Quote:
Originally Posted by clarinette
I also heard that a lot of customers got mad at Chili's for picking AS as the recipient because of their support of anti-vaccination research.
|
The reason the Chili's event was cancelled was related to the org it was to benefit -- National Autism Association -- which has been known for promoting misleading anti-vaccination (and autism-causation) information.
Though not my favorite org, in all fairness, the focus of research funded by Autism Speaks has not been anti-vaccination. The daughter of the founders of AS (Katie Wright -- whose son has autism), however, is quite involved with conspiracy theory, causation misinformation, pseudoscience, and kooky treatments.
Autism Speaks has offended quite a few members of the autism community (including parents). A public service announcement they released several years ago -- I Am Autism -- was pulled back -- it really is quite offensive (but apparently intended to be effective in fund-raising):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mycxSJ3-_Q
Quote:
Originally Posted by DubaiSis
People shouldn't be mad about research even if they don't like it. They should reserve their anger for when results are skewed to suit the needs of the research sponsor. If there were lots of research done on this issue and it became more clear that the vaccinations weren't the problem (which they probably are not), then it would put that issue to bed. I have a gripe with the number of vaccinations kids are asked to take and the phenomenal number of preservatives in them. Doing studies on priority of need of certain vaccines and how to clean them up to make them more tolerable would be research well worth hearing about. Because maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't read anything so far that makes me believe injecting an infant with all those chemicals is a good idea.
|
The problem with the internet and media in general is that people form impressions about issues based on sound bites and things that dippy celebs like Jenny McCarthy say. There truly isn't credible information supporting that the number of vaccines in the routine childhood schedule is harmful or to blame for autism, and there is not a "phenomenal number of preservatives" in routine childhood vaccines.
Unfortunately, since the potential causes of autism are so complex and the presentations so varied, autism is a condition vulnerable to plenty of misinformation, conspiracy theory, and quackery.