Researchers have ditched the autism-vaccine theory. Here’s what they think actually causes it. – Vox

Since the beginning of the year, the CDC released data showing that autism rates have increased dramatically. This finding puts the spotlight on two issues: why, obviously, and what causes autism in the first place. The two are intertwined to some degree, but we’ll do our best to untwine them, discuss them rationally, and come to some informed conclusions. What a snarky, sarcasticky, profaney good time we have in store for us here!

VACCINES DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM!

We have to say it loud and proud because that opportunistic shyster, Robert Kennedy, Jr. not to be confused with rising star who was shunted off to the political gulag, special representative to Northern Ireland, Joe Kennedy III. Apparently, Robert is the willing useful idiot of Steve Bannon to play some kind of trumped up Jill Stein-role in 2024, turning his embarrassing anti-vaccine crusade into equally embarrassing “run” for the presidency. I’m sure the seismic activity happening in Massachusetts are all due to the Kennedy’s turning somersaults in their graves.

Rising Autism Rates

Autism Explained: Simple New Theory Links Confusing Array of Symptoms – PsyBlog

There’s lots of numbers and data to report on the rising autism rates. Let’s summarize it here just to get it out of the way:

SURVEILLANCE

• AGE EIGHT. The magic number here is eight years old. Most of the incidence rates have been calculated based on diagnosis by the age of eight. Assume that unless reported otherwise.
• INTELLECTUAL ABILITY. One of the big divides in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is intellectual ability versus intellectual disability.
• SURVEILLANCE SITES. No, this is not the beginnings of a far flung serpentine conspiracy theory supporting Robert Kennedy’s long shot bid to the be the next Jill Stein and return Trump to office. Instead, the CDC maintains the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network across the country to provide estimates of the number of children diagnosed with autism by the age of eight in two phases.
  • Eleven surveillance sites across the country in Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin.
  • Phase One. The aggregation of comprehensive evaluations completed by professionals, like educationalists and healthcare providers.
  • Phase Two. All these records get evaluated by trained clinicians to determine if they meet the criteria for ASD as described in the DSM.
  • No test. All of this is necessary because there is no single diagnostic test for ASD.

FINDINGS

Autism AWARENESS Month: Easing the Guilty-Conscious of Schools, Administrators, and Teachers

This what they found:

• TRIPLED. A Rutgers University team calculated that the rates of autism diagnoses rose three fold between 2000 and 2016 in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area.
• ONE IN 54. In 2016, one in 54 children had been diagnosed with autism by age eight as compared to one in 150 in 2000.
• RISING. The increase in diagnoses of children by age eight has been rising steadily:
  • 2000, one in150 children
  • 2016, one in 54 children
  • 2018, one in 44
  • 2020, One in 36
• CHILDREN OF COLOR. Finally, People of Color are ahead of whites in something! The CDC estimates that 3% of of Black, Hispanic and Asian or Pacific Islander children have an autism diagnosis as compared to 2% of whitey’s children.
• INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY. More Black children with intellectual disabilities were diagnosed with autism than white, Hispanic, or Asian or Pacific Islander children.
• BOYS. There were four times as many boys as girls diagnosed with autism.
• GIRLS. The diagnosis rate for girls topped one percent for the first time ever. So equality?
• FOUR YEAR OLDS. #COVID-19 disrupted the diagnoses of four year olds. When compared with eight year olds, the four year olds were less likely to have been evaluated for autism during the pandemic. This effect will be seen in the numbers for years to come.

Explanations

A Quickie: Autism ACCEPTANCE Month, 2021

What gives? What explains this explosion in diagnoses of autism, especially “higher functioning” autism or autism without intellectual disability? What about exponential growth among People of Color and girls?

Awareness

Since we have been autism awarenessing since the 1970’s, part of the explanation is that we’ve succeeded. We’re much more aware of autism in 2023 than we were even in 2000. Since the Big Bang Theory came out, everybody and their monkey is an expert on autism and make a diagnosis every time they sit on the can. Oh, I KNOW what’s up with so-and-so, they’re AUTISTIC!

Great. Autism has become the new gay. Remember in the ’90’s and early aughts when you were sure everybody you knew was gay? Nowadays, you’re just not cool unless you have an autistic friend or two.

More importantly, pediatricians have been screening for autism as part of their well-child clinics. There are school districts in New Jersey that have all the autism bells and whistles for diagnosis and services, meaning, they screen nearly every child, which means they catch nearly every child that qualifies. These folks have an incidence rate of ten percent. Just wait until we start demanding testing and services for ten percent of the American population of school-aged children. Suddenly, autism awareness will become the new Critical Race Theory and part of being woke.

The New Jersey findings also suggest that screening for autism is being unevenly applied across the country with regions. areas, and demographic groups being reported and others very thoroughly counted.

There are two trends here:

• One, an overall increase in screening for autism which has resulted in higher prevalence in communities of color and among girls.
• And two, a continuing demographically-based disparity in the diagnosis of children.

What it adds up to is that

1. There are communities in the US where children with autism are diagnosed and given the support services that they and their families need like those ones in New Jersey where 10% of the children have been diagnosed.
2. There are communities where children are diagnosed but don’t have all of the services that they and their families need.
3. And, there are communities where children are under diagnosed and there are no services for the children who are.

Increased awareness has brought us closer to the “real” number of children with autism, which is a necessary step in the right direction.

Genetics

Autism Awareness Month, 2019: The Dopamine of Pathological Demand Avoidance

Genetics is as important as screening for the increase in the number of children being diagnosed with autism.

• 2,000 to 3,000 genes are thought to contribute to ASD. Because it is a spectrum disorder with a dim sum kind of trolley of choices for behaviors and symptoms, it is a very complex genetic picture to understand. Of those thousands of contributing genes, though, about 100 are closely linked.
• OLDER PARENTS carry a much higher risk of producing autistic children than younger parents and with people putting off having children until they’re older, we’re likely running into the failing gene scenario.
• ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION with genes could also contribute. There is some data supporting a role for air pollution and for viral childhood infections, especially in boys, aggravating genetic factors.

Whether or not you buy into the theory that we are producing more children with autism than ever before or that we are just recognizing the children with autism more easily, we need to improve the way we treat people with autism. It is clear that (a) there is a large number of people on the spectrum. Up to 10% if we take those NJ numbers and (b) we have woefully inadequate services and accommodations for those of us on the spectrum.

While this post alone is worth roughly a kajillion dollars, I know, all I really need is a bit of love thrown my way!

• SHARE this post with anyone you think might could be interested in autism even the eensiest teensiest itty-bittiest bit. They’ll appreciate it. They really really will.
• LIKE or RATE this post just to let me know you were here. You don’t even really have to like it like it, you just have to like it, know what I mean?
• COMMENT on this post and tell me your pet theory on autism and thoughts on treating it and prevalence or just the number of people you know who are on the spectrum.
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