Vaccine Safety: A Conversation With Dr. Paul Offit

March 13, 2013January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

We occasionally feature posts about vaccines on this site and our Facebook page, to debunk declining but Internet-fanned beliefs about vaccines being linked to autism. Though our 2011 interview with vaccine and infectious disease expert Dr. Paul Offit addresses most questions people have about autism and vaccines, we sometimes get queries outside that interview’s scope. So I was grateful for the opportunity to have another conversation with Dr. Offit when he spoke at the Children’s Hospital and Research Center of Oakland earlier this month, and ask him some of your questions. Matt Carey from Left Brain/Right Brain joined the conversation as well. -SR TPGA: Autism rates have not declined since 2001 event though thimerosal was eliminated from most vaccines in the US by then. In some cases, those who believe in an autism-vaccine link have just shifted the goalposts to injection of foreign substances into the body and other theories.…

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Autism & Gut Inflammation Research: Wakefield’s Taint Persists

November 23, 2012January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Emily Willingham emilywillinghamphd.com Stomach Endoscopy. Source: Wikimedia Commons Are autism, gut inflammation, and immune issues linked? One recent sponsored supplement published in the journal Pediatrics argues that they are. There’s certainly some evidence, although quite mixed, hinting at a link between immune or gut issues and a subset of people with autism, although which one triggers the other is nowhere near resolved. What one might hope is resolved is that it’s difficult to construct solid scientific arguments on a shaky foundation that incorporates retracted papers. Th Pediatrics GI-autism supplement reflects information derived from a symposium conducted in 2009, one convened to talk about GI problems and autism. The authors are recognizable as those whose interest has very much been focused on autism as inflammation, particularly gut inflammation. The problem has been pinning down specifically what that inflammation might be and where it occurs. To demonstrate that such evidence has been identified,…