

I guess this means that all Congressmen are bad then. When one messes up, that means you can't trust any of them. Like doctors, right?

My point is, I can't understand why anyone would look to congress for medical facts. And no, I don't think you can trust any of them on medical facts (unless you're talking about one of the two or three doctors in congress).

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by chickabiddy 

"Does autism in history predate vaccines?” asked Rep. Darryl Issa (R-Calif.), chair of the U.S. House of Representatives House Oversight & Government Reform Committee. Yes, according to agencies administering the shots; [b]no, according to legislators, physicians and parents filling in the gallery, who reported that their children regressed after receiving vaccinations[/b].

It is a matter of fact that autism in history predates vaccines.  I have posted sources on this before.  If there is any question I can dig them up again later tonight.

The problem was the good doctors from the NIH and CDC were not able to produce proof, because none existed. That just stated an opinion. Pure speculation. Mark Blaxhil on the other hand did provide evidence to the contary.

[chickabiddy]

The word "autism" was created in 1908.  If autism did not exist in 1908, there would have been no need to name it.

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by WildKingdom 

oo

Originally Posted by BeckyBird 

I guess this means that all Congressmen are bad then. When one messes up, that means you can't trust any of them. Like doctors, right?

My point is, I can't understand why anyone would look to congress for medical facts. And no, I don't think you can trust any of them on medical facts (unless you're talking about one of the two or three doctors in congress).

No one was looking to Congress for medical facts, they were looking to Congress for help with the Autism epidemic. The Congressmen/women were genuinely concerned. 

I agree with this quote from AoA:

Quote:

As a general proposition, it is fair to say that the people responsible for running the country do not like hearing that we have double any other nation's vaccine schedule, with a miserable infant mortality rate and an autism epidemic to show for it.

From the Canary Party article:

Quote:

Rep. Carol Maloney (D-N.Y.) asked Boyle why the autism rate went from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 88 in such a short time, adding, “I don’t want to hear that we have better detection. Take better detection off the table. I agree that we have better detection. What are the factors besides better detection?” Boyle promptly replied, “Just to put it in context, better detection is accountable for some of it.” Rep. Maloney proposed spacing out vaccines, and emphasized the importance of listening to parents. “There is too much verbal evidence coming from parents... I had a normal child, I gave him a vaccination, and then they came down with autism,” she said.  

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by chickabiddy 

The word "autism" was created in 1908.  If autism did not exist in 1908, there would have been no need to name it.

And the "autism" they created in 1908 is the same as autism as defined by the DSM IV?

[Taximom5]

Originally Posted by chickabiddy 

The word "autism" was created in 1908.  If autism did not exist in 1908, there would have been no need to name it.

I must correct you here.  From everything I can find, although the word "autism" was coined in 1910 (don't know where you got 1908); it was used at that point to refer to an aspect of schizophrenia, and has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with today's definition of autism.

Mark Blaxill and Dan Olmstead cowrote an excellent book about the history of autism, The Age of Autism--Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-Made Epidemic  http://www.amazon.com/Age-Autism-Medicine-Man-Made-Epidemic/dp/B0055X6B9G, in which they follow the backgrounds of the parents of the first autistic children studied by Kanner--and they found plausible explanations of unusual mercury exposure for those children.

from Wikipedia:

The New Latin word autismus (English translation autism) was coined by the Swisspsychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1910 as he was defining symptoms of schizophrenia. He derived it from the Greek word autós (αὐτός, meaning self), and used it to mean morbid self-admiration, referring to "autistic withdrawal of the patient to his fantasies, against which any influence from outside becomes an intolerable disturbance".^[175]

The word autism first took its modern sense in 1938 when Hans Asperger of the Vienna University Hospital adopted Bleuler's terminology autistic psychopaths in a lecture in German about child psychology.^[176] Asperger was investigating an ASD now known asAsperger syndrome, though for various reasons it was not widely recognized as a separate diagnosis until 1981.

[Taximom5]

Here is C-Span's coverage of the hearing:  http://www.c-span.org/Events/Lawmakers-Look-into-Federal-Response-to-Rising-Rates-of-Autism/10737436113-1/

Absolutely shocking to see somebody like Coleen Boyle serving as Director of the National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.  It looks like she has done absolutely NOTHING to help those affected by developmental disabilities.  In the hearing, it looked like all she was trying to do was to squirm out of directly answering questions, or else squirm out of answering them truthfully.

Here is Age of Autism's commentary on her from 2010: http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/11/cdcs-dr-coleen-boyle-suggested-manipulating-autism-dx-age-in-2000.html

[chickabiddy]

I have several sources that cite 1908, but I am not going to bicker over two years, since the point is that it predates vaccines.  Even the 1938 date you pulled from Wikipedia predates the MMR commonly cited as a cause of autism.

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by Taximom5 

Here is C-Span's coverage of the hearing:  http://www.c-span.org/Events/Lawmakers-Look-into-Federal-Response-to-Rising-Rates-of-Autism/10737436113-1/

Absolutely shocking to see somebody like Coleen Boyle serving as Director of the National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.  It looks like she has done absolutely NOTHING to help those affected by developmental disabilities.  In the hearing, it looked like all she was trying to do was to squirm out of directly answering questions, or else squirm out of answering them truthfully.

Here is Age of Autism's commentary on her from 2010: http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/11/cdcs-dr-coleen-boyle-suggested-manipulating-autism-dx-age-in-2000.html

It was shocking wasn't it? Hardly inspires confidence in the CDC. 

[MamaMunchkin]

This is - big.  I'm glad there were - both - Democrats and Republicans asking questions.  The last thing needed in the vax debate would be political partisanship. 

Hope it'll pave the way to more studies and discussions ... assuming the words spread ...  A quick check on news.google ... as of now (Sat 12/1), no major news outlet has picked it up yet.  Hope it'll be on the radar sooner rather than later ...

Edited by MamaMunchkin - 12/1/12 at 7:41am

[Taximom5]

Originally Posted by chickabiddy 

I have several sources that cite 1908, but I am not going to bicker over two years, since the point is that it predates vaccines.  Even the 1938 date you pulled from Wikipedia predates the MMR commonly cited as a cause of autism.

Looks like you missed what Wikipedia actually said about the use of the word "autism" in 1910:

"The New Latin word autismus (English translation autism) was coined by the Swisspsychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1910 as he was defining symptoms of schizophrenia. He derived it from the Greek word autós (αὐτός, meaning self), and used it to mean morbid self-admiration, referring to "autistic withdrawal of the patient to his fantasies, against which any influence from outside becomes an intolerable disturbance".^[175]

The word autism first took its modern sense in 1938 when Hans Asperger of the Vienna University Hospital adopted Bleuler's terminology autistic psychopaths in a lecture in German about child psychology.^[176] Asperger was investigating an ASD now known asAsperger syndrome, though for various reasons it was not widely recognized as a separate diagnosis until 1981."

You can keep insisting that the existence of the word (even if it originally meant something else) in 1910 (or 1908, if you prefer) proves that autistic people (as we understand autism today) were prevalent then, and that people used the word to describe them thus.  But unless you provide a source, there is no reason to believe you, especially since  there is evidence to the contrary.

And certainly nobody is denying that cases of mercury poisoning, which cause symptoms overlapping those of autism, happened in 1908 and earlier.  Perhaps you should familiarize yourself with acrodynia and "Mad Hatter's Disease."

[Jennyanydots]

Just spent the evening watching the hearing with my kids. I'm amazed and encouraged to see these issues being taken seriously and talked about frankly. What next? I'm afraid to be even cautiously optimistic...

[chickabiddy]

Taximom, I'm using YOUR source so we don't bicker about sources.  Whether you use 1908, 1910, or 1938, autism pre-dates the current vaccines.