Unlocking Autism News Alert......September 1, 2008

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Legislature Approves 90% of Blue Ribbon Commission Bills

SPECIAL ON AUTISM ONE RADIO...archived

ARI Releases New Autism.tv Site

Join me at the Defeat Autism Now! Conferencec, Fall 2008

Fears of long-range side effects fuel vaccine debate

From the Desk of Rick Rollens:

Legislature Approves 90% of Blue Ribbon Commission Bills

It is with great pleasure and pride that I am

happy to report to you that the California

Legislature this year approved 9 of the 10 bills

that were introduced, sponsored and co-sponsored

by the Legislative Blue Ribbon Commission on

Autism. All of the bills received strong bi-partisan support.

These bills which, are already law or await

action by Governor Schwarzenegger, deal with such

important autism related issues as housing,

insurance reform, teacher credentialing, peace officer training, early,

identification and referral, and the

establishment of important pilot programs to

showcase and develop programs that will and do work.

While we await final action by the Governor, we

should stop and recognize this major

accomplishment by many individuals and the autism

community for the successful passage of 9

important bills by the California Legislature at

a time of severe Budget and political crisis. It

is indeed an impressive accomplishment.

This action by the California Legislature

represents the approval by a Legislature of the

most comprehensive package of autism related

bills that has ever been approved by ANY State Legislature ever.

Below is a list of the bills.

SB 527, SB 1175, SB 1475, SB 1531, SB 1563, SCR 97, AB 131, AB 1872, AB 2302

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SPECIAL ON AUTISM ONE RADIO

<www.autismone.htm>www.autismone.org/radio

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

1:00 pm - 1:30 ET

Polly Tommey presents: Autism Issues Around the World

Guest: Lord

Topic: Autism in Orphanages in Romania

Lord describes her involvement in

F.R.O.D.O. (Foundation for the Relief of Disabled

Orphans), a charity focused on providing

professional care support through visiting teams

to orphans in institutions in Romania.

talks about the huge challenges faced by all

involved and shares her experience of the last three years with Polly.

AUTISM ONE RADIO PROGRAMS ARE ARCHIVED AT www.autismone.org/radio.

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ARI Releases New Autism.tv Site

Link Your Child's Story to ARI's Latest Media Site

The Autism Research Institute is pleased to

announce the release of its Autism.tv website

featuring links to stories of intervention and recovery.

The website is intended to demonstrate to

parents, physicians, and research scientists that

recovery is a reality for a significant percentage of children with autism.

Autism.tv links to caregiver stories about

treatment and recovery. Please send us existing story links to:

- Videos (youTube, short films, etc.)

- Online video news clips

- Online (written) news stories or blog articles published on the Web

Visit Autism.tv

<mailto:submit@...>Submit a Link (e-mail)

About Recovery

At ARI, we are very careful about giving false

hope to parents; but it is a far greater error to

offer no hope, when recovery or near-recovery is

possible. ARI strives to give realistic hope, by

stating: " Autism Is Treatable, and Recovery is Possible. "

Dr. Bernard Rimland, ARI's Founder, worked

exhaustively to identify effective biomedical and

behavioral treatments for autism. Decades ago,

when most believed children would progress only

as far as their innate potential permitted, Dr.

Rimland spoke of recovery. And, in Dr. Rimland's

lifetime, we went from " no hope " to " hope for

many. " With hard work and luck, we will meet our

ultimate goal: " prevention and recovery for all. "

In the final months of his life, Dr. Rimland

often talked about the recovered children whose

overjoyed parents shared their stories with ARI.

His face clearly showed how proud he was to know

that increasing numbers of children are improving

dramatically from a disorder that, only a few

decades ago, was considered hopeless.

<mailto:submit@...>Please send your link -

your video, news clip or story can make a

difference for families living with autism today.

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Join me at the Defeat Autism Now! Conferencec, Fall 2008

Note From :

Registration is open for the

<http://autism.com/ari/conference/enews_082408.htm>Defeat

Autism Now! Fall Conference. Make plans to attend

and hear the latest research and most current

treatments from doctors and researchers who are helping all those with autism.

Presentations for parents new to Defeat Autism

Now! as well as a tracks especially for those who

are more experienced with this protocol are in place.

Click

<http://autism.com/ari/conference/enews_082408.htm>here

for a preview of what you can expect from this conference.

Make plans now to attend, learn and network with

other parents who are striving to help their

special person with autism. I'll see you there!

The Defeat Autism Now! Conference team is pleased

to announce lowered daily rates for parents

pre-registering for the Fall 2008 Conference in

San Diego. Our standard parents' registration

rate of $130 per day is now reduced to $99 per

day for pre-registered parent attendees.

Why Attend A Defeat Autism Now!® Conference?

Autism is Treatable. Recovery is Possible!

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<http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/35756>http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/35756

Scripps News, DC

Fears of long-range side effects fuel vaccine debate

Submitted by SHNS on Wed, 08/27/2008 - 15:53.

·

<http://www.scrippsnews.com/taxonomy/term/250> By

LEE BOWMAN, Scripps News Service

· <http://www.scrippsnews.com/taxonomy/term/160> national

Barbara Loe Fisher has been fighting about the

safety of childhood vaccines for three decades.

But the president of the National Vaccine

Information Center says she's not opposed to

vaccination so much as she's opposed to a

" one-size-fits-all vaccine policy imposed by government health agencies. "

She became an activist after her oldest son,

experienced convulsions and brain

inflammation within hours of his fourth DPT

(diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) shot at age 2

1/2 in 1980, leaving him with learning

disabilities and attention deficit disorder.

Although the bulk of scientific studies have

found little evidence that vaccination is the

cause of the growing number of young children

being diagnosed with autism and other development

or neurological disorders, Fisher says the

question remains open because definitive,

independent studies haven't been done.

" We've seen a doubling of the number of vaccines

and doses that the government recommends to stay

healthy before age 6, while at the same time

we've seen a tripling of the number of children

with learning disabilities, asthma, diabetes and

other conditions, " Fisher said. " The only way to

put the question to rest is to do the proper science. "

To her, that means a large, independent study of

at least several thousand children of diverse

backgrounds enrolled in a full-scale

investigation into all possible environmental

causes of autism. That would mean some would go

unvaccinated into their teens, some partially

vaccinated and the rest following standard

guidelines. So far, no organization in the

medical establishment has agreed to sponsor such a test.

" No one is saying this is necessarily all due to

the increase in vaccines, but vaccines shouldn't

be left off the table when no one has come up with an answer,'' Fisher said.

In the meantime, " parents simply have to be

educated and put in the best position to consider

the risks and benefits of vaccines and the

various diseases. And they have to be free to

make informed, voluntary decisions for their

children. That includes being able to get

exemptions and work with physicians to adjust

vaccination schedules. Bigger and bigger

government clubs are not going to work,'' Fisher said.

Dr. Saad Omer, assistant professor at Emory

University's School of Public Health in Atlanta,

said he agrees that the public health community

needs to do a better job communicating both the

risks and benefits of vaccines. " And I think

government and industry need to spend more, be

more proactive, on vaccine safety research.

" On the front lines, no provider should be

dismissive of parents with concerns about

vaccines. You should listen and try to address

them, not kick them out of your practice,'' he added.

Fisher notes, " The safety movement was largely

launched by middle class moms who had the

education and time to analyze the medical

literature. But now we're in a third generation

of parents dealing with these issues, and it's a

more diverse group with a much broader reach

because of the Internet. They can see that

adverse reaction reports are similar around the world. "

Yet despite an explosion of vaccine Web sites,

pro and con, and assorted celebrity-led campaigns

demanding safer vaccines, studies suggest that

parents are most likely to accept the advice of

their pediatricians on childhood immunization.

Some doctors, following the lead of popular

online pediatrician Dr. Sears, do

cooperate with parents on spacing out shots in

the first years of life at wider intervals than

recommended, on the theory that some babies'

immune systems are less able to handle the

challenge of multiple vaccines given the same day.

Other doctors treat unvaccinated kids, but only

if parents sign off that they've been warned of the risks.

" The public health infrastructure of this

country, the CDC and the vaccine industry operate

on the ideology that some adverse reactions to

vaccines are acceptable to serve the greater

public good. But how many is too many -- 5, 5000

or 5 million. It's a slippery ethical slope, " Fisher said.

(E-mail Scripps News Service health and

science writer Lee Bowman at bowmanl(at)shns.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps News Service,

http://www.scrippsnews.com) Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments

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<http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/35756#comment-12606>Talking sense

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 08/28/2008 - 17:28.

Barbara Loe Fisher has been talking sense for

three decades. And the response from the medical authorities? Stonewall.

It's not good enough. We should have had the

independent studies that she has been calling for

decades ago. Yes, vaccines do good. But at what

cost? Cost in chronic illness and disease as

adverse effects - allergies/asthma/anaphylaxis;

arthritis/arthralgia; ADD/ADHD & dyslexia &

dyspraxia, & yes, the whole range of ASD/PDD-NOS

disorders; convulsions/seizures/epilepsy; type 1

diabetes, MS & other autoimmune diseases - the

list goes on and on. How much? We don't know.

Why? Because the authorities haven't done the

studies. Why not? Because they're ideologues:

nothing must stand in the way of their vaccine

schedule. That's not an American response to this

sort of thing. That's the sort of response one

would get from an authoritarian regime, like the

former Soviet Union. This is a scandal of major

proportions. It's long past time that it was

faced up to, honestly, and with integrity - ie,

what is the REAL risks-vs-benefits of various

vaccines? Time's a'wasting. Lives are at stake.

The truth must set us on a better road than the

one we are on now, which is leading nowhere but into darkness.

·

<http://www.scrippsnews.com/comment/reply/35756/12606>

reply<http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/35756#comment-12676>

Vaccines do have long-term side effects

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 06:24.

I actually showed the vaccine literature to a

Behavioral Optometrist and Audiologist. They both

looked at the adverse reactions listed and agreed

that many learning disabilities that we are

seeing today may be adverse reactions to vaccines

- Dyslexia, ADHD, Auditory Processing Disorders,

Visual Processing Disorders, etc. Well, if

vaccines use known brain damaging ingredients, it

is safe to blame them for the sharp rises in

these problems that we face today. I guess we

will never know as long as the medical community

continues to deny that vaccines may be harmful

for many people. Why don't you ask your state

representatives why they won't support a study on

the unvaccinated/vaccinated (a House Bill that

remains unsupported as I write this)? I will tell

you why. Many receive funds from the drug

companies. Why would they want to bite the hand that feeds them?

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