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autism causes
Autism Activists Defend Embattled Dr. Wakefield
By Dana Kennedy - AOL NewsDespite a new report that a 1998 study linking childhood vaccines to autism was based on "bogus data," many autism activists are standing by their man -- the disgraced doctor who led the research. Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor, and his colleagues scared parents worldwide and spurred an anti-vaccine backlash in a study that was an "elaborate fraud," a British medical journal reported Wednesday. Wakefield misrepresented or altered key findings about the 12 children who formed the basis of the case series, according to a piece written by a British investigative journalist in the ...
Journal: Study Linking Vaccine to Autism Was Fraud
By not in system - AOL NewsLONDON -- The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved, according to a new report on the widely discredited research. The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues was renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered. A new examination found, by comparing the reported diagnoses ...
Dr. Andrew Wakefield Falsified Study Linking Vaccines to Autism, Journal Says
By David Knowles - AOL NewsAn editorial in the British Medical Journal puts forth evidence that a now-discredited study linking autism and common childhood vaccines relied on falsified evidence to make its central claim. "Clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare," the editors of the journal wrote. Why would Dr. Andrew Wakefield make up findings to prove that getting vaccines to help prevent diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella can cause higher rates of autism? According to the journal's editors, the reason was simple: money. Wakefield is alleged to have ...
Our Year of Zombie Politics
By James Grady - Politics DailyWait: Even in politics, 2010 was the year of zombies? Sure, the hot new wonky tome "Zombie Economics" tells how "dead" economic theories walk among us to shape our paychecks, and sure, zombies lumber out of our TVs almost no matter what channel we click to, and sure, my fellow fantasy prose-slingers are flinging new novels about the undead at the dust of Stephen King and George Romero, but zombies as a metaphor for 2010's politics? Come on! What happened to vampires? Vampires are a great political metaphor! Bloodsuckers. Say no more. But zombies? Who are they in America's 2010 ...
Does Poverty Fend Off Autism?
By Katie Drummond - AOL News(Sept. 22) -- That children born to well-off homes are more vulnerable to autism has been a topic of curiosity and research among experts for decades. But a new study of around half a million American children, published this week in PLoS One, adds some startling concrete numbers to that aspect of the ongoing investigation into autism's roots. By comparing relevant census information (including education levels and income) to the CDC's database of kids identified as suffering from autism or related health and behavioral problems, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison concluded ...
New Report Debunks Link Between Vaccines, Autism
By Katie Drummond - AOL News(Sept. 13) -- The mercury-based preservative that was a mainstay ingredient in several key vaccines does not contribute to the development of autism among children, according to a report released today. A government-funded study on thimerosal is the latest in a series of research efforts to debunk the idea that childhood vaccinations caused autism. "This study should reassure parents about following the recommended immunization schedule," the Centers for Disease Control's Dr. Frank Destefano, the study's lead author, told Reuters. Debate over the safety of childhood vaccines surged more ...
The Anti-Vaccine Movement: Blinding Us With Pseudoscience
By Donna Trussell - Politics DailyDespite the American infatuation with gambling, in other areas of life we shy away from random chance. We like cause and effect. We like the story of one thing leading to another in a nice, straight line. And if such a story does not declare itself, we'll invent one. Our need for a clear, predictable pattern leads us down the wayward path of conspiracy theories. In the absence of a cause that makes sense to us, we'll spend hours, days, years looking for one. Why? Peter Jennings alluded to a possible reason in his thorough 2003 documentary "Peter Jennings Reporting: The Kennedy Assassination ...
Latest Genetic Research May Help Decode Autism
By Katie Drummond - AOL News(June 9) -- In a breakthrough that could help scientists develop accurate diagnostics and effective treatment for autism, researchers have pinpointed dozens of genes implicated in the illness. But the new findings, published in this week's issue of Nature, also illustrate just how complicated this developmental disorder -- which affects a child's ability to communicate and relate to others -- really is. Researchers compared the DNA of 996 children with autism and 1,280 children without it. They found dozens of genes whose copy number variants -- stretches of DNA that disrupt normal genetic ...
Court Rules Vaccination Doesn't Cause Autism
By Ria Misra - Politics DailyThe U.S. Court of Federal Claims has ruled that vaccinations -- or, more specifically, thimerosal, an additive in some vaccinations -- does not cause autism. The court considered three separate claims for damages, but ruled Friday in each of them that the vaccinations the children received were unconnected to their eventual diagnoses of autism. Autism diagnosis rates have risen. This winter, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that one in 110 children had autism -- up from their previous estimate of one in 150. But why the rates are rising -- or whether the increase in ...
Autism Epidemic a Sleeping Giant
By Bonnie Goldstein - Politics DailyThe number of young people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders is growing, and more than half a million will soon enter the age of adulthood. Until recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated that autism, characterized by impaired interpersonal interactions and repetitive behavior, affected an astonishingly frequent one in 150 American children. A new assessment by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services puts that count at an even more prevalent one in 91. Though girls are also affected, the survey noted that "odds of having Autism Spectrum Disorders were ...
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