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Eleven Vaccine Myths No One Will Say to Our Face

MythsBy Carolyn Flannery

1) Because Your Child Got Autism, mine got off scott free. Hard to really feel bad about that.

Did your child really get off scott free? Then why are there so many neurodevelopmental disorders? Why is your child overweight? ADD? ADHD? Allergic?  The same toxins and mechanisms that caused autism in our children may well have caused a lower IQ in yours. Especially if he's a boy. Don't you think it's worth finding out before it's too late?  Oh--and AUTISTIC kids have a lack of empathy? ? I don't think so.

2) We have "always" had people who acted like Asperger's. We all have some relative back in the family tree who was a little quirky, right?

Yes, and as long as we've had recorded  human history with enough detail to mention disorders, even the Bible, we've had gold mining (which uses mercury to free the gold), and in the mid 1800's, mercury dental fillings. In the early 1900's through the present,  industrial pollution from steel mills through coal mining. Minamata (Japanese mercury poisoning) victims had many symptoms similar to autism. And it took their government decades to admit it, destroying many lives.

3) The kids who used to be institutionalized and called retarded are now labeled autistic.

First of all California disproved this recently. But sadly, there is another reason this is a total fallacy. Due to abortions of babies who have been detected with Down's and other disorders, the rate of mental retardation and the types of children we may have seen in the sixties, seventies, and eighties, have gone way down. This is not something widely publicized or reported. But Autism is NOT the same thing. If you don't believe me, visit a special ed classroom of severely autistic children who are sometimes writhing in pain on the floor. Compare these to any Down's syndrome child. Visit the Special Olympics ask someone to point out the mentally retarded children vs the autistic children. It is clearly different. Ask some older volunteers how many autistic kids they saw when they started Special Olympics. Also, retarded children did not regress.  Think of your grandmother with Alzheimer's. She was there, now she isn't. That's autism.  Except for the children poisoned in utero. They never had the chance.

There is an easy way to check this. Just find a preschool teacher or daycare owner who has been teaching for over 25 years and ask him or her if they remember seeing autistic children in the 70's or 80's at the rate they are seeing them now. Ask elderly people if they remember stories of children impossible to potty train and nonverbal or vastly behind developmentally at the age of 6, 7, 8. Find some elderly nuns who used to teach. Ask them if they remember classrooms with 60 children in them actually functioning. . . not ideal, but functioning, and ask if that could happen now.

4) If Vaccines really caused autism, why would my trusted nurse, doctor, tell me to get vaccinated?

Anyone who challenges the safety--let alone the practice--of current vaccination ends up Wakefielded--which means reputation destroyed, career ruined, exiled, for speaking truth to power . . Still, most doctors and nurses truly believe they are doing the right thing (except for the frightened nurses who don't want to take a flu shot, either).  Just talk to a Defeat Autism Now doctor who inadvertently poisoned their own child with vaccines to hear the sorrow of those who have lost their belief and trust in a system they invested their life into.  Just as the CDC once said smoking was 'good for you' in the early 60's, and magazines of the time are filled with cigarette ads compromising honest reporting and questioning, so is our media dominated by ads by the same pharamaceutical companies that also make vaccines.

5) If Vaccines really caused autism, why doesn't EVERY child who gets vaccinated have autism ?

If peanut butter can really kill a child who is wildly allergic, why doesn't peanut butter kill every child? 

If overdosing on toothpaste is dangerous for some children why can't we accept that the cumulative effect of too much mercury, aluminum, and other toxins can kill or poison people?

If mercury hurts a fetus if its from tuna, why is it a stretch to say it hurts a fetus if its from a flu shot?

If lithium, a metal type element, treats bipolar, why is it a stretch to say other metals such as mercury injected into a baby might not affect behavior?

Just one example:  Research shows that some children make less glutathione, which helps process mercury and toxins. Normally this variation would not matter--it only matters if someone is exposed to large amounts of toxins.  However, tylenol depletes glutathione. Give a baby who makes low glutathione tylenol so the shot won't hurt, and the lack of glutathione becomes tragic. Give that same baby glutathione before the shot and just maybe he might be okay. Google Jill James and glutathione for details.

6) Autism isn't so bad. Some people think Edison, Einstein, and others have/had autism.

Perhaps this is true. However, Edison and Einstein dropped out  of conventional schooling. Just imagine what ELSE they may have invented had they not had the documented social skills deficits that came with the autism.  And imagine what the world would have lost had they received some mercury-laden shots as infants that locked that talent in. Had they been born in 1997 when hep b at birth started.

Autism is progressive among each generation--more proof it is caused by toxins. Perhaps these genes would lead to a quirky uncle in the 1900s, exposed to mercury making hats like the Mad Hatter or working in the steel mills . The next generation would have some children with bipolar and quirky asperger traits along with gifts. That generation might have a child die of Pink disease from the mercury in the tooth cream of that time. The generation that got Hep B at birth and then one after another vaccine might have a child who is totally nonverbal, in constant gut pain, and still in diapers at the age of 15. These are the children you don't see. The ones you see out and about are literally the tip of the ice berg. Autism isn't "okay" just because some extremely talented people got less poisoned, had family resources that could afford treatment, and were able to overcome some of their deficits.

7) Well maybe vaccines are just weeding out the most weak and taking them out of the gene pool. Or they would have died or gotten sick  anyhow from the diseases the vaccine prevented.

The fact is the infants with the BEST immune systems are the most likely to react to the vaccines, which stimulate the immune systems. We are harming the BEST among us, the best and the brightest. Why are the kids in our stereotypes, the brightest kids, the ones in our memories from the 60s and 70's, the ones with glasses and allergies? Could it be that the best brains have always been the most susceptible to vaccine injury ? These toxins have been in the vaccines since the early 1930's. Some research shows that a high metabolism brain--which can mean a higher IQ- is more sensitive to toxins because it takes more toxins in.

8) There is nothing we can do about autism. Some kids will just outgrow it.

15 years ago parents were told that it was hopeless and nothing could be done. Those parents figured out that their children had been poisoned by vaccines and treated them according to methods based on science about how this could occur and how it could be reversed. Some of those children recovered. Instead of just saying they "outgrew" it, why isn't the CDC trying to study the children who recovered and find out what worked, what didn't work, and if those parents continued to vaccinate. If they are not going to stop autism from happening, at least they could try to understand how to reverse it and prevent it in vulnerable children. How to identify which children are vulnerable. And why haven't they studied "vaccinated" vs unvaccinated. If our children got harmed for the "greater good" then they deserve to be compensated and honored for that sacrifice.

9) If your child doesn't get vaccines, it puts my vaccinated child at risk.

Huh? Isn't it the other way around? If you really believe vaccines work, your child getting injected with live viruses (in some cases) puts MY child at risk. My child, who reacts to vaccinations and cannot tolerate them. My child whose once exquisite immune system now looks like that of an HIV victim with NK killer cells at 7.  Thanks to his vaccines.

10) Autism is caused by two quirky parents getting married --the "WIRED" theory

Wait-- Correlation does not equal causation, right??  This is a cute theory but all it proves is that if you are very bright and technically proficient, and as a child got injured by mercury or vaccines making you quirky or uncoordinated and thus more apt to be nerdy,  then married another quirky person who was very bright and got injured by mercury and vaccines as a child, your child is  more likely to get injured by mercury and vaccines, and more likely to be more damaged by those toxins. And if he gets ten times MORE vaccines than you did, it's almost a given he'll get ADD or autism.

11) People who question vaccine safety are wackos and despise science. They just can't accept the fate that happened to them

Okay folks, think of every warning you ever saw "don't eat fish, it causes fetal damage" . "Don't buy a house with lead paint" . "Be careful what you do in pregnancy--don't take cold medicine even." "Uh oh there is aresenic in rice". "If you dispose of these vaccines or tooth fillings, they have to go into a toxic waste dump because they are poison". "There is a liability protection for  vaccine manufacturers in case a child gets harmed by vaccines".

Okay if those warnings and protections are out there, there must be babies and children out there who DID get exposed to mercury in fish, who DID get exposed to lead paint, who did get harmed by toxins in fillings or vaccines.. Why is it such a stretch to connect these dots? Why are we so blind? Where are all these injured children whose parents didn't see the warnings in time? Could it be they have been labeled autistic?  And why isn't there any effort, at all, to figure out how to reverse the effects of these toxins? Don't tell me there is arsenic in rice, tell me how to get it out of my child, and other children who have difficulties  excreting toxins.

Every one of us DID Vaccinate our children. Because we DID believe the science we had seen. However, after our child developed symptoms, after our child who had been bright and alive started to act like our grandmothers as they descended into Alzheimer's, lost language, lost continence,  lost everything, we started scouring pubmed, the inserts in the vaccine manufacturers information sheets. We saw  that, GUESS WHAT? Vaccines DO harm some children and the government admits it at the same time it pretends they are 'perfectly safe'. The GOVT admitted in 1999 that mercury should be taken out of vaccines, but its still in vaccines shipped overseas.. A decade later it is still in flu vaccines given to pregnant women in America. What we can't accept is that THIS HAPPENED FOR NO REASON. The toxin didn't have to be in the shot. The medical community could have figured out how to detect vulnerable children and not vaccinate them on the same schedule.  It didn't have to happen. And it's STILL HAPPENING TO OTHER CHILDREN in our name, in other countries, and in our name, here in America.  And there is very little research into how to reverse it and help our child recover, and very little insurance coverage for helping our children recover, even for the documented treatments such as ABA.

What can you do to help the person who sent this link to you?Spend an hour today.   Go to and Read the studies, all linked from sites such as pubmed.  Read the parent stories. The same story. Over and over. Read it and weep. Read it and rage. We did. And then join us in our fight to prevent autism, treat autism, and green our vaccines. Thank you for reading. It's the first step. And please forward or share.

Carolyn Flannery is a biomed Mom recovering her child, she thanks Dr. Wakefield and the biomed Moms who have come before her. 




Jason a healthy child with out being mental retarded, or some life long auto immune disease is what we are striving for when they started the vaccines.

Insel the once upon a time head of National Institute of Mental health said that vaccines did not stop that from happening. What he did not say was - these worse out comes have increased.



"In 1900 there were close to 150 deaths per 100000 caused by 5 diseases that now have vaccines"

I suggest you read Dissolving Illusions: Diseases, Vaccines and the Forgotten History by Dr Suzanne Humphries. The first chapter 'The Not So Good 'Ol Days' shows how most people lived at that time in history:

Jason Thompson

My favorite part of this post is how EVERY SINGLE PERSON here who agrees with the OP is mentally insane. There are few things that make me mad and crippling or in most cases killing a child because you would rather have a dead child than an autistic child is one of those things that really makes me mad. In 1900 there were close to 150 deaths per 100000 caused by 5 diseases that now have vaccines, not to mention the fact that even if you didn't die to these diseases, you were more than likely to get other deadly diseases after suffering through those ones. Today, it's less than 1 death per 100,000 due to vaccines.

You know what, let's assume vaccines do cause autism (they don't). What would you prefer? A healthy autistic child who requires a little bit of extra love, or a dead child, or a permanently crippled child? Anti-vaxers are sick, evil people, and it's sad because most of them don't even know it.

Bob Moffit

@ Brittany

"It's important to understand that, you can not assume Vaccines cause the rise in anything"

Silly me .. but .. it sounds like YOU are ASSUMING the
undeniable .. inexplicable .. rise in chronic autoimmune diseases .. that "coincidentally" correlates exactly with the dramatic increase in childhood vaccines .. such as .. autism, asthma, allergies (peanuts?), juvenile type 1 diabetes .. on and on .. has not "caused the rise in anything"

"Environment, diet, education, genetics, stress and hormone levels all effect what will happen to someone."

Everything YOU mention that could "effect what will happen to someone" .. pale when compared to the numerous ingredients routinely found in .. "one size fits all" .. childhood vaccines .. such as .. formaldehyde, mercury and aluminum .. to name just three of HUNDREDS of others.

"Vaccines are, just a dead virus."

This comment is a clear indication that you don't KNOW anything about vaccines .. so .. I will not waste my time .. or .. yours ..

My friend .. with all due respect .. I hope you take the time and make the effort to learn what most of us on this site .. through personal experience .. have already learned .. before you feel qualified to lecture us on the fallacies of our "assumptions".


It's important to understand that, you can not assume Vaccines cause the rise in anything. Too many factors can contribute to neurological disorders, low IQ etc. Environment, diet, education, genetics, stress and hormone levels all effect what will happen to someone. Not just one single cause. Vaccines are, just a dead virus. We encounter many virus throughout our lives. Every time you get a the flu, your body fights it off, and creates antibodies. The next time you get that same strain you body doesn't get sick because it knows hot to get rid of it. Every flu you have, that virus never leaves. It stays in your DNA forever. Like a vaccine, all it does it prepare your body for the real thing. When you get the actual virus because your white blood cells now have the DNA of the virus, it knows how to defeat it, you don't get sick. That's all vaccines are. People are afraid of something they don't understand. We now have better resources to diagnose people, back then many people were misdiagnosed or cast of in society. The rise in certain disorders, may not be a rise a lot but just better detection. My neighbors kid got Autism, and their child was never vaccinated. The oldest daughter got vaccinated and was fine. No health problems, no disorders. They really believed in not getting vaccinated until their first child got Autism. They realized the science behind it, and had really good doctors explain how vaccines worked. Totally preventable diseases could be stopped, not vaccinating puts not just your kid at risk but other kids.


An excellent article by the author Carolyn.

For the benefit of everyone, vaccine related injury is quite successfully recovered (depending on severity) with homeopathy.
- Kate birch is well known to recover people affected by vaccines.
Mobile-friendly - Kate Birch, RSHom(NA), CCH, CMT 1614 Harmon Place, Suite 204. Minneapolis MN, 55403. (by TheSolution_HP)

She also is well versed in homeoprophylaxis (I.e, building your body's immense system naturally and safely against common childhood diseases such as measles etc .

- Dr. Robert and Judyth Ullman in Washington has been helping children affected with Asperger's syndrome (a class of autism)


Good question Adina,
There are far more vaccines given now and at a far earlier age than over the last 50 years. Japan had a very high incidence of autism years ago. All they did differently was hold off on vaccines until age 2 when the immune system was fully developed and autism rates went down dramatically. I think two things that proponents and opponents of vaccines could agree on are
1. Take all the toxic heavy metals and other harmful chemicals out of vaccines. There are safer alternative for preservatives. Also, these preservatives are not generally needed if vaccines are given in single doses. They need preservatives for vials with multiple doses. The only reason they don't use single doses is because it costs more. Again profits over people.
2. Wait until children are 2 yrs old to begin vaccinations. The child has a fully developed immune system and is less likely to react negatively. The child also has innate immunity from the mother. Vaccines are considered highly ineffective in newborns, they don't even have the developed immune system to mount the proper response.


It puzzles me how angry and indoctrinated proponents of vaccines are. Why? Why not just examine all the information and try to make a rationale decision? It isn't religion. We all want the best for our kids. The government and the vaccines manufacturers do not have yur child's interest in mind. Keep that in mind when you get all your information from them. You think the FDA is looking out for your kids? The FDA does zero testing of anything. They rely on the drug manufacturers studies for public safety. Sounds like sending rats to guard the cheese to me.


Please explain the unvaccinated children that develop autism? Also curious where you received your medical degree? Amazing how many people out there still believe the false work of a fraudulent scientist. Also, I am wondering which you feel is more devastating - autism or deadly diseases, because your argument sounds to me as though you'd prefer your child to be dead than 'disabled'.


Do any of you have evidence to site on any of these claims?

Is the risk of autism (if it is real) worse than the risk of polio, smallpox, measles etc etc?

Why is the rate of autism rising (verified) when children have been being vaccinated for 50+ years?

Is it possible that vaccination is not the cause, but, GMO foods, too much animal protein, lousy diet, increased level of CO2 in the air?

I really an asking these questions, and, would really like answers myself. This is not rhetorical.



From looking at my family's total history -- it looks to me that it might be over vaccinations from generation to generation.

for example - my husband big brawn of a man - came from a family that never missed a flu shot and all through his teen years working for the forest service he took every year a tick shot and every two years a tetanus shot.

he went into work one day when he was 28 and they were giving tetanus shots - aka - DPT shots.

an hour later he was passed out in our hall way with clenched jaw muscles, clenched fist -- seizing.

I too had a lot of shot cause I ran around with nursing students and I too worked for the forest service.

Our two children did not wait till they were 28 to react -- but did so with their childhood shots.

Just something else to think about and worry about.

silvia postill

great post overall..not all who smoke,get lung cancer either...'s not the strongest who react to vaccines...but precisely those with weakened immune system,or immunosuppressed.

Health Bites Online

Edison and Einstein certainly were not autistic nor dyslexic. Give your child a load of mercury and see if they turn into a genius.


OHHH, I am full of shame!

and should be

Cause my son reacted to his two prior vaccines of DPT shot and I went on ahead and got him the third.

Shamed of not protecting my daughter more too.
She kept getting vaccines cause I did not talk to her and make her read and listen to "THE REAL SCIENCE" as seen on peb med in just the last few years.

I have now corrected that mistake.
And we are finally off of protzac, that is a big monkey off of her back and it was a hard summer.

Where do you get off coming on here and talking to a bunch of parents that have witnessed thier children's reaction?

This makes us very angry - -not only are we hurt bitterly and deeply - but on top of that we have to put up with being called either liars, or just stupid cause we could not possibly see what we thought we saw.

For 'Not a conspiracy theorist"

Not a conspiracy theorist

Thimerosal (note spelling) is still in the flu vaccines being given to pregnant women and infants from 6 months in the USA, and to countless infants in the developing world thanks to the Gates Foundation persuading the UN not include vaccines in the mercury ban earlier this year (telling people it was miraculously not toxic).

Not a conspiracy theorist

This is an Irresponsible post. There are SO many missing facts here, like Thimerosol (the type of mercury blamed)hasn't been used in vaccines in years. The type being used now does NOT cross the blood brain barrier (as implied) and comparing it to other kinds of Mercury is blatantly misleading and irresponsibly dangerous. Shame on your for falsely scaring people into risking the community's health! PLEASE read the facts, and not the hacks before putting your child at risk to preventable diseases!


"Thank you for posting, this all helps me support my daughter who is anti vaccine but struggling to fight off the doctors on every visit, who want to vaccinate my grandchild."

Less visits?

IMO NO visits. Your friendly family "wellness" injector may be more concerned in meeting his 90% quota than your grandchild.

Check our your ped.

Jan Randall

to your Point number 3, that Autism has always been with us?
Tell folks to take a stroll over to their local Adult Day program for adults with developmental disabilities. My son went into an adult program in 2007 and I waited 5 years for other adults with Autism and their parent's to come along who could help fight for our rights. No one came. There were so few adults with Autism that I just gave up.
Seriously people there are not 1 in 50 adults or 1 in 100 or 1 in 250... they just aren't there!


"Because Your Child Got Autism, mine got off scott free."

Not really. IMO ALL vaccines damage. Most of this damage is not visible BUT it is cumulative. "Vaccinate" enough and you will eventually see some of the damage.

IMO get to know the work of Doctor Andrew Moulden MD PhD. This brave man reminds me a lot of Doctor Andrew Wakefield and I bet the two would get on famously. IMO Doctor Moulden has given us the mechanisms and evidence that show all "vaccines" harm.


Mary Aspinwall

Great article. I am just at
a loss when it comes to " greening our vaccines" is that possible?


Great post.

Let's not forget the problem of nail clipping causing cancer either. Very few people understand this because apparently there is "no evidence", when clearly every single case of cancer in America appeared within a year of nail clipping. It's frightening, we must stop the personal hygiene industry from killing people.

Keep up your good work!

cia parker

Einstein is said not to have spoken until he was four. When my daughter was little, they said a long delay in starting to speak was characteristic of autism, but Asperger's people spoke normally, at the usual age. I think such a long delay in an otherwise healthy child would have to indicate autism, maybe as a reaction to the smallpox vaccine. One of the original cohort of Dr. Kanner's autism patients was said in the Age of Autism to have reacted to the smallpox vaccine.

cia parker

The hep-B at birth vaccine began in the US in 1991, and was the major trigger behind the autism epidemic that began about that time. And it was usually given at the hospital without the knowledge or permission of the parents, and often caused encephalitis. It did in my daughter, later diagnosed with autism. With mercury. A year after a congressional safety hearing had said it absolutely should not be given with mercury, that it was very dangerous. Why are financial interests allowed to permanently damage millions of our children, and the authorities not only do nothing to stop it, but attempt to mandate it?


I think vaccines are taking out the innovative thinkers. Just my hunch, no proof.


I really liked your analogy to Alzheimers'. Everyone understands what a tragedy Alzheimers' is. We never celebrate Alzheimers' as diversity or a wonderful difference. Most people do not know about regression and how tragic it is for the children who experience it and their families.


Do vaccine antibodies last and are they transferable via the womb. We know mothers who have had wild measles passed on antibodies which gives the baby a degree of protection for the first year of and because of that it was rare for babies under 1 year to contact it.Measles was a part of the childhood growing up era most of us went through it.
Measles vaccine was used as a cost effective measure not life saving in developed countries. Do rubella antibodies last 20/30 years , the wild form in most cases gives lifelong immunity .
Does coping with infectious illnesses prime our immune system to ward off the nasties later on.
Why has the study to compare the vacc/unvacc not being done
perhaps they know the outcome.We seem to be heading for medical Armageddon.


What an informative post. I didn't realize the strong immune system, healthiest among us connection. I had the impression that those who suffer vaccine reactions were the immune compromised, the unheatlhy. In the MMR the measles virus doesn't stimulate the immune response and stays alive, migrates to the gut where it takes up residence in the intestinal wall resulting in leaky gut, bateria in blood stream getting into the brain stem, etc. Still, I am realizing more and more as I read on the subject that there are different types of kids that get sick in different ways. My child had the black circles under her eyes, the chronic tonsil inflammation, strep infections, and learning disabilities. Now I know there are brilliant children who don't seem to have the learning disabilities or the chronic illness, gut problems but have the language and social issues. For the grandmother whose daughter is getting pushed into vaccines, I would throw it back at the doctors by telling them that there have been vaccine reactions in the family, and they say it all the time that it's genetic. That's my plan anyway.

Carolyn M

"Had they been born in 1997 when hep b at birth started."

Hep B at birth actually started prior to 1997. Support for my assertion: 1. Per "What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You About Children's Vaccinations", p.126: "In 1991, federal immunization officials recommended that hepatitis B vaccine be given to all newborns born in the United States..." 2. Per the AAP's "Caring For Your Baby and Young Child Birth to Age 5" (revised May 1993) p. 63 shows this vaccine as present in the recommended immunization at birth. 3. My daughter was born in 1995 and she received the Hep B vaccine without my prior knowledge or consent.

Otherwise, an excellent column.

Jeannette Bishop

Thank you for compiling so much of the eyes-wide-shut perspectives that come up with autism and vaccination!

Along with Drs. afraid of getting "Wakefielded" there is another myth that keeps coming up in vaccine article comments, i.e. that this whole scare was started by that "one study" that was retracted because that "one doctor" committed fraud.

I wonder if instead of saying "Wakefielded" if we are going to have to repeat something like this mouthful ad infinitum, i.e. doctors are afraid to question vaccines because there was that one doctor who published a case series (along with how many others?) that found bowel disease in children with regressive autism, mentioned the parental observation in several cases that the regression followed the MMR, had the temerity to call for more research on this, and lost his job and ultimately his license after personally recommending single measles vaccine until the research could be done. Meanwhile no research has been done and the approximately 1 in 88 children with autism in the U.K. were left largely without care...

And how to deal with the "all of this started with..?" I hardly ever know where to start. If anyone has any good one or two liners that encourage people to research vaccines independently please let me know. OK, I'm not sure one or two will ever be adequate, but how come we could essentially be taught the over-simplified "vaccines keep you from getting disease" growing up and that "education" takes so much to overcome for people to consider there is more to consider?

Adam M


"And then join us in our fight to prevent autism, treat autism, and green our vaccines."




Its strange it s dated back to Dr Wakefield

Spot on John ...


John Stone

Light it up crap

As an expert in Mozart biography I can certainly confirm that I can find no significant trace of Aspergerism in his personality. Beethoven may be another matter but chemical tests on a lock of his hair revealed a few years ago traces of high lead toxicity. My own view is that he might still have been a great composer without the lead (in fact I can't see how it helped at all).


The irony of #11 is that people who align themselves as "pro-vaccine" often end up showing just how low they set their bar for scientific integrity.

Light it up crap

Great post and great list of "unspoken" assumptions. Aristotle observed that, for many, "luck is when the arrow hits the other man." You do kind of get the sense that people believe the volcano gods were appeased by the sacrifice of your child, as if this somehow spared theirs.


Camilla Benbow studied the doubled rate of allergies among the gifted, back when giftedness generally included BOTH verbal and analytical precocity, a fact which is now ignored since so many among the exploding ranks of environmentally injured LD children lose a degree of language skills while some maintain analytical abilities, which has redefined giftedness as necessarily involving language disorders. There's that and there's also the issue that immunity has been likened by some to a gun you carry for self-protection: the more powerful the gun, the worse off you'll be if it's taken from you and held to your head. Great point that the collateral could include both the immunologically compromised as well as the most immunologically strong. We may have to outsource for our future Olympians and scientists since it seems likely candidates are falling in droves in infancy in the US.

One thing I don't necessarily agree with is giving any credence, even for the sake of diplomacy, to the idea that Einstein had autism-- another myth which the major biographers have discounted and just doesn't hold up to fact.

I think there's a famous story of how mean Einstein was to his wife which is often used to illustrate supposed Aspergerian traits. But it's always left out that, against his wishes, she had just converted their two sons to Catholicism during the rise of the Third Reich. He was not religiously Jewish but he held to cultural Judaism and he didn't take the Nazis seriously at that point-- felt her actions were a betrayal and capitulating but eventually forgave her. He spoke somewhat late-- but not as late as is frequently reported. So did Mussolini, though the ND don't tend to hijack fascist dictators for their ranks. Maybe something environmental was at work in that sense but whatever it was, it didn't amount to autism.

But like past lives believers, everyone thinks they were a princess or famous hero in a previous incarnation, never a cockroach, and so any dead genius is up for grabs in the campaign to ascribe autism to every innovative figure in history. They're dead and can't argue and no one can run them through tests. But Einstein had many friends, lovers and a sense of humor. Michelangelo was a slob but amassed the largest passionate written correspondence with his many friends and lovers and was a bisexual-- which might partly explain fierce protection of his privacy which has been retooled as social withdrawal to fit the "autism mold." And a kid with Asperger's would hardly tolerate being dragged around Europe in a cart in 17th century conditions to perform for the courts-- Mozart didn't have it either and his personal letters don't reflect it.

As for Edison, he was a eugenicist and perhaps nuts (publicly electrocuting an elephant?) but no more or less nuts than other twentieth century racists, eugenicists and industrialists whose exploits and exploitations during the period were epic. Power corrupts and fame makes many people act badly (does Charlie Sheen have autism too?), so retrospectively hijacking dead celebs and drafting them to autism is diagnostically ludicrous and also opens the door to speculating, as many have, that Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer had it.

Hey, once the door is open for unevidenced speculation, anything can get through. While Simon Baron-Cohen publicly speculates on palliative comparisons between genius and autism to draw naive support from the neurodiverse, out of the other side of his mouth he's behind the push to link autism ("lacks empathy") to violent sociopaths ("lack empathy") because it feeds a corporate agenda to try to wrap up two pharmaceutical epidemics-- med psychosis and autism-- into one tidy target of an "evil gene" sequence. Kills two birds with one stone: makes the public not care what happens to the collateral of the autism epidemic because they're all a danger to the public and explains away how so many have been injured; and it explains away the explosion of prescription psychosis which has been associated with 90% of school shootings and other non-ideological random massacres in the US. So hijacking Einstein, etc., to the ranks of autism for a naive and wishful HF self esteem campaign is actually opening a Pandora's box of real danger to affected individuals. I don't recommend it.

As far as the quirky parents getting married concept-- also a Simon BC amalgam: the idea that the rise was caused by feminism due to women being allowed into higher learning institutions where they could meet and mate with a fellow geek-- it doesn't explain why Norway has more women in government and science than any other country and a 20-fold lower rate of autism than the US. And if there were any element of higher risk among the especially precocious offspring of precocious people, it leads back to Benbow's research on the correlation between IQ and more fragile immunity in childhood. Fits with the "you can't have it all" theory that the gut (where most of the immune system is located) and brain compete for metabolic fuel during development.

In any case it's worth the time to analyze all the mythology because, whatever sliver of truth may be contained in some goofy fabrications inevitably leads back to environmental cause.


I've pretty much had someone say every single one of these to my face. 17 years of 6 unvaccinated learn not to take it personally really quick and you also self educate really quick.



Jeff C

Great article and spot on, particularly regarding fear in the medical industry of being Wakefielded. The AAP polices their members in a fashion akin to union thugs roughing up those crossing a strike line. That coupled with denial; the thought that they could have caused this disaster is just too terrible to contemplate for these medical professionals. Pediatricians know if they tow the party line their lives will be comfortable. Cowardly.

Another good point is that all of us were once "responsible" parents that did exactly what we were supposed to, until it happened to our child. The media loves to paint us as flower-power hippies, or as selfish, uninformed dolts that still think the Earth is flat.

Unfortunately the opposite is true, most of us now know far more about the schedule, antigens, adjuvants, and adverse reactions than the individual making money off of using our kids as pin cushions. It's unfortunate as just like the pediatricians in denial, ignorant bliss is easier (before we took the red pill and realized what happened). On the other hand, the knowledge gives us tools to recover our children and protect our kids from further damage.

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