Autism Street

Autism’s False Prophets - Science Blogs Book Club

I know. I know. I had promised to keep readers posted on my reading Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, And The Search For A Cure by Paul Offit, MD.

Unfortunately,  the writing didn’t happen. The reading did however. I finished the book last week. Yep, it’s an excellent account of several interesting things that have happened over the last decade.

AFP includes relevant history, and scientific detail where necessary, but most importantly to me, it began to discuss the role of the media (and other social influences) in propagating autism myth. Television jounalists are given no slack by Offit in their apparent credulity and appetites for anecdote. 

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Autism’s False Prophets

I’m currently reading Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, And The Search For A Cure by Paul Offit, MD.

I’ll be writing a review at some point in the near future, but I’ll put an Autism Street A-List Reading recommendation out there now, even though I’ve just finished through page 59 tonight (the first three chapters). I plan to keep readers posted about my progress every three chapters or so, as I continue to read a little every few nights. So if it interests you, there will be more very brief posts very similar to this one.

I had wanted to dedicate this likely forthcoming series of posts to

“Kathleen Seidel, Camille Clark, Michael Fitzpatrick, Peter Hotez, and Roy Richard Grinker (Some of the real heroes - And true prophets - Of this story),”

but that dedication was already taken, so instead I’ll dedicate this series to all parents new to an autism spectrum diagnosis - the real potential heroes and prophets of this story who possess the authority, responsibility, and accountability for the future chapters (beyond those of AFP) in this story.

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Over at the AoA anti-vaccination blog (which claims to be the “Daily web newspaper of the autism epidemic”[sic]), editor Mark Blaxill almost ala Dennis Hopper (Speed), asks what John McCain’s republican running mate, Sarah Palin, will do about vaccinating her youngest (Trig), who will turn 6-months old in the middle of this coming October.

[.."Trig will be over six months old when flu season rolls around. Will Governor Palin consent to give him the recommended mercury-containing flu shot when his next well baby visit arises? As Governor, when she signed a statement in October 2007, as part of Influenza Vaccination Awareness Season in Alaska, to "encourage all Alaskans to get a flu vaccination to protect themselves, their families, and their communities," did she follow her own guidance?"]

[.."Will she follow the recommended childhood immunization schedule for Trig, or will she not?]

[.."What are you going to do Governor? What are you going to do?"]

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