The world has witnessed an explosion in autism over the past 25 years. A once almost unknown disability is now seen by health officials and mainstream medicine as a normal and acceptable part of childhood. Doctors are most often given credit for the soaring rate of autism due to their “better diagnosing” compared to doctors in the past.
The successive increases in the rate of autism since 2000 have never been a cause for concern for those running health care in the U.S. Incredibly, autism, the disorder that is always affecting more and more children with no known cause, cure or prevention has never even been labeled a “crisis” by anyone at the Centers for Disease Control.
For years officials have poured millions of dollars into dead-end, taxpayer funded research linking autism to mothers (much like the “refrigerator mom” claim of the 1950s and 60s): fat moms, drinking moms, smoking moms, old moms, moms who marry old dads, moms who have preemies, moms who have babies too close together, moms who live too close to freeways, moms with low levels of D3, moms who carry Neanderthal DNA, specific fatty acid in cord blood, moms on antidepressants, and BPA exposure during pregnancy.
These are the supposed “environmental” factors related to the increase in autism, IF there is an increase.
All this busywork science leaves autism as the perpetual mystery doctors have all the time in the world to figure out.
THIS HAS TO STOP
It is my hope that with a new President who has vowed to end the chronic disease epidemic in America, we might finally honestly and thoroughly address the autism epidemic as the national health care crisis that it clearly is.
FOR DECADES health officials at the CDC have virtually ignored autism. Their phony studies funded by NIH grants have created the façade that there is real research going on, but nothing ever changes except for the fact that there is always more autism.
In 1994 the definition of autism in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) was expanded to include milder autism, specifically Asperger’s. This led to the claim that there is more autism because the diagnosis was broadened over 30 years ago.
Since 2004, when the autism rate was one in every 166 children, one in every 102 boys, the rate has only increased, and each and every update in the rate was typically attributed to better diagnosing, greater awareness, broader definition, in addition to the possibility of unknown environmental factors.
Each pronouncement from officials at the CDC was given media attention briefly, usually coinciding with the blue lights and celebrations of April, Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month.
Media failure
The media, both print and broadcast, never ask officials uncomfortable questions like:
When are the increases going to finally stop?
Why can’t researchers figure out what causes autism”
Why are there always more boys with autism?
Why do some children start out normally developing and then lose learned skills, ending up with autism?
It seems officials are never embarrassed by their ignorance about autism. Looking over the decades of continuous increases, it is obvious that autism has never been a priority for anyone at the CDC. Their mission has been to cover up the autism epidemic.
This is the history of autism in the U.S.
2007, one in every 150 children has autism (one in 92 boys)
CBS News reported on a study showing the rate had increased from one in 166 to one in 150 eight year olds in the U.S.
CDC officials pointed out that the new figures don't represent all U.S. children, or show whether autism is increasing in the U.S.
Marshalynn Yeargin-Allsopp, MD,chief of the developmental disabilities branch at the CDC said the study“was designed to provide ‘more consistent and reliable estimates.’”
She was quoted saying, ‘It is extremely difficult to accurately estimate the number of children who have an ASD.’
CDC director Julie Gerberdingsaid,‘Our estimates are becoming better and more consistent, though we can't yet tell if there is a true increase in ASDs or if the changes are the result of our better studies.’
Yeargin-Allsopp described autism as an ‘urgent public health issue.’
2009, one in every 110 children has autism (one in 68 boys)
ABC News reported that the CDC “did not rule out increased surveillance and other factors as being responsible for the higher numbers.”
Dr. Catherine Rice at the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities said, ‘It's impossible to say how much is a true increase and how much is in identification.’
‘A simple explanation is not apparent.’
‘The CDC considers this a significant public health concern. This helps us know that it's important to look for causes of autism and to take these data to help us intervene for those individuals who are here now.’
2012, one in every 88 children has autism (one in 54 boys)
The Washington Post published, Federal study estimates 1 in 88 children has symptoms of autism, in which there was no urgency about autism despite the big jump in the rate.
About 1 in 88 children in the United States has autism and the prevalence of the condition has risen nearly 80 percent over the past decade, federal health officials reported Thursday.
The survey, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the latest evidence of a steady upward trend in a disorder whose cause remains unknown despite much research in recent years.
The rising rate of autism could be the result of finding children missed in earlier surveys or an actual increase in the condition — or a combination of the two.
Thomas R. Frieden, CDC’s director, was quoted saying that the higher numbers could just be ‘the result of better detection. It is a possibility.’ He went on to call for early intervention.
It's possible the rise is entirely due to better detection of autism, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said at a press conference about the study. We know that doctors and communities are getting better at identifying children with autism. But whether this explains all of the rise is not known, Frieden said.
Autism cases are on the rise again, largely due to wider screening and better diagnosis, federal health officials said Thursday.
The rate of U.S. cases of autism and related disorders rose to about 1 in 88 children. The previous estimate was 1 in 110. . . .
Health officials attribute the increase largely to better recognition of cases, through wide screening and better diagnosis. But the search for the cause of autism is really only beginning, and officials acknowledge that other factors may be helping to drive up the numbers.
"We're not quite sure the reasons for the increase," said Coleen Boyleof the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Stobbe did include Dr. Arthur Caplan director from the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics, who used the new rate as proof that vaccines don’t cause autism.
“The fact that autism rates continue to grow at an incredible rate makes it imperative that we find out why. But it should end the discussion about the causal role played by vaccines. The rate of growth is simply inconsistent with anything having to do with vaccination.”
2014, one in every 68 children has autism (one in 42 boys)
On CNNColeen Boyle once again admitted that officials don’t know if more children actually have autism.
One in 68 U.S. children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a 30% increase from 1 in 88 two years ago, according to a new report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We look at all of the characteristics of autism,” says Coleen Boyle, the director of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
The report is not designed to say why more children are being diagnosed with autism, Boyle says. But she believes increased awareness in identifying and diagnosing children contributes to the higher numbers.
The increased autism rates be a combination of increased awareness, better diagnosis by doctors and communities, and increased prevalence, said Boyle.
USA Today told everyone not to worry about the increase too.
What's still unknown is the driver of that increase. Many experts believe the rise is largely due to better awareness and diagnosis rather than a true increase in the number of children with the condition.
"We don't know the extent those factors explain in terms of the increase, but we clearly know they do play a role," said Coleen Boyle,director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the CDC. "Our system tells us what's going on. It (only) gives us clues as to the why."
The aging of parents is also known to be a factor; the chances of autism increase with the age of parents at conception. . . .
Despite their concern, experts said they were not surprised by the increase, because otherdata had suggested the numbers would continue to climb. In New Jersey, for instance, autism rates were 50% higher than in the rest of the nation in 2000, and they remained that much higher in 2010 – suggesting the national rates will continue to rise to catch up, said Walter Zahorodny, a psychologist who directs the New Jersey Autism Study. "To me it seems like autism prevalence can only get higher," he said.
2018, one in every 59 children has autism (one in 36 boys)
CNNpublished a piece citing Daisy Christensen,an epidemiologist at the CDC who readily admitted that officials still don’t understand the increases in autism.
One in 59 US children has autism, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new estimate is a prevalence rate of 1.7%, up from one in every 68 children (1.5%) in the 2016 report, which was based on data from 2012. . . .
The new estimate represents a 15% increase from two years prior and a 150% increase since 2000. . . .
The new government data can’t tell us exactly why the increase has occurred, Daisy Christensen said. “One of the main things we note this year is that the difference in prevalence between white and black children and between white and Hispanic children has decreased.” . . .
Environmental risk contributing to autism
Thomas Frazier, chief science officer at Autism Speaks pointed to other factors.
“We’re waiting longer to have kids, and older parents are more likely to have a child with autism, and premature babies are living at rates that they didn’t use to live at, so those babies are at risk for autism,” he said, adding that there are probably other unknown risk factors.
2020, one in every 54 children has autism (one in 33 boys)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released today its biennial update of autism's estimated prevalence among the nation's children, based on an analysis of 2016 medical and/or school records of 8-year-olds from 11 monitoring sites across the United States. The new report demonstrates real progress in early screening and diagnosis, the result of more than a decade of awareness and advocacy work by Autism Speaks and other organizations.
On CNN, CDC director Thomas Frieden once again credited doctorsfor ‘getting better at diagnosing autism.’
“Doctors are getting better at diagnosing autism; communities are getting much better at [providing] services to children with autism, and CDC scientists are getting much better at tracking which kids in the communities we’re studying have autism,” Frieden says.
“How much of that increase is a result of better tracking and how much of it is a result of an actual increase, we still don’t know. We know more about autism today than we have ever known,” he says, “but there is still so much we don’t know and wish that we knew.”
2021, one in every 44 children has autism (one in 27 boys)
The AAP News ran the story, Autism rate rises to 1 in 44, early identification improves, which attributed the increase to better diagnosing.
One in 44 8-year-old children has been identified as having autism spectrum disorder, a rate that continues to rise and indicates a need to make sure supports are in place for them, experts said.
The rate reported Thursday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report is up from one in 54 children two years prior. Experts said they can’t rule out environmental factors contributing to the increase but also pointed to improvements in screening and diagnosing children. . . .
“The substantial progress in early identification is good news because the earlier that children are identified with autism, the sooner they can be connected to services and support,” [CDC’s] National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities Director Karen Remley, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., FAAP, said in a press release. . . .
‘These kiddos’
“General pediatricians are very critical to addressing this need,” she said. “With more children being diagnosed, that tells me pediatricians are doing more and more to screen and identify these kiddos. And I think the more that pediatricians engage in understanding autism, the more that pediatricians can play a role in community-based diagnosis.”
Experts believe the increase in U.S. autism numbers reflects more awareness and wider availability of services.
New autism numbers released Thursday suggest more U.S. children are being diagnosed with the developmental condition and at younger ages. . . .
U.S. autism numbers have been on the rise for several years, but experts believe that reflects more awareness and wider availability of services to treat the condition rather than a true increase in the number of affected children. . . .
“There is some progress being made and the earlier kids get identified, the earlier they can access services that they might need to improve their developmental outcome,” said CDC researcher and co-authorKelly Shaw.
The CDC released 2018 data on Thursday from nearly a dozen states that showed, among 8-year-olds, 1 in 44 had been diagnosed with autism. In 2016, the number was 1 in 54 children for the same age group. While autism numbers have grown consistently over the years, experts believe the increase is due to raised awareness and access to treatment services, not the number of children who have autism.
2023, one in every 36 U.S. children has autism (one in 22 boys)
As usual, greater awareness was cited as the reason for the increase.
AAP News: CDC:Autism rate rises to 1 in 36 children
The prevalence of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has grown to one in 36 (2.8%) 8-year-olds, according to a new report. . . .
The overall rate reported Thursday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report is up from one in 44 8-year-olds two years prior.
“We can’t say for sure, but we suspect this is due to increased awareness leading to more children being identified with autism,” Karen Remley,M.D., M.B.A., M.P.H., FAAP, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said in a press conference.
It is easy to predict at this point that the next autism update (probably by April, 2025) will put our rate in line with other places with even more stunning numbers.
In classrooms today, an estimated 4% [1 in 25] of seven- to 14-year-olds now have a primary diagnosis of autism, while between 6% and 10% of children have ADHD.
1 in 22 4-year-old children were children were 1.5 times as likely Or 4.5% of 8-year-old children to be identifed with ASD as identifed with ASD by the were identifed with ASD by the CA-ADDM program in 2020.
This kind of service is needed more now than it ever has been, as figures published this year by the Department of Health reveal that 14,000 children between the ages of four and 15 have an autism diagnosis - around 4.7 per cent [1 in 21] of the school population.
Overall rates in our 4-year-olds of one in 53. And what we were seeing in our Somali 4-year-olds were rates of one in 16.
How long will this malfeasance continue? The agency that gets billions to oversee health care in the U.S. has passively looked on as more and more of our children were diagnosed with autism over the past quarter of a century. They don’t know any more today than they did in 2000.
Who regulates the regulators?
The only fact they are totally sure of is that their always-expanding vaccine program is in no way linked to the rate of autism, and they have the final say.
Addressing autism in this country cannot remain in the hands of people so conflicted, inept and unconcerned about what it is doing to our children. We need honest answers from those who see the autism epidemic as an existential emergency, which it clearly is.
A spectacular synopsis of all the lies that have been told about autim for decades and so concise and complete. Brava to Anne for this substack. It's really sickening to have to read all this, bringing back memories of countless lies over the years by both professionals and mainstream media. We know who needs to read all this, don't we?
Anne, yes put new people in charge in every aspect of the CDC. I can't express what should be done to the people who covered up the autism epidemic every way they could.
A spectacular synopsis of all the lies that have been told about autim for decades and so concise and complete. Brava to Anne for this substack. It's really sickening to have to read all this, bringing back memories of countless lies over the years by both professionals and mainstream media. We know who needs to read all this, don't we?
Anne, yes put new people in charge in every aspect of the CDC. I can't express what should be done to the people who covered up the autism epidemic every way they could.