Autism and Older Dads
Sigh. Here we go again. I don’t know what causes autism. Nobody does. It would appear it’s the vaccines but nobody wants it to be vaccines so we ignore that and look for other answers. Even the people we trust the most do it. Scientists do it. Pediatricians do it. Nobody trusts bureaucrats but they do it too. They all tell us it can’t possibly be vaccines. It has to be something else. We don’t even look at them. If that’s the answer we don’t want to know.
Now there’s a new study out suggesting autism may be correlated with the age of the father, anything to distract us. Never mind the study only considered people born in Israel in the 1980s, or that there were very few cases of autism in the sample, only thirteen born to fathers over 40. If there has been an increase in the incidence of autism in Israel the study didn’t address it. If someone would explain to me how Israeli experience from the 1980s bears on a phenomenal increase in American autism beginning in the 1990s I would be very much appreciative. Maybe they could also explain why autism seems to affect Israeli girls as often as boys. In this country boys are at a 4:1 disadvantage.
The study is welcome enough. Anything new on the subject helps us to understand it better. I just don’t want it to divert attention from the obvious and a number of things are indeed obvious. Older dads aren’t new, no pun intended. If something bad were happening to their children somebody would have noticed a few thousand years ago. We would have old wife’s tales to caution us. That we don’t helps to explain why autism hasn’t been around any longer than it has. If nothing else, natural selection would have weeded it out by now.
Anybody who wants to explain what causes autism has to address that basic fact. It’s new. We didn’t just miss it for all those years. It wasn’t there. Ask anybody who’s been a teacher. Schools are seeing something extraordinary. They had autistic children twenty five years ago and didn’t know what to do with them but there were only a few cases. Today’s numbers are astounding. To suggest it’s caused by delayed parenthood is unconscionable. Something has changed and that isn’t it.
Who are these people? Why do they refuse to ask serious questions? Why do we trust them? Why do we call them scientists? Is it their doctoral degrees? Does that give them a pass? Does it give us a pass? Do we cede to them our responsibility to make rational judgments? Do we just set our brains to one side? We are talking about our children here. We can’t transfer that responsibility to anyone.
The new study’s conclusions may be right, as far as they go. Something may be happening to us as we age that poses a danger. Prolonged exposure to some new environmental factor could be doing tragic damage. The question is what? What happened in the 1990s that caused this? If not vaccines then what? Sonograms? Cell phones? Processed foods? The internet? Oprah? What?
Could we please start by conducting a real investigation into the childhood immunization program with its attendant risks and benefits? Don’t tell me it’s been done. I’ve looked. It hasn’t been done. Until it has don’t give me these bizarre theories and pass them off as science. And don’t ask me to trust the people in charge. My grandson has autism. I’m not in a trusting mood.
Now there’s a new study out suggesting autism may be correlated with the age of the father, anything to distract us. Never mind the study only considered people born in Israel in the 1980s, or that there were very few cases of autism in the sample, only thirteen born to fathers over 40. If there has been an increase in the incidence of autism in Israel the study didn’t address it. If someone would explain to me how Israeli experience from the 1980s bears on a phenomenal increase in American autism beginning in the 1990s I would be very much appreciative. Maybe they could also explain why autism seems to affect Israeli girls as often as boys. In this country boys are at a 4:1 disadvantage.
The study is welcome enough. Anything new on the subject helps us to understand it better. I just don’t want it to divert attention from the obvious and a number of things are indeed obvious. Older dads aren’t new, no pun intended. If something bad were happening to their children somebody would have noticed a few thousand years ago. We would have old wife’s tales to caution us. That we don’t helps to explain why autism hasn’t been around any longer than it has. If nothing else, natural selection would have weeded it out by now.
Anybody who wants to explain what causes autism has to address that basic fact. It’s new. We didn’t just miss it for all those years. It wasn’t there. Ask anybody who’s been a teacher. Schools are seeing something extraordinary. They had autistic children twenty five years ago and didn’t know what to do with them but there were only a few cases. Today’s numbers are astounding. To suggest it’s caused by delayed parenthood is unconscionable. Something has changed and that isn’t it.
Who are these people? Why do they refuse to ask serious questions? Why do we trust them? Why do we call them scientists? Is it their doctoral degrees? Does that give them a pass? Does it give us a pass? Do we cede to them our responsibility to make rational judgments? Do we just set our brains to one side? We are talking about our children here. We can’t transfer that responsibility to anyone.
The new study’s conclusions may be right, as far as they go. Something may be happening to us as we age that poses a danger. Prolonged exposure to some new environmental factor could be doing tragic damage. The question is what? What happened in the 1990s that caused this? If not vaccines then what? Sonograms? Cell phones? Processed foods? The internet? Oprah? What?
Could we please start by conducting a real investigation into the childhood immunization program with its attendant risks and benefits? Don’t tell me it’s been done. I’ve looked. It hasn’t been done. Until it has don’t give me these bizarre theories and pass them off as science. And don’t ask me to trust the people in charge. My grandson has autism. I’m not in a trusting mood.
posted by Onfoot at 12:35 PM
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