Under Barefoot pressure, Obama agrees to fight autism
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Charlottesville radio host and autism parent Coy Barefoot not only scored an interview with presidential candidate Barack Obama a couple of days ago. He also got the Illinois senator to elevate the plight of autistic children, now estimated at one to six per 1,000 births.
“We are desperate,” said Barefoot, “for a political leader to stand up and say, ‘We have a national crisis, and we are going to help these children.’ Are you that guy?”
“I am,” Obama replied.
Last month, Barefoot, who has an autistic six-year-old son, helped push controversial autism doubter Michael Savage off WINA radio. The five-minute interview with Obama originally aired on WINA, where Barefoot hosts an afternoon drive-time show called “Charlottesville, Right Now.”
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Obama is my ninja
Candidates by nature recognize and support what should be done. Very few get it done.
I have my doubts about anything either Obama or McCain say. They doulbe-speak in order to get elected. I remember when the baffoon currently in the white house was running for his second term and the question of the federal removal of thimerasl (mercury) from vaccines came up. He PROMISED to have it removed if re-elected. Well, in November of 07 he had the golden oppertunity and he vetoed the bill BECAUSE of the manditory removal of thimerasol.
The only one running (and yes he still is in the race) that I will vote for is Ron Paul. For many reasons he is FAR better than either of the other 2 candidates. One of those reasons is he does NOT believe that vaccinating should be manditory. That the parents have the final say what should be injected into THEIR children.
Deborah
I don’t think public health should be a partisan issue but
Obama has made it clear he won’t do anything but the status-quo, which is unacceptable, for children with autism. His official stance is to do nothing. We don’t need that.
We need a president who will stand up to the FDA, CDC and NIH and demand that real research get done NOW, regardless of the implications to the third rail of public medicine - the vaccine program. The vaccination schedule and components cause horrific side effects, such as autism and Americans deserve a safer alternative. NOW. To date, the US government has not funded one competent study on the vaccination schedule nor one competent study on vaccines and autism. Even the HHS knows, vaccinations ARE causal. And this new measles outbreak is a shot across the bow to public health officials: if you refuse to clean the vaccines up, we won’t get ANY of them. GREEN OUR VACCINES. Or deal with the fallout of no one trusting you and your vaccines.
McCain publicly said that he believed vaccines needed to be studied and that they may be causing the increase.
btw, Measles is a hell of a lot better than autism.
After answering with “I am” Sen. Obama continues to say, “I know what an extraordinary hardship and challenge it is and the rates have grown to epidemic proportions. That’s why I’ve worked with organization like Autism Speaks to make sure we are increasing funding for research, basic science to investigate the underlying causes.” If elected, hopefully Sen. Obama will not put all his research eggs exclusively into the Autism Speaks basket.
Imagine that! Obama or any other political person pandering. A blind person could have seen that coming.
I for one, wholly agree that I hope he does not look to AS as the end all and be all. As an individual with an autism difference, raising an adult son with an autism difference, vaccines are hardly our most important concern. That is not that we don’t champion the need for good research, but housing, employment, sexual/emotional abuse, psychiatric maltreatment, massive mis/underdiagnosis of women with asds, educational challenges will quickly overtake any interest a family has in vaccine issues. When informally polled at a recent IACC meeting, parents overwhelmingly chose adult services over research as their priority. These issue are what families really need to engage their candidates on. I also note that while individuals who seek an accessible, authentic experience living with autism, not trying to delete it are expected to be tolerant of the “cure” mentality, “cure” persons are not embracing and accepting of those of us who believe we are God’s creation and as such, “good enough”. Also, it is important to note that in places where they are doing real research on numbers, 1 in 50-86 is more likely to be accurate. (Particularly when you realize how many women experience multiple misdiagnoses (and the damage that ensues) before they ‘get’ to AS.
Holly,
I currently have a four month old baby girl. We have intensly researched vaccines and the science backing a “moving-away” from vaccines. I have spoken with our pediatrician, whom I believe to be extremely logical and intelligent, and he feels that there is absolutely no good science to support the claim. If you have any website or info that might, pleast post….
Dena,
We need to change both ends of the front. The vaccines which is causing the epidemic and finding meaningful existences for those approaching adulthood so they can have that “authentic experience living with autism” that you mentioned.
As to our mentality (for those whom you mistakenly suggest want to “cure” our children of autism) of wanting to make our children’s lives as pain free as possible: exactly what is wrong with this goal?
Our children are physically sick from their GI systems all the way up to their brains. This is an illness. The fact that it’s induced by vaccines should be alarming yes, but not the focal point of why we are trying to make our kids as healthy as possible. If a child was diagnosed with cancer you would go to the ends of the earth to make them better, not give them
“authentic experience living with cancer”.
As to tolerance; I think it is something both camps should learn. Niether is being very nice about their stance. I myself choose to help heal my son’s damaged body. If that takes away the autism, then I think it’s safe to say that it wasn’t autism to begin with, rather it was physical issues that presented as autism. Which of course leads me to believe that vaccines did in fact play a PART in the issues that he presented.
Adam,
Please read The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears. Or What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Childhood Vaccinations by Dr. Cave. There are also three other sources that I found very helpful in laying out the history of the political train wreck behind the Autism epidemic: one is the book Evidence of Harm by David Kirby, and the others are articles you can find via google–Deadly Immunity by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the “Goalposts” article by J.B. Handley. Finally, read through some of the websites like Generation Rescue and TACAnow. I’m sure there are others on this post that have other recommendations–but these were some of the most helpful to my family… I’m sure your pediatrician means well, but the information given to our pediatricians regarding the “science” behind vaccine studies is funneled through the CDC and AAP who are extremely enmeshed with the pharmaceutical industry. As others have stated here, no independent studies exist. AND (this is big) the general group of studies the medical community has been using to deny the vaccine/autism link for so long were questioned by the House Appropriations Committee years ago and were recently conceded by the director of the CDC herself to be flawed and unreliable. Unfortunately, that enormous concession did not make mainstream headlines and the medical community and media continue to refer to those studies as reliable science. It’s disgusting, really. You are SO smart to be doing your research—please do more. Our “club” needs no more new members! Take care of that sweet baby girl!
I agree wholly with ending medical complications any child endures. That is NOT the same and “curing” autism. You only have to look to the downs syndrome community where they don’t work to ameliorate the challenges of DS but 90% abort. I am all for supporting families in obtaining quality child care, case management, proper insurance issues… these issues are not related to autism, but crappy service delivery. Many people would not feel so marginalized by ASD if they had what they needed. Still, I honor you as a parent, as I honor all parents and individuals in their journey through autism.
Dena