Notes From the Big "Anti-Vaccine" Conference
David Kirby
Journalist Posted: June 1, 2009 05:59 PM


Last weekend, the Autism One organization held its annual conference in Chicago, attended by thousands of parents, doctors, educators and others, to discuss a wide array of autism-related issues. The New York Times labeled it an "anti-vaccine" conference and the Chicago Tribune portrayed it as a freak-show spectacle straight off the island of Dr. Moreau.


Yes, there was some discussion of vaccines - and some admittedly unconventional, and controversial, autism therapies. But there was so much more than that. Out of nearly 150 presentations, only a few dealt directly with vaccines at all. Most of the days were filled with topics such as "Creating Theater with Autism Spectrum Youth," "Epilepsy in Autism: An Overview," and "Perspectives from cell biology and autism risk factors and treatments," a fascinating talk by the forward-thinking Dr. Mark Noble, Professor of Genetics and Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Rochester.
My own remarks dealt with vaccines, and so much more as well, including environmental mercury, wild-type viruses, tainted food, air pollution, pesticides, arsenic, antimony, formaldehyde in household products, even pet shampoo.
I believe that most ASD cases have environmental triggers (probably more than one) that activate certain genetic predispositions (again, probably more than one) and create some of the symptoms that we call "autism." I also believe that vaccines may have played a role in triggering some - though certainly not all - cases of regressive autism. Even if that number is a small minority, it seems sensible to me to study the mechanism of action, in hopes of finding clues to the development of autism in all those other children.
Because my own interest in the cause of autism extends well beyond thimerosal, MMR vaccine, or the immunization program itself, I chose to speak about three potential factors in autism - metals, myelin (which coats the brain and nerve cells) and mitochondria - that could possibly trigger the disorder, with or without the involvement of vaccines or vaccine components.

I believe that the study of environmental triggers - other than vaccines - can provide some sorely needed middle ground in what has turned out to be one of the most contentious and vitriolic issues of our day. That doesn't mean that research into genes - or vaccines - should or would stop. But it might provide for a way forward from here.
Most reasonable people agree that autism has an environmental component. Recent analyses from California show that widening diagnostic criteria are not responsible for the explosive growth in autism cases in that state.
And stay tuned for new numbers coming out of the US Military that will shatter the current national estimate of 1-in-150 kids - which, by the way, was calculated in 2002, by analyzing children born in 1994. That's right, our most current CDC autism statistics are seven years old, and describe people who are now at least 15 years of age. The CDC cannot even tell us when it might finish analyzing its 2004 data - on children born in 1996 - though it knows exactly how many H1N1 cases are in, say, California today.
As I said in my remarks, these are just my own personal musings, spoken out loud. I offer proof of nothing, and answers to no questions. I draw no conclusions. My only point is that, if we are going to find the actual environmental triggers to autism, we had better get busy. Heavy metals, damage to myelin, and the role of mitochondria are just three of the many, many areas where I believe that Federal research dollars should be targeted.
I am sure that this modest proposal will spark the usual hew and cry from the usual gallery of reactionaries - one of whom just wrote at Daily Kos that, even if all autism cases were caused by vaccines, there would be no reason to alter or even examine the immunization program.
People who ask questions about vaccine safety are now being called "pro-disease." Some are supporting censorship of any talk about vaccines and autism. Yet many of these same voices balk and squawk at the very idea of researching potential factors like mercury from coal, live viruses, pesticides, aluminum, formaldehyde, jet fuel and many other toxins.

That mystifies me. If science could pinpoint the exact triggers that produce autism - and they had nothing do with vaccines - this debate would end, as far as I am concerned, and happily so.
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David Kirby: Notes From the Big "Anti-Vaccine" Conference