Vaccines cause "microvascular strokes" that cause autism?

I thought I had seen it all.

Ever since I first discovered the antivaccination movement that is utterly convinced, despite all evidence to the contrary, that mercury from the thimerosal preservative that was in many vaccines until the end of 2001 or, more recently, vaccines themselves cause autism, I've been amazed at the panoply of dubious ideas proposed about how vaccines might bring this about. There is, of course, the claim of neurotoxicity from mercury, even though the symptoms of mercury toxicity do not come close to matching those of autism. Then, of course, there is the related claim that somehow there are disorders in glutathione metabolism and mercury are involved, or that there are some sort of genetic predisposition to mercury toxicity or defects in mercury excretion that somehow let the tiny amount of mercury in vaccines to cause autism.There's also the claim that somehow vaccines cause an immune reaction that does--well, something in the brain. Or, even more ridiculous from a scientific standpoint, there is the claim, promulgated by Mark and David Geier, that testosterone somehow binds to mercury in the brain and makes it inaccessible for chelation therapy to remove. The latest of these dubious scientific bits of handwaving designed to link vaccines somehow to autism is the claim that somehow mitochondrial disorders are related to autism in an attempt to rebrand autism. Never mind that there is no good scientific evidence to support any of these "explanations" linking vaccines to autism.

To match all this dubious science is a panoply of equally or even more dubious "treatments" for autism. As Kevin Leitch points out, there are at least 150 scientifically unsupported treatments for autism out there costing loads and loads of money. These range from total woo such as homeopathy to chelation therapy, to intravenous vitamin C, to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, to intravenous glutathione, to Lupron, to even energy medicine.

Time to make it at least 151, it would appear. Say hello to Dr. Andrew Moulden and his autism crankery:

A Canadian doctor, Dr. Andrew Moulden says he conclusively proved seven years ago that vaccines cause micro-vascular strokes. Dr Moulden has a 21 year record of award-winning medical study and practice starting at Nipissing University, but he has been unable to get the attention of the College of Physicians or politicians to investigate his findings, which have been corroborated by other doctors.

So who is Dr. Moulden? I had never heard of him before this, and, as I mentioned before, I thought I had heard it all. Apparently Dr. Moulden was a candidate for MP in Canada for the Canadian Action Party, a nationalist party that opposes globalization and free trade agreements. He's also clearly a die-hard antivaccinationist. Just check him out hanging out with antivaccine luminaries Andrew Wakefield, Barbara Loe Fisher, Dr. Sheri Tenpenny, and Jenny McCarthy, and if that's not enough, check out a video called Vaccine Holocaust on his website. First, let's see what this great "discovery" is:

Dr. Moulden says the shots cause our body's own immune systems to hyper-react as large white blood cells naturally rush to attack the foreign particles injected into our bloodstream. The white blood cells are too big to enter, so they surround tiny capillaries where the foreign particles land, clog and collapse the capillaries.

This cuts off pathways for the smaller red blood cells to carry oxygen to the organs near those capillaries that contain the foreign particles. When the particles float near the brain, this lack of blood supply can lead to autism, SIDS and many other diagnosed illnesses in both children and adults.

Our immune systems will continue fighting the particles leading to long-term or chronic illness. Different organs are affected depending on where the particles are, which leads to different symptoms and 'disease' names, but the basic causes are the same and before this discovery were unknown.

Oh. My. God. Is this guy serious?

Let's parse what Dr. Moulden is apparently saying a moment before moving on. I'm don't know for sure what he means by "large white blood cells," but I assume that Dr. Moulden is referring to macrophages sitting out in the tissues, because other types of white blood cells, such as neutrophils and monocytes, reside mainly in the bloodstream and are not as large. It is known that monocytes can infiltrate brain tissue during tissue damage and that they can cause microvessel damage in a variety of conditions. Autism, as far as I can tell from reading the literature, is not among them.

Let's look at this hypothesis a minute. It depends upon two concepts:

  1. That the pathogenesis of autism is a result of multiple "mini-strokes" in babies
  2. That vaccines result in the deposition of particles into the brain microvasculature sufficient to provoke an inflammatory infiltrate in the brain. These particles, according to Dr. Moulden.

Hhypotheses make predictions. Hypotheses are funny this way. Let's see what we would expect to see if Dr. Moulden's hypothesis were true. First, we have to consider where Dr. Moulden thinks these particles come from:

The main cause of the problem is the additives in the vaccines. The purpose of the additives is to generate a faster response from white blood cells. This works perfectly - white blood cells rush to the site of the introduced foreign matter - and that is the source of the problem. The white blood cells block the capillaries and also collapse them, trying to destroy the foreign matter.

He also has a video (don't they all?):

Wow. That's some serious woo. It's got it all: Conspiracy theories, a dubious concept of autism causation, and a whole lot of Dr. Moulden.

Let's get back to the predictions of his hypothesis. If Dr. Moulden's hypothesis is true, the following evidence should be observed:

  1. There should be absolutely no evidence of autism before vaccination.
  2. There should be evidence of alterations in blood flow consistent with microvascular strokes
  3. In autistic children who die, sectioning of the brain should reveal evidence of vascular inflammation and small strokes.
  4. There should be evidence that vaccines form particles large enough to clog the microvasculature.
  5. There should be evidence that these particles derive from vaccine constituents
  6. There should be evidence that a pattern of ministrokes actually results in autism.

In actuality, the last prediction is incredibly problematic. There is no evidence linking this sort of "mini-stroke" to autism. Of course, every single one of these is problematic or dubious. In autopsy specimens, there's no evidence of inflammatory reactions causing blockage of small vessels with clot leading to stroke, nor is there any evidence on MRI of such processes in the brains of autistic children. MRI should be able to pick such processes up. There's especially no evidence that the additives in vaccines result in particles that block the microvasculature or provoke monocytes to swarm around small blood vessels and cause them to be blocked with clots due to an inflammatory reaction. (Virtually all blockages of small vessels due to inflammation are due to clots provoked by the inflammatory reaction.) And, of course, as has been discussed many times before, signs of autism can be observed as early as six months.

Of course, one thing that one needs to know about Dr. Moulden is that he loves to flaunt his degrees. He refers to himself as Dr. Andrew Moulden BA, MA, MD, PhD on his website. I mean, come on. I have an MD and a PhD, but you don't see me listing my undergraduate degree or other degrees. The two highest degrees are enough. He's also selling something called Brain Guard MD. What is Brain Guard? It's described this way:

BrainGuard provides digital video and photograph based "video microscopy" to monitor and assess for clinically silent brain damage that causes, or has caused, neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders including autism, autism-spectrum, pervasive developmental disorders, Asperger's syndrome, sudden infant death, infantile paralysis, Post vaccine syndromes (Gulf War syndrome, Guillain Barre syndrome, cognitive impairment...), seizure disorders, ischemic strokes, specific learning disabilities, and attention deficit disorders.

AMassNetwork IMAN-12 Membership available at (www.AMassNetwork.com). You must have an AMassNetwork membership subscription in order Access/receive BrainGuard services and solutions.

Brain damage, especially vaccine and infectious disease induced brain damage, is clinically silent. Our proprietary techniques and technologies provide the means and methods to assess and monitor the integrity of the central nervous system from birth to adulthood with a non-invasive, cost-efficient, home based, video/photo solution for monitoring the integrity of the human brain across neurodevelopment.

There are three steps:

  1. Capture a 30 second video clip of the BrainGuard client - full face in view, eyes open, awake, alert, and responding/attending to the videographer.
  2. Login or Register with BrainGuardMD.com
  3. Follow instructions on how to upload your video/pictures to our secure servers.

 What Comes Next

We will process your submissions and inform, via email to your "IMAM-12" account the results of your BrainGuard scan(s). If we detect the MASS response (a medical emergency) one of our staff will contact you directly with what to do next.

If you are looking for proof causation of vaccine induced brain damage (including autism, Gulf War syndrome, Wrongful death, brain impairment...) - BrainGuard can provide these services and all inquiries.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me as though what Dr. Moulden is doing is taking videotapes of children, doing some sort of "scan," and then coming up with a diagnosis of autism or "vaccine" injury--except that Dr. Moulden makes up a fancy name for it:

The process in the human body that causes autism-spectrum, learning disabilities, seizure disorders, sudden infant death, infantile paralysis, sudden death in childhood, vaccine and infectious diseases induced "M.A.S.S." (Moulden Anoxia Spectra Syndromes) reactions are medical emergencies.

BrainGuard detects when an individual's brain is being damaged by the "MASS" process (CNAPS MD' Inc. proprietary information). This "hypersensitivity" response can now be blocked, in real-time, as soon as BrainGuard technologies detect the clinically silent signs of this process in your loved one.

Once the BrainGuard brain health screening technologies/services detect the MASS response, confirmation of the MASS process is achieved via bloodwork that can be completed at any hospital, physician, naturopathic doctor, or private laboratory services. This information is then used to direct the required "CPAN gels" BioCom (Biocompatible) intervention to block and reverse the MASS response that is/has caused injury to the nervous system and mammaliansystem organs and tissue.

BrainGuard can ALSO be used to determine if you or a loved one has been adversely affected by vaccine/infectious disease/pharmaceutical induced brain damage causing autism, learning and language disabilities, seizures, sudden infant death and "shaken baby syndromes", post vaccination death, vaccine adverse reaction. This information can be used in Court to prove causation for vaccine/pharmaceutical product induced damages, autism-spectrum disorders, "Gulf War syndromes (re: vaccine caused), learning disabilities, and wrongful death.

BrainGuard detects the "signature" of the same process that caused heart attacks, strokes, and death from Vioxx - the anti-inflammatory from Merck Frost that was pulled from the market in 2004 by the Food and Drug Administration for "causing heart attacks, strokes, and sudden death."

I love it when a crank names a syndrome after himself. Particularly amusing is the complete classification system that Moulden has come up with. No lack of self-confidence there! It also sounds as though Dr. Moulden is claiming to provide "evidence" for lawsuits. Big surprise. He is. There's also the issue of "clinically silent" signs of this so-called MASS syndrome. If it's detectable by videos of the face, it's not "clinically silent." A clinically silent problem is just that: silent. It causes no symptoms and often no signs. Hypercholesterolemia or hyperlipidemia, for instance, is a clinically silent problem. Only a blood test can detect it. Finally, even if Dr. Moulden were right, there's no physiological reason to suspect that looking at videotapes of a patient's face or analyzing them somehow would provide specific information to make such specific diagnoses. More importantly, even if autism were due to microvascular strokes, there's a chance that anticoagulation and the use of steroids for the inflammation might block the process, but what Dr. Moulden seems to be recommending is some sort of woo machine on the order of a Rife machine, Hulda Clark's parasite zapper, or other useless devices. He charges big bucks for his woo, too; for a mere $2,500 he will provide "forensic evidence" of vaccine industry.

Finally, despite his MD and PhD, Dr. Moulden appears not to have published his revolutionary work. A search of PubMed failed to find any articles by him about autism, cerebral blood vessels, vaccines, or any related topic. I'm sure it's just The Man or microfascists keeping a brave maverick doctor down, and soon enough Dr. Moulden will be published in the highest quality journals. Of course he will, and if he's not he'll continue to point out just how persecuted he is by the medical establishment, just like all good cranks. He even tried to give his technology freely to the CDC, but those evil doctors weren't interested:

Oh, great. He can cure prostate, cervical, and breast cancer, too. It's all being suppressed by big pharma and big medicine, of course.

Clearly, Dr. Moulden, however promising an MD/PhD student he was in the past, has devolved into a crank. It's all there, especially the grandiose thoughts and conspiracy theories. In fact, if you want to know just how much of a crank Dr. Moulden is, I'll let you in on a little tidbit. Who, do you think, started out liking Dr. Moulden but now thinks he's a "scam" and that someone is impersonating him? Take a guess.

John Best.

Dr. Moulden, take a clue: When someone as unbalanced as John Best thinks you're a crank, you've plumbed depths of crankery that few pseudoscientists can even dream of plumbing. I'd suggest giving up now, before you're made to look even more like a fool. In fact, you're so far out in left field that even the merry band of credulous antivaccinationists at Age of Autism, who will embrace virtually any quack idea about, test to detect, or therapy for autism, as long as they can say it justifies their unshakable belief that vaccines cause autism, haven't embraced you. That's as telling as having someone like Best dismiss you as a scam.

I can only hope that Dr. Moulden is so off the wall that even antivaccinationists will realize that there's nothing to back up his claims. Oh, wait. Antivaccinationists supported Mark and David Geier when they claimed that testosterone bound to mercury, keeping it from being chelated properly, and that the answer is to use powerful anti-testosterone drugs on children. Never mind.

Dr. Moulden will likely do quite the tidy business selling his useless test to the parents of autistic children who believe that vaccines caused their children's autism.

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Moulden "had most recently been based in Toronto while jet-setting across the United States as a federal circuit court expert for vaccine injuries."

Dr. Moulden's physician's license in Ontario expired on June 30, 2008.

Election outcome:
Final Vote Results for Nipissing-Timiskaming:
18,543 - Anthony Rota -Liberal
13,463 - Joe Sinicrope - Conservative
6,598 - Dianna Allen - NDP
2,807- Craig Bridges - Green Party
201 - Andrew Moulden - Canadian Action Party

Can I ask you something? You said "In autopsy specimens, there's no evidence of inflammatory reactions causing blockage of small vessels with clot leading to stroke, nor is there any evidence on MRI of such processes in the brains of autistic children. MRI should be able to pick such processes up.". Ms. McCarthy's crowd claim that after biomed treatment "They no longer were heavy metal toxic, they did not have viruses and bacteria from vaccines swimming in their veins, they no longer had an auto-immune reaction in their bodies i.e., their own cells were not attacking their bodies eating away at the myelin in their brains." Well, I have MS and I know what my MRI looks like. Has this evidence ever been seen in an autistic child's MRI?

What I don't understand (aside from how someone like this is able to function without poking himself in the eye when he brushes his teeth) is how, exactly, he can use his special brain scan thingy to identify vaccines as the cause of SIDS (which causes the baby to die), when in order to do it he needs a video of the person "full face in view, eyes open, awake, alert, and responding/attending to the videographer."

Quite the trick...

To follow-up on jypsy's question...wouldn't the damage of these micro CVAs show up on either an MRI or SPECT of living autistic children?

Any radiologists out there????

Selling snake oil to the desperate and/or stupid has is time-honored tradition. It lives on because it works. It lives on because people have been fed from infancy that life will be perfect for them and when it isn't, they need to blame someone or find a way, any way, to fix it.

Used to be that by the time the marks figured out the snake-oil salesman had swindled them, he'd moved on to the next town far out of reach. I guess today's marks are so deeply invested in the oil and so embarrassed that they might have made a wee error, they keep buying the oil. What a world.

Wake up people. Shit happens. Deal with it.

That's it! I'm making my own woo system! For a small fee of only $2,500, I will videotape your crankery, diagnose you, and administer a remote, Therapeutic KICK to the Crank-Region(TM)! It's like Therapeutic Touch, only I get to KICK you over the internet!!! Using Quantum Vibrations!!! Everyone wins. There is no drawback. There are no side effects. Some restrictions apply.

So... If I got this right, that guy's another crank who attributes the "shaken baby syndrome" to vaccines. While the autism-vaccine-link may be attributed to plain paranoia and nuttery, this is outright criminal. He does not only deserve an intense kick in the rear end but should be dragged to court for the belittlement of child abuse. This is far beyond stupid.

I kindly ask for a post about this special brand of vaccine-lunacy. It often gets lost under the vaccine-autism-link.

On a more serious, less kicky note, I do find it interesting that there seems to be an underlying mindset that responds with irrational extremism to the idea of anything being injected into the body (as with vaccines) or invading the body (as in delusional parasitosis). What's up with that? Can it be studied?

I think you may have missed another prediction: elevated liver enzymes (etc.) following vaccination. If there's tissue damage all over the body from microischemic events (and he isn't -- yet -- claiming that the brain is uniquely targeted) then the usual markers for damage to other tissues should be detectable.

By D. C. Sessions (not verified) on 16 Oct 2008 #permalink

Sounds like a major MASShole.

It is even worse than I thought when I looked at his badly designed website. At least when the quacky "chiropractic neuroglogists" do their "brain mapping", they actually do an EEG scan (the problem is that they really don't know how to read the resulting squidly lines).

So this guy claims a videotape is a valid diagnostic tool. Not only is it a video, it is one taken by the patient, uploaded by the patient and then the patient pays for this "doctor" to scan and interpret the video. Yikes!

What I don't understand (aside from how someone like this is able to function without poking himself in the eye when he brushes his teeth) ...

Toothbrushing and woo-meistering are done by different parts of the brain. Generalization isn't natural.

First, vaccines are never, never, never injected into the blood stream. They are usually injected into muscle, or under the skin into the extravascular space, into the tissue that is perfused by lymph (which is ~95% of the volume of the body, only the vasculature has blood in it).

Lymph moves quite slowly, and is filtered by the lymph nodes where immune cells take up antigens and do their business with them. Then the lymph drains into the venous blood, I think up stream of the liver which adds another layer of filtration. Then the venous blood goes through the lung (more filtration), and then (and only then) can it get directed up to the brain.

Yet another problem with "Dr." Moulden's claims:

Dr. Moulden says the shots cause our body's own immune systems to hyper-react as large white blood cells naturally rush to attack the foreign particles injected into our bloodstream.

As far as I know, no vaccine is ever intended for IV injection, nor ever was. They're always given IM, subQ, or (in a very few cases) intradermally.

Maybe Moulden is the one suffering from mini-strokes?

What's funny is that John Best all but renounced his "autism is a misdiagnosis for mercury poisoning" mantra just as soon as he heard of Moulden. Clearly, as long as he can blame vaccines for his son's condition, John is happy.

It's unclear what exactly made John determine Moulden is a "scam", though.

Wow! That's one steaming pile of.....woo!

Here are a couple of predictions that I came up with from Dr. Moulden's "hypothesis":

[1] We should see a rise in the BB fraction of creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) following vaccination due to the "microstrokes".

[2] As mentioned above, other tissue-specific enzymes and isoenzymes should rise following vaccination.

[3] MRI of autistic people should show evidence of perivascular inflammation and co-localized brain tissue loss (it doesn't - one strike against the hypothesis).

[4] Autopsy specimens from autistic people should show perivascular inflammation and regional brain tissue loss (they don't - strike two).

[5] Unvaccinated people should not get autism (they do - strike three).

When I was starting out in my PhD training, I was told that a hypothesis should provide a model that includes all the available data (or, at least, should explain why the data it doesn't include isn't valid or applicable).

Dr. Moulden's "hypothesis" conveniently ignores a lot of the data we have about autism without providing a clue why that data might not be applicable.

He should have at least given an explanation of how his model (microvascular strokes) is consistent with the current findings (e.g. MRI and autopsy results) or explain why these findings are are not applicable.

I suspect that the reason he didn't do that is that the explanations would have been ridiculous. After all, how can he explain the absence of MRI and autopsy findings to corroborate his "hypothesis"?

He could argue that the "microvascular strokes" and inflammation are too small to be seen on MRI, but how does that explain the absence of findings on autopsy?

He could argue that the "microvascular strokes" are too small to be found during microscopic examination of tissue taken at autopsy, but then how could they be significant enough to cause autism?

He could (and probably would) argue that radiologists, neurologists and pathologists are too tied to the "mainstream medical dogma" that they refuse to see what is before their eyes, but, as King Lear said, "That way lies madness."

Prometheus

He could (and probably would) argue that radiologists, neurologists and pathologists are too tied to the "mainstream medical dogma" that they refuse to see what is before their eyes, but, as King Lear said, "That way lies madness."

So where's the downside?

Note that your use of the subjunctive is overly cautious: he does invoke conspiracy theory to counter all known facts that contradict his story.

By D. C. Sessions (not verified) on 16 Oct 2008 #permalink

So... If I got this right, that guy's another crank who attributes the "shaken baby syndrome" to vaccines. While the autism-vaccine-link may be attributed to plain paranoia and nuttery, this is outright criminal. He does not only deserve an intense kick in the rear end but should be dragged to court for the belittlement of child abuse. This is far beyond stupid.

Indeed. How do they explain then that a great proportion of cases of shaken baby syndrome happen before any vaccine is given ?

And shaken baby syndrome is far less subtle than autism to find physiological evidence about... There's actual bleeding in the brain, dumbo. What next, attributing a boxer's multiple concussions to the vaccines he got as a boy rather than the massive 300-pound bloke who punched him in the head ?

The Canadian Action Party was founded by Paul Hellyer, a one time Minister of Defence in the Liberal Cabinet in the 60s, a very unsuccessful candiadate for leader of the Progressive Conservative party in the early 70s and who later became a 3d degree wackaloon - UFOs and the whole 9 yards.

If you had followed through to the CAP home page, you would have discovered that a Military Coup occured in the US on October 1, and the US Army is preparing to invade the US.

Just thought I should give you Americans a heads up on all of what has been going while you were distracted by your election campaigns :)

Crank Magnetism indeed.

By Militant Agnostic (not verified) on 16 Oct 2008 #permalink

I think you may have missed another prediction: elevated liver enzymes (etc.) following vaccination. If there's tissue damage all over the body from microischemic events (and he isn't -- yet -- claiming that the brain is uniquely targeted) then the usual markers for damage to other tissues should be detectable.

This would be pretty easy to test, too. If I can generalize a little bit from my own experience, people tend to have several different medical issues taken care of during their annual physical, including vaccinations and blood tests. I just got my flu shot and my Tdap booster on Tuesday, and then gave a vial of blood to run a bunch of standard tests about 15 minutes later. If Dr. Moulden had any interest in proving his silly hypothesis, it wouldn't be that hard to run tests on blood samples taken immediately after vaccinations. I'm sure there are tons of samples out there.

Hmmm, beaten to the punch on the Canadian Action Party. I read someplace of another CAP candidate who was pushing 911 conspiracy theories.

"The CAP endorses a controversial conspiracy theory that the United States intentionally allowed the attacks on September 11th to take place"

Clearly a case of a man who has been subjected to too many vaccines. . . Right, well, back to my secret underground UFO base.

This paper is interesting "Long-Term Neuroblast Migration Along Blood Vessels in an Area With Transient Angiogenesis and Increased Vascularization After Stroke CONCLUSIONS-- The vasculature plays an important role for long-term striatal neurogenesis after stroke. During several months, neuroblasts migrate close to blood vessels through an area exhibiting early vascular remodeling and persistently increased vessel density. Optimizing vascularization should be an important strategy to promote neurogenesis and repair after stroke."

A few jabs spaced apart over 12 weeks, if i have interpreted the above correctly that could interfere with sempaphorin axon guidance. Axonal disconnection in development a key factor in autism. With down-regulation of the gene encoding SEMA5A, a protein involved in axonal guidance. That is the genetics of autism, which we may select to have engineers in our population, make them susecptible to bad disconnected axons after micro-strokes.

That Dr Ayoub...I had no idea he is from my hometown until I was visiting last week and saw this article:

http://www.sj-r.com/homepage/x1776790066/New-CDC-recommendations-about-…

A quote: "What is the risk, and what is the benefit?" asked Dr. David Ayoub, a Springfield radiologist and self-taught expert on vaccines, mercury and the increasing number of children diagnosed with autism.

He said studies he has reviewed indicate the benefit of the flu vaccine -- even among the very young and very old, the two groups most at risk of flu-related complications -- is overblown.

And in children, he said, "The risk of vaccines is unknown because the studies are just that poorly designed. And that's not just my opinion; that's a lot of people's opinion."
CDC officials view the situation -- and the weight of scientific evidence -- much differently. Ayoub and other critics say they know the reason: The agency and other federal health officials are unfairly influenced by the pharmaceutical companies that make vaccines.

and...

"A 2004 Institute of Medicine report said scientific studies have failed to demonstrate a conclusive link between childhood vaccines and autism. But Ayoub said the IOM report was based on "junk science."
"The IOM is a sham," he said. 'The wool has been pulled over the eyes of the majority of journalists, of citizens and of doctors -- by far, doctors.' "

The majority of comments following the article are very discouraging.

And that's not just my opinion; that's a lot of people's opinion.

Brilliant! At last I have the power to win nearly any argument.

The Earth is flat and that's not just my opinion; that's a lot of people's opinion.

Britney Spears is talented and that's not just my opinion; that's a lot of people's opinion.

The Olive Garden serves authentic Italian cuisine. That's not just my opinion; that's a lot of people's opinion.

By notmercury (not verified) on 17 Oct 2008 #permalink

I believe I have the answer to the big "mystery" that pop media can't seem to figure out: why is autism on the rise?

1. A major study revealed that autism rates are closely tied to the age of the father. Many new cases of autism are IVF twins (older parents) and fathers on average are older now than they once were.
2. Autism awareness is up. My brother is almost certainly autistic, but was never tested; I'm sure if he were a kid today he would be labeled special needs.

There! Mystery solved. So often I hear news stories talking about this "epidemic" without mentioning these two obvious explanations... I don't know. Vaccines are so much more glamorous!

The only plausible connection between vaccines and autism I have seen is a Johns Hopkins study that suggested that the immune system response triggers autism, and this would be the immune system response to anything, not just vaccines.

You're a bit late at the party, aren't you Orac? Quite a few other vaccine questioners asked serious questions about this guy on their blogs at least 24 hours before you hit the road on it. You appear to assume ad nauseum, that most people questioning vaccines are stupid. :lol:

John Best's blog clearly shows that ritually at some point, takes aim at every man and his dog, and has added Moulden to the eternal list of the "fish-whacked by John Best". That is not of itself any commendation of logic.

Whatever wooism you detect, there is only one question to be asked of Moulden, and that's real simple. Show us the science. If woo is all that comes out of the international vaccine conference in China, then woo it is.

By Hilary Butler (not verified) on 17 Oct 2008 #permalink

Yeah, actually my dentist thought that he was the first that discovered "Upper Airway Ubstruction", but it has only "evolved" to a new diagnosis. Thanks guys for the reassurance that it is a joke. My poor dentist is in the wrong profession. I guess whoever has the most money really does feel better/win/succeed, huh?

By the way NOT MERCURY....I have really been doing my homework on Autism. Have you looked at your family history (job & ancestors' vaccines mainly)?

I can totally sympathize with your diluded, ignorant, and somewhat evil pain that you want to inflict on others, Not Mercury. Holy S... if the medical "professionals" didn't give you hope, then I can see why you are so angry. I would probably be too. It is time to get past that though and help your kids if you really want to..Like Jenny McCarthy had said, "you are either the Mother Warrior or you're not". Which is it girl?? Been there, done that, here if you need me. Let me know.

...aaaand along comes Dawn, as if on cue.

By Laser Potato (not verified) on 18 Oct 2008 #permalink

Dawn's getting cranked up to go on Oprah and show us a little couch jumpin'! Dawn, your lithium... it's in the third drawer on the left.

By Dawn's off her… (not verified) on 18 Oct 2008 #permalink

Dilaudid is good for evil pain.

Sorry Dawn but I'm not angry, at least not for the reasons you think. Thanks for all the homework though. You've made me smile today.

What Would Jenny Do?

By notmercury (not verified) on 18 Oct 2008 #permalink

What Would Jenny Do?
Blame everything on vaccines and then get her baps out, probably.

As unbeleivable as it may seem to some of you, "Dr." Moulen was seen as a scam artist right off the bat to many of us who do biomedical interventions on our ASD children. As a matter of fact, many "doctors" who claim to successfully treat autism creep me out. However, that does not negate my own experiences with certain interventions that have been helpful to my son. Regardless of what you may think, there are some of us with our heads on straight. This guy is just another one who saw $$$$ printed on the foreheads of children....and alot of us knew it.

All this work to disprove what I am afraid will become evident soon.
Vaccines will turn out to be the cause of autism