I don't write about autism much on this site because it's a bit out of my wheelhouse and because making a statement in either direction on the vaccine connection/non-connection to the disorder invites a huge fight that is almost impossible to sort out. Anyway, there was an NIMH-sponsored meeting in Indianapolis yesterday to bring experts together to discuss a recently-publicized case where the government admits that a girl's autism was most likely related to being vaccinated. The apparent connection was driven by diseased mitochondria in the girl.
In advance of the meeting, the New York Times' excellent Gardiner Harris dug up records indicating a second apparent case, this time out involving a girl who took a FluMist vaccine earlier this year and a week later:
"'[B]ecame weak with multiple episodes of falling to ground' and 'difficulty walking,' according to a case report filed with federal health officials and obtained by The New York Times."The girl grew increasingly weak and feverish and 'became more limp, appears sleepy, acts as if drunk,' the report said. She was hospitalized and underwent surgery and was finally withdrawn from life support. She died on April 5, according to the report."
It wasn't clear if experts were going to discuss this case as well and I've seen no subsequent press coverage of the meeting so far. I pass all of this along for what it's worth to you.
My own view is that, since the Institute of Medicine declared that there was no scientific evidence of a vaccine-autism link in 2004, there has certainly been increasing noise around the disorder and the scientific consensus. And, it's enough to make me think that something very odd has gone on with all of these children that has little to do with what we think we already know. What it is, I don't know. Maybe no one does.
If you want to see how heated things can get, check this comment thread at Age of Autism where Harris is savaged for not being aggressive enough, even though he's just pushed some vital information out into the public sphere.
