Also known as the one about 'the prick in the prick clinic', the Autism Tribune revisits our experience of attending the paediatric allergy clinic at Guys and St Thomas' Hospital in London in 2007. Unbeknown to us at the time, our son (then 4) was regressing into severe autism and we went to get answers for eczema, constipation and obvious milk allergy. We came away without any answers but subsequently exchanged 6 letters to and from the consultant that reveal the scale of the problem we face - then and now. There is no integrated service for children with autism. No one connects up the inflammation in skin, bowel and brain. The medical professions remain stuck in their silos with no incentive to speak up for our kids. Their silence helps to prepare the battlefield of autism where our children are slain.
This is true. There is a diagnosis, but no medical help. Almost every attempt to pursue a physical condition which might provide a clue ends in a referral to a psychologist.
Autism is still understood (if you can call it that) as a matter of psychology rather than biochemistry ... God knows we have to change that. Here's praying 🙏
Jane, while you make a number of excellent points here, the photo and mention of Andrew Wakefield will backfire and make matters worse. The scientists, doctors and policymakers who should be improving treatments for autism will see that and immediately run in the opposite direction.
Dear Alexander, I understand where you are coming from but I think anticipating other people's reactions and trying to be nice won't get justice for our children. We need to boldly go where our experience and the science takes us. There are a number of reasons for talking about Andrew Wakefield and what happened to him and his colleagues that just won't go away - for very good reasons:
1. The research that he and his esteemed colleagues were doing was brilliant. They were trying to understand how inflammation in the bowel can persist and how it links to the symptoms we call 'autism'. It was solid basic science involving people from all over the world, published in the leading journals in the world. That research was stopped short but it still needs to be done - up to three decades later. We still don't understand the mechanisms that can explain the trigger and persistence of inflammation in the bowel of small children who go on to develop autism. Wakefield and colleagues were looking at measles because it is known to persist in the body but other viruses can do the same. They were trying - with open minds - to find the links in the chain. I covered this in my post on the 'magic of mechanism' https://open.substack.com/pub/theautismtribune/p/the-magic-of-mechanism?r=1s85wn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
2. Given their pursuit of 'gold standard science', they should have had the support of their peers who continue to see the children with unexplained constipation, immune inflammation and neurological abnormalities. As I wrote in the post you are commenting on, we are sent to different specialists - at best, as most get nothing at all - but no-one connects up the big picture as Wakefield and co were trying to do. Until we have that big picture, treatments will be limited at best, and there will be no end to the autism epidemic. This failure is a stain on all clinicians - and many must know this deep in their hearts.
3. Given that the case against Wakefield and his colleagues was a witch hunt, driven by a journalist and his backers who wanted to protect the interests of the vaccine industry, we should stand firmly in defence of freedom in science. We need to go where the evidence takes us - not where it is politically acceptable to go. Something is causing immune inflammation in our children and the live/triple vaccines are the most likely cause of it all (as confirmed by parents all over the world). The case heard at the GMC and in relation to the retraction of the Lancet paper was about research ethics NOT science. If needed, and I'm not sure it was needed as none of the parents involved in the research complained, an internal review could have been conducted by academic colleagues at UCL/The Royal Free and an ethics update could have been organised in a matter of days. The GMC and journals like the Lancet should have refused to have anything to do with the case. Other researchers and clinicians should have stood firm against what was obviously a witch hunt. Facing up to this error of judgment is the best way to move on.
4. Most importantly, this case means thousands of children like my son have severe autism and the research/medical profession continue to stick their head in the sand and pretend it isn't happening. They support 'research' that advances the idea that this is all about 'neurodiversity' while the next generation burns at the stake. This has to stop. For the first time since we joined the autism club 17 years ago, I feel change is in the air. RFK is talking about it and trying to do something about it. Someone needs to pick up the bowel-autism research where Wakefield and colleagues were forced to stop. Our lives depend on it. They really do.
Thank you, Jane. I agree with most of what you wrote here. I believe we have mostly the same goals, and quite some commonality in experiences.
I have been working hard for years to make a difference of the sort I believe you seek. In the process, the roadblocks have become clearly visible. The main one is fear of doing or saying anything that might give oxygen to the effort to blame autism on vaccines. Even the appearance of blaming vaccines is enough to harden the very resistance that needs to be softened.
Please, let’s join forces to make the changes that we so clearly need. Feel free to DM me.
This has prompted me to remember a neighbour’s child who hadn’t severe constipation and allergies that hadn’t been apparent with their other children and was treated with laxatives and all other sorts of lotions and potions. Long story short, this poor child went on to develop strange behaviours and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia which never made sense to me. The whole saga tore the family apart. From all you say, this should and could have had a very different outcome.
It’s a control mechanism that relies on public ignorance of what autism is.
They found and magnified a little previously unknown wacky online cult known as the neurodiversity movement to push onto society a sanitised version of what autism is.
An emotionally vulnerable group like high functioning autistic people are only too pleased to be told there is nothing wrong with them it’s all society’s fault they are unable to live full lives.
Those with more serious disabilities are deliberately excluded from being represented, a good example was in the controversy and social media anger among neurodiversity advocates when singer Sia released a movie called music, where a non-verbal obviously disabled autistic girl was the main character, rather than the usual genius code breaker saving the world that is often shown.
Sia rather than stand up for severe autism pathetically apologised for the so-called poor representation of autism and became an online hate figure anyway.
However, Hollywood itself is bought and paid for.
Movies like the recent accountant 2 and shows like The good Doctor deliberately re-enforce this carefully crafted public picture of funny, socially awkward geniuses rather than a majority of suffering, severely distressed and disabled victims that will require enormous human and financial resources to manage.
The only way to break this is through public information. One reason RFK got so much heat was he released previously suppressed IQ figures showing the majority of autistic 8-year-old`s far from geniuses have an intellectual capability below a normal range with up to 40% being intellectually disabled.
The next step is to release stats for 18 year olds for the public to get a true picture of future trajectory and what autism really means for many of those that have it and society.
Taking an 'autism for dummies' approach we can observe that there is essentially no autism among the unvaccinated (Amish, anti vaxxer families etc).
Also virology does not meet the basic criteria for science, and so called 'viruses' can be produced from sterile cell cultures when put through standard 'viral isolation' procedures. In other words, the standard 'proofs' of viruses (CPE, EM imagine, genomes etc) can all be obtained without even adding a sample from a sick person - which makes virology a total fraud (unfalsifiable). So called 'viruses' are just innocuous cell debris and not the cause of disease or anything else.
A century of contagion experiments (over 200) have also failed to demonstrate contagion by proximity or the sharing of bodily fluids.
So with no proof of 'viruses' or contagion there can be no justification for vaccines full stop. They are just poison. Injecting proteins and metals directly into the body causes all sorts of reactions (as you would expect) that include 'autism' (a term used so broadly now it almost has no meaning).
Rather than simply scrap the field of virology, most of modern 'healthcare' and all vaccines, there is a concerted effort being made to muddy the waters while also trying to normalise autism (the new normal) and even make it kind of trendy.
All of this just comes across as an attempt to protect the big pharma profits on vaccines as well as treating the vaccine injured (ie most people these days) with more drugs and treatments for life.
The other factor linked to autism is exposure to EMF (another form of poison). Women pregnant around smart meters (such as sleeping near to them) had significantly higher rates of autism in their children.
We live in an age of poisoning. Autism is just one consequence of this. In previous centuries it was factory smoke and all sorts of industrial waste dumped into the water supply which made everyone sick ...... today it is modern drugs and EMF pollution.
This is true. There is a diagnosis, but no medical help. Almost every attempt to pursue a physical condition which might provide a clue ends in a referral to a psychologist.
Autism is still understood (if you can call it that) as a matter of psychology rather than biochemistry ... God knows we have to change that. Here's praying 🙏
Jane, while you make a number of excellent points here, the photo and mention of Andrew Wakefield will backfire and make matters worse. The scientists, doctors and policymakers who should be improving treatments for autism will see that and immediately run in the opposite direction.
Dear Alexander, I understand where you are coming from but I think anticipating other people's reactions and trying to be nice won't get justice for our children. We need to boldly go where our experience and the science takes us. There are a number of reasons for talking about Andrew Wakefield and what happened to him and his colleagues that just won't go away - for very good reasons:
1. The research that he and his esteemed colleagues were doing was brilliant. They were trying to understand how inflammation in the bowel can persist and how it links to the symptoms we call 'autism'. It was solid basic science involving people from all over the world, published in the leading journals in the world. That research was stopped short but it still needs to be done - up to three decades later. We still don't understand the mechanisms that can explain the trigger and persistence of inflammation in the bowel of small children who go on to develop autism. Wakefield and colleagues were looking at measles because it is known to persist in the body but other viruses can do the same. They were trying - with open minds - to find the links in the chain. I covered this in my post on the 'magic of mechanism' https://open.substack.com/pub/theautismtribune/p/the-magic-of-mechanism?r=1s85wn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
2. Given their pursuit of 'gold standard science', they should have had the support of their peers who continue to see the children with unexplained constipation, immune inflammation and neurological abnormalities. As I wrote in the post you are commenting on, we are sent to different specialists - at best, as most get nothing at all - but no-one connects up the big picture as Wakefield and co were trying to do. Until we have that big picture, treatments will be limited at best, and there will be no end to the autism epidemic. This failure is a stain on all clinicians - and many must know this deep in their hearts.
3. Given that the case against Wakefield and his colleagues was a witch hunt, driven by a journalist and his backers who wanted to protect the interests of the vaccine industry, we should stand firmly in defence of freedom in science. We need to go where the evidence takes us - not where it is politically acceptable to go. Something is causing immune inflammation in our children and the live/triple vaccines are the most likely cause of it all (as confirmed by parents all over the world). The case heard at the GMC and in relation to the retraction of the Lancet paper was about research ethics NOT science. If needed, and I'm not sure it was needed as none of the parents involved in the research complained, an internal review could have been conducted by academic colleagues at UCL/The Royal Free and an ethics update could have been organised in a matter of days. The GMC and journals like the Lancet should have refused to have anything to do with the case. Other researchers and clinicians should have stood firm against what was obviously a witch hunt. Facing up to this error of judgment is the best way to move on.
4. Most importantly, this case means thousands of children like my son have severe autism and the research/medical profession continue to stick their head in the sand and pretend it isn't happening. They support 'research' that advances the idea that this is all about 'neurodiversity' while the next generation burns at the stake. This has to stop. For the first time since we joined the autism club 17 years ago, I feel change is in the air. RFK is talking about it and trying to do something about it. Someone needs to pick up the bowel-autism research where Wakefield and colleagues were forced to stop. Our lives depend on it. They really do.
Thank you, Jane. I agree with most of what you wrote here. I believe we have mostly the same goals, and quite some commonality in experiences.
I have been working hard for years to make a difference of the sort I believe you seek. In the process, the roadblocks have become clearly visible. The main one is fear of doing or saying anything that might give oxygen to the effort to blame autism on vaccines. Even the appearance of blaming vaccines is enough to harden the very resistance that needs to be softened.
Please, let’s join forces to make the changes that we so clearly need. Feel free to DM me.
This has prompted me to remember a neighbour’s child who hadn’t severe constipation and allergies that hadn’t been apparent with their other children and was treated with laxatives and all other sorts of lotions and potions. Long story short, this poor child went on to develop strange behaviours and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia which never made sense to me. The whole saga tore the family apart. From all you say, this should and could have had a very different outcome.
Another tragedy that could have been prevented. It is heart breaking.
It’s a control mechanism that relies on public ignorance of what autism is.
They found and magnified a little previously unknown wacky online cult known as the neurodiversity movement to push onto society a sanitised version of what autism is.
An emotionally vulnerable group like high functioning autistic people are only too pleased to be told there is nothing wrong with them it’s all society’s fault they are unable to live full lives.
Those with more serious disabilities are deliberately excluded from being represented, a good example was in the controversy and social media anger among neurodiversity advocates when singer Sia released a movie called music, where a non-verbal obviously disabled autistic girl was the main character, rather than the usual genius code breaker saving the world that is often shown.
Sia rather than stand up for severe autism pathetically apologised for the so-called poor representation of autism and became an online hate figure anyway.
However, Hollywood itself is bought and paid for.
Movies like the recent accountant 2 and shows like The good Doctor deliberately re-enforce this carefully crafted public picture of funny, socially awkward geniuses rather than a majority of suffering, severely distressed and disabled victims that will require enormous human and financial resources to manage.
The only way to break this is through public information. One reason RFK got so much heat was he released previously suppressed IQ figures showing the majority of autistic 8-year-old`s far from geniuses have an intellectual capability below a normal range with up to 40% being intellectually disabled.
The next step is to release stats for 18 year olds for the public to get a true picture of future trajectory and what autism really means for many of those that have it and society.
Taking an 'autism for dummies' approach we can observe that there is essentially no autism among the unvaccinated (Amish, anti vaxxer families etc).
Also virology does not meet the basic criteria for science, and so called 'viruses' can be produced from sterile cell cultures when put through standard 'viral isolation' procedures. In other words, the standard 'proofs' of viruses (CPE, EM imagine, genomes etc) can all be obtained without even adding a sample from a sick person - which makes virology a total fraud (unfalsifiable). So called 'viruses' are just innocuous cell debris and not the cause of disease or anything else.
A century of contagion experiments (over 200) have also failed to demonstrate contagion by proximity or the sharing of bodily fluids.
So with no proof of 'viruses' or contagion there can be no justification for vaccines full stop. They are just poison. Injecting proteins and metals directly into the body causes all sorts of reactions (as you would expect) that include 'autism' (a term used so broadly now it almost has no meaning).
Rather than simply scrap the field of virology, most of modern 'healthcare' and all vaccines, there is a concerted effort being made to muddy the waters while also trying to normalise autism (the new normal) and even make it kind of trendy.
All of this just comes across as an attempt to protect the big pharma profits on vaccines as well as treating the vaccine injured (ie most people these days) with more drugs and treatments for life.
The other factor linked to autism is exposure to EMF (another form of poison). Women pregnant around smart meters (such as sleeping near to them) had significantly higher rates of autism in their children.
We live in an age of poisoning. Autism is just one consequence of this. In previous centuries it was factory smoke and all sorts of industrial waste dumped into the water supply which made everyone sick ...... today it is modern drugs and EMF pollution.