Autism and Vaccines: Stand Up, Speak Up, Be Smart

We now have several mainstream articles per week on two autism and vaccine issues:

1. Study after credible study finds NO link between vaccines and autism.
2. Decreased vaccination rates jeopardize our children's health -- California is experiencing its worst whooping cough outbreak in 50 years, and it just so happens that the counties with the highest rates of whooping cough -- Sonoma and Marin -- also have the highest rates of families taking "personal belief" exemptions from school vaccination requirements.

Which means that those in autism causation misinformation camp are reduced to spreading their beliefs and false claims with foxhole-style fervor, as in today's HuffPo Deirdre Imus interview with two Age of Autism writers, Mark Blaxill and Dan Olmsted. Here's an excerpt:

Deirdre: "That certainly is contrary to what mainstream medicine and science is saying, which is that autism is basically a genetic disorder. Many argue that there has been no real increase, that it's just more awareness and better diagnosis. And the courts have ruled against families that have claimed that vaccines cause autism, and just recently shut the final door on those cases.

Mark: "That's certainly what some orthodox autism scientists have been saying, but that doesn't make it true. Some of these people, they've made careers of talking a lot, but what they're really saying is basically incoherent blather. The problem is the implications of an epidemic are so profound along so many dimensions, so foundation-shaking that the medical industry and establishment are kind of circling the wagons. But at their core, their arguments make no sense." [Emphasis mine -SR]

I really hope that smart readers, like you, will read through the entire article and not take my word for  why it stinks. That you don't actually need me to point out Blaxill's and Olmsted's information shaping and emotional bait-laying: that because of their backgrounds in loving statistics and  professional journalism, we should believe them and their charged interpretations of data -- and not the "blathering" scientists who as a professional rule present their findings neutrally.

I know why people like Blaxill and Olmsted spread this misinformation. I understand that those in their true believer camp really are believers, and that a fact attack is not going to get them to change their minds. But I'm also done with pretending they don't exist. Such extremists may represent splinter interests, but they are loud and persistent in their need to poke holes in, rather than understand, the science behind the issues. They still have the ability to misdirect gullible or inexperienced readers. And as the California whooping cough outbreak may well indicate, they can cause real harm.

So I'm speaking out against autism & vaccine misinformation like that ceaselessly spread by Age of Autism. And I encourage you to speak out, as well. Because, as I wrote for BlogHer last week, my children, and your children, deserve the very best advocacy we can give them.

The Great White Shark Song!

I swear to you, Seymour has the best job in the world. I came home from tonight's very successful SEPTAR 2010-11 kickoff meeting to a find my handsome husband beaming over the launch of his team's exclusive new music video:

Andy Brandy Casagrande singing The Great White Shark song live in the Farallon Islands!

This one's for anyone who loves sharks more than girls or beer, and who appreciates lyrics like "ambush style is how they hunt; seven rows of teeth, lorenzini in the front."

Note: All shark footage is from the Farallons.

Thoughful Analysis of the No Link Between Autism & Vaccines Pediatrics Study

Emily Willingham, a scientist and autism parent (and, OK, the science editor for The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism) has analyzed the recent Pediatrics study that found no evidence of a link between autism & thimerosal/vaccine exposure:

http://daisymayfattypants.blogspot.com/2010/09/pediatrics-study-finds-no-link-between.html

It's worth your time - Emily breaks down not just why the study is comprehensive and inclusive in both approach and findings, but preempts potential criticism about conflicts of interest or conspiracy. She also highlights something I'd not read before: researchers have noted a *negative* association between thimerosal exposure and autism.

Thanks Emily!

Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo SUPERFAMILY Sunday!

An appreciation day for families who have kids with special needs:

Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo

Sunday, Sept. 19th

10am - 12:30pm

Join us for this FREE! event when the JMZ will be open exclusively

to families with children who have disabilities.

This is a time to recognize parents who work extra hard on their child’s behalf!

Children with all disabilities are welcome as well as siblings and grandparents.

Come and meet some of our animals up-close!

Enjoy coffee sponsored by Peet's!

In order to maintain a non-crowded environment:

SPOTS ARE LIMITED. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.

Contact Tina Keegan to make a reservation or to request special accommodations:

email Tina or call (650) 329-2624

SF: iPads & Fog

Leelo & his iPad were featured in another article, this one by SF Gate's Laura Shumaker. Thanks Laura! I'm glad she noted my advice for folks thinking about getting an iPad: if you can, cruise an Apple store during a slow period and check out the display iPads, first.

And here's a reminder that Leo is interested in more than his iPad. He drew this person last week on his magnadoodle. He was very careful to add all eight fingers on that left hand -- he even counted them out as he drew them.

Things have been a bit stressful here lately. When you find yourself in a similar state, I encourage you to watch this meditative video from Seymour & crew, on The Science of Fog. Really, anyone who's ever wondered what the hell is up with San Francisco's cold foggy summers needs to see it.

What 7th, 4th, & 1st Graders Look Like

Here's what our trio looked like when they hit the first day of school two weeks ago. Can you believe we have such tall children in this house? Iz's head fits right under my chin, Leelo can put his head on my shoulder when he sits next to me, and Mali -- she is enjoying the last days of being hip-hoistable. Sob.

Iz: 7th grade. Middle school for real. Tough caring teachers with x-ray vision when it comes to excuses. I hope she will thrive rather than crumple. I may be needing to unearth some of my crusty former cheerleading skills on her behalf. She is surprisingly nonchalant about our never really having time to go back-to-school shopping, and wearing last year's clothes and shoes on her first day back. In her stead I would have Lost. My. Shit. Completely. Good for her.

Leelo: 4th grade, in The World's Greatest Autism School. So far, everything is peachy. We will need to meet with his teachers to fine tune some matters of visual supports, etc., but Leo comes home from school happy every day. He also is harness-free for the first time in his short bus commuting career (though he now rides in a van). Even cooler -- guess who commutes with him? Jennyalice's Jake. Planets aligning. It is too cool. Jen says Leelo giggles every morning when he arrives at their house to pick up Jake, and sees a bunch of his favorite people waiting. His 1-month new school IEP is coming on the 22nd, and Seymour and I have a lot of prepping to do to make it a productive, team-building, Leo's best interests event. Onus on us. Heh.

Mali: 1st grade, with Iz's stern but fair and loving Galician teacher from 2nd grade. Who is not letting our beloved little monster getting away with a damn thing -- thank GOD. Though this did mean Mali spent her first two weeks complaining about hating school. She even tried out a good cry about not wanting to go to school, one morning (she got sent in anyhow). Now Mali says she likes class, even though it is really hard to sit at tables and do all that work and not play so much. Sigh.

I'm glad they're back in school. They're glad they're back in school. But wow, what a summer. Can't believe it's already over -- and even though it almost killed me, I miss it already.

And I can't believe we have such tall children. When did this happen?

Antivaccinationist Misinformation and Conflicts of Interest Make Me Swear Out Loud, Too

Ask Kim recently highlighted, not every one with concerns about vaccines should be labeled an "antivaccinationist." And some people have solid reasons not to vaccinate (compromised immunity, etc).

But people who believe the willfully perpetrated misinformation spread by antivaccinationists and let that inform their decisions about vaccinations? That, as Penn and Teller declared in their recent documentary on autism, vaccines, and alternative autism treatments, is Bullshit!

If you know someone who's still on the fence, have them watch this video. P&T capsulize and fatally skewer major autism myths in less than 30 minutes, demonstrating that:

• Vaccines protect our kids, critically -- a modern luxury that should not be taken for granted. If you're crunched for time, watch the first two minutes for a stellar depiction as to why vaccinations are so important, regardless of autism concerns.
• There is no link between autism and vaccines, and yes, scientists have investigated the matter thoroughly.
• Vaccines are not Big Pharma cash cows. But -- ooh irony -- the alternative autism treatment industry is quite the golden goose.
• There is more mercury in a tuna sandwich than there was in an entire lifetime's worth of vaccines -- but the mercury in the vaccine preservative Thimerosal was removed from scheduled vaccines years ago [and anyhow it was ethylmercury, not methylmercury -SR].
• Andrew Wakefield played a very large role in the decline of vaccination rates, and he deserved to have his medical license pulled for shoddy work that harmed children (which he laughed about - on camera).

(Note: peppery profanity plus brief nudity near the end, so, NSFW. Also, click directly on the video's arrow or you'll be redirected.)

I am three weeks behind on everything, so for deeper and more timely takes on P&T's exposé, see Respectful Insolence and Bad Astronomy.

---

Appended 9.6, originally as a comment:

I have to admit, I felt sorry for the two featured antivaccinationist parents -- but they smeared themselves with their own ignorance. Freaked out about ingredients in vaccines? How about researching the reasons why those ingredients are incorporated, and comparing them to those in other over the counter meds? Etc.

Unfortunately, antivaccinationsts are usually not rational thinkers or synthesizers -- qualities necessary to engage in this debate and be taken seriously (P&T qualify; that they set their evidence in a NSFW context is irrelevant). Antivaxxer activists are jackdaw superficialists. Loud ones.

Note: we need to point out group antivax  shortcomings and falsehoods, but it is rarely productive to engage antivaxxers individually. They are interested in spin and agenda, not dialogue -- and certainly not facts.

Think Before You Comment!

I'm going to pull a Foghorn Leghorn on you: Have you seen -- I said, have you seen -- the astounding weekdaily essays we're showcasing at The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism? In just the past three days:

• Frances Vega-Costas wrote about Hispanic autism advocacy in Autism: An Equal Opportunity Disorder.
• Hartley Steiner wrote about special needs parenting and self-care in All Showers Lead to Australia.
• Pia Prenevost let us see her bruised and fragile heart in An Open Letter to Special Needs Professionals.

There's been a bit of a stir in the comments section on that last post. So, I'm going to repeat here what I commented there:

I believe some commenters may have misinterpreted Pia's open letter, and inferred negativity and hostility where none was intended, and when in fact Pia was apologizing for any misbehavior on her (and our, the parents', part).

We consider teachers and the other professionals who work with our children part of our community. We also consider TPGA a community-building space, one where we promote greater understanding and the greater good on behalf our our children and (again) community. I would ask that everyone try to come from a position of understanding and questioning when commenting, rather than defensiveness.

If an entry makes you upset, I would ask you to do four things before considering commenting in a way that could cause harm or strife:

1) Walk away from the screen for a while, and think about why you want to comment.
2) Re-read the essay or comment. The writer might not have written what you think they wrote.
3) Consider why you want to comment. Are you trying to bring about greater understanding of important perspectives for the good of the community, or are you feeling angry and defensive? If it's the latter, go back to #1.
4) Ask the writer if they are saying what you think they said. Think carefully before using provocative phrases.

And remember that you're never alone.

Talking iPads and Autism With Autism Hangout's Craig Evans

The affable Craig Evans of Autism Hangout invited me to do an interview about Leo and his iPad just yesterday. We talked about the many ways in which our boy's beloved iDevice has benefited him, and I got to have a good laugh over concerns about us using the iPad as a "babysitter" for Leo -- our child who has always had so much difficulty self-directing his free time until Apple gave him the tools he needed. But what if Leo spends too much free time having fun, instead of being frustrated and needing 1:1 direction? What then?

Really appreciated the opportunity to chat with such a nice guy about Leo's many iPad successes.

BlogHer10 Saturday: One of the Best Days of My Life

Like Leelo, it takes me a while to process information and experiences. So I suspect it would have taken me this long to process BlogHer 10's Saturday, even if the weeks that followed the conference weren't unrelentingly full of activities and Seymour travel and weddings and road trips and excursions and weekdaily Thinking Person's Guide to Autism essays and BlogHer articles and Leo SF Weekly stories and Chinese-"interesting" social developments. Now I know what the brown sugar feels like when I pack it into that measuring cup, sweet though it may be.

BlogHer10 Saturday, with Jen and so many other friends, was one of the best days of my life. I only wish Seymour could have been there, too. And I wish Leo knew the role he played, in gifting me so many friendships with people I might otherwise never have met. You are cherished, every last one of you.

----

Jen and I hit the ground running again on Saturday but without panicking -- I didn't turn off our alarm this time. I'd spent much of the previous night nuzzling my keyboard in confusion, thinking it was a pillow as I sleepily tried to finish my work shift. Jen eventually came to my rescue work-wise after she finished making friends at the hotel bar around 4 AM. (Where she gets all that energy, I'll never know. Me = friends with ZzzZzz.)

We opened our day with BlogHer's International Activist Blogger Scholarship Recipients Keynote. "Inspiring" is an insufficient word for the experience. If I was a hacker, I would turn the liveblog into a Trojan horse email, one that would freeze the screen of every middle school through college student in this country until they read what these women had to say about how they continue to blog/speak out, and why. I especially appreciated Esra'a Al Shafei's wry humor. I hope she and MidEastYouth.com end up ruling the world. (Benevolently.)

The four scholarship recipients:

Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai, Sri Lanka, publisher of Humanity Ashore
Esra'a Al Shafei, Bahrain, publisher at www.mideastyouth.com
Freshta Basij-Rasikh, Afghanistan, writer for the Afghan Women's Writing Project
Marie Trigona, Argentina, publisher of Latin American Activist

Some tweets from the panel, from me and from other frozen-with-awe audience members:

• @Sassymonkey, she of the Maritimes cred, noted: Reminder: no photography in the International Keynote. It's life or death for these amazing, brave women. #blogher10 
• @Mamacita Speakers like these remind me of how very fortunate we are to be able to write about anything we want, without fear.
• @jennyalice: Esra'a al Shafei "If you're going to piss a lot of people off you better do it very well ."
• MideastYouth.com: "It's giving the LGBT community a platform. It's giving the Kurdish minority a voice too."
• RT @whymommy: International activists at #blogher10: 400 young writers at www.mideastyouth.com -- STUNNING. Go see. 
• "The initial goal for Mideast Youth was to piss off as many dictators as possible"
• RT @ElisaC: RT @dtanton: RT @sassymonkey: Read more about the women on this keynote here: http://bit.ly/bq9ESn #blogher10
• "How to bring bright lights to my eyes: Education is the way" #afghanwomenswritingproject 
• An honor, a privilege: Listening to a writer from the Afghan Women's Writing Project talk about her country, its history, people.

During the panel, we sat with Elizabeth, who writes Just a Girl in the World, recently got the job of her dreams, and makes Memphis sound like a dreamy place to live. Later in the Smores lounge we met Natalie from The Bobby Pin, a sometime trapeze enthusiast and MBA student, who advised us on Yoga classes in San Diego. Both were attending BlogHer as livebloggers. I have followed Natalie and Elizabeth for a while and so have a long-standing opinion of them as the cutest things ever, but they were even more so in person. (In case that sounds patronizing, they are also really damn smart. But so cute!)

Then it was time for Kyra's book signing for Gravity Pulls You In:

This is her serious author face, for Jordan. The women behind her don't seem to be having as much fun.











How Kyra really appeared for most of the signing, with equally pleased Jen. The women behind them are discussing how much fun Kyra is having and wondering why the people lined up for their book signings aren't making them laugh in quite the same way.

Other signing attendees included IAmPixieMama, who was there God damn it and no she does not want to be left out, the effervescent NiksMom, and a lovely woman who floats anonymously through the Internet world and is no less loved for that practice.








I took a lot of armslength "dork" pictures. This is me and Stimey, and I am the dork. This is also shortly after I forced her to borrow Paul Collins' Not Even Wrong - very awesome book, worthy of her (and your) attention.

You know who else showed up at Kyra's signing even though she wasn't attending BlogHer or even in NYC but very kindly took the train from CT to come have an IRL meetup even though she was stressing over her class reunion that night which was understandable though unnecessary because she looked fantastic especially since you couldn't see her mountain bike road rash under her beautiful tiered skirt? Susan. Fun! Another dork picture.


 


Since it was too glorious a day to stay inside and since we could see Central Park from the conference hotel, we trotted parkward for lunch (which for me was a NY-style slice of heaven, a.k.a. pizza).














Jordan and Kristen came with us and we passed a lovely lunch sitting and snarking on a bench in Central Park, gazing out at the lake while watching clouds that looked like they were commissioned by Pixar and being rebuffed by disinterested New Yorkers who refused to take our photo. So we asked a tourist instead.







 It's a good thing we shook off the lure of outdoors after Susan had to rush off to her CT reunion (sob, but thanks again for making the trip!), because when we got back to the hotel Jen checked her tweetstream and found out she'd won a free laptop!

Then we found Carol and made our way to the Closing Keynote: Use Your Voice, Your Platform, and Your Power (Full liveblog and video coming soon), featuring:

"Need to Know PBS anchor Alison Stewart moderates a powerhouse panel: Marie Wilson, Founder and President of The White House Project (and creator of Take Our Daughters to Work Day!), author and activist Gloria Feldt from Heartfeldt Politics and P. Simran Sethi, Emmy Award-winning journalist, blogger and environmentalist."

It was amazing. Sigh. I soaked up as much as I could about how to kick ass from women who've been doing it for a long time under much less women-friendly circumstances. Two main takeaways: 

• 'Power you don't use is useless.' 
• 'A critical mass of women will move Supreme Court focus from gender to agenda.

And then it was time to hop on the subway and head to Soho for our My Baby Rides the Short Bus reading at Bluestockings bookstore.

Look, my friend Luis! We went to grad school at Syracuse together. He is a longtime NYC resident, guerilla gardener and yoga instructor. We lost touch for a few years which was so wrong, but thanks to the Facebook fairies, we are reunited. And it does feel so good. He was also our photographer for the reading.




I am not sure why this photo is warped, but I love Jen's expression: "Why yes, this is my East Coast literary debut!"

Here is Jen Silverman. She is one of three co-editors on the book. She totally kicks butt. Seriously, don't get in her way. She radiates uncompromising awesomeness.
















Here is Sharis Ingram. She is reading her story What I Said, and What I Didn't Say. Which is mandatory reading for anyone with a child on the mainstreamed or fully included end of the autism spectrum. And she went to the same college as Joss Whedon and Leo's godmother Hayley! Later on she and the other three of us argued over who had the world's greatest husband. Sharis won, but only because she brought hers along as proof.

Here is Jen, reading her story about trying to find a babysitter for her son Jake on Craigslist. She had the audience weeping as they laughed -- quite a trick.

And here is me, not crying during a reading for once. Go me!

Here is part of our wonderful audience (that's Carol talking into the mic) many of whom came all the way form the BlogHer conference in midtown. Thank you all! The house was packed, and it made for good energy.

 We had dinner at a vegan cafe with Jen Silverman and Luis and some friends, bid adieu to Luis and his bike, and shot back to the hotel in time to catch the last hour of CheeseBurgHer. Nom free cheeseburgers! The party was also full of my favorite Jens. Here are two who didn't room with me.

And here we are, right before crashing and Jen needing to leave in the wee hours and did we really pack all that into one day? We really did. Phew.

Attendees, how was your BlogHer Saturday?

Quality Time

That's what we're having during our week in La Jolla. Like The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism, we'll be back in a few days.