Autism News Beat

Tweet April is Autism Awareness Month, when the words “Somebody get me an autism story” can be heard in newsrooms across the country. Some reporters will answer the call with factually accurate, nuanced, informative pieces that add value to the public’s store of knowledge. Others will just phone in their reports, literally and figuratively. And […]

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Tweet Add The Weather Channel to the growing list of media outlets gunning for the anti-vaccine movement.  In “The Dangerous History of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracies”, Jeffrey Kopman forgoes false balance, and instead calls out the fraud, paranoia, and general scientific illiteracy of a movement that recklessly endangers public health. The money quote: “Part of [the movement’s […]

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Tweet The George Washington University School of Public Health office of communications is investigating the relationship between castration doc Mark Geier and an unnamed graduate student. The office left the following comment on this website and two others Friday afternoon: The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services is still investigating the […]

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Tweet UPDATE: The Orlando Sentinel will not be asking a childhood vaccination foe to participate in its Front Burner series.  “Just wanted to let you know after careful consideration, we decided to listen to your wise counsel,”  wrote Darryl Owens. On behalf of parents and public health advocates everywhere, AutismNewsBeat would like to thank Mr. […]

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Tweet Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the scion of political liberalism cum environmental activist cum anti-vaccine warrior told an AutismOne audience last Friday that living with autism is the same as life in a Nazi death camp. This is how Dan “Clinic for Special Children” Olmsted reports Kennedy’s remarks: Each of us will have our highlights […]

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Tweet From the bottom of the ocean To the mountains on the moon Won’t you please come to Chicago No one else can take your place -Graham Nash, “Chicago” * * * The first autistic Miss America contestant is a cheerful 19-year-old with heart-breaking beauty and a refreshing message. She celebrates her autism, telling reporters […]

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Tweet You may know him as TV’s Walker, Texas Ranger, or the star of low-budget shoot-em-ups. Now Chuck Norris is venturing into new territory – self-appointed anti-vaccine spokesperson. Blogging on the right-wing website World Net Daily, Norris takes aim at the CDC, IOM, and the FDA  in an article clumsily titled The Venom in Fed’s […]

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Tweet “Anti-vaccine doctor met with Somalis” went a recent headline in the Minneapolis StarTribune. It refers to Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced former UK physician who reanimated a moribund anti-vaccine movement in the US and elsewhere with his fraudulent 1998 Lancet paper. Wakefield was in the Twin Cities last week to reassure Minnesota’s 70,000-strong Somali population […]

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Tweet A basic tenet of America’s ill-conceived and foundering anti-vaccine movement holds that autism diagnoses have risen to epidemic proportions. Among the faithful, this imagined increase is “the initial fork in the road in the autism debate,” one that colors their entire understanding of autism. But is the increase real, or an artifact of how […]

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Tweet AMC has killed plans to screen an anti-vaccine group’s paid ads at dozens of theaters over Thanksgiving weekend. The theater giant’s announcement followed a successful protest and online petition started five days ago by Mayo Clinic pediatrician Dr. Robert Jacobson. After more than 1,000 persons backed Jacobson’s call, an AMC spokesperson left this online […]

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