Anti-Anti-Vax Steve Novella

[mathkills]

My field is not anything even remotely related to autism, so I was hoping that maybe an expert (or the next best thing) would read my question and pose an answer. Could the increase in autism simply be due to the lack of evolutionary processes in modern humans, specifically due to the extremely large breeding population, and the lack of any of these diseases really shortening a persons chance to have offspring (ie better medical care, etc) ??

[eskosmap]

@mathkills Your question was answered in the video at about 4:45. Dr Novella states that the true rate of autism doesn't appear to be increasing, it's probably just an artifact of modern diagnosis.

[jwlbailey]

Love your podcasts Doctor - keep 'em coming! The Novella brothers rock!

[marlorodo]

When a doctor tells you there is something wrong with your babay after he was born healthy you have to find an answer. Miss Mc Carthy is a wonderfull human person and mother. If you are an intelligent person and you see around yourself all the selfishness from the doctors, farmaceutics and healthcare systems, you come to a simple conclusion, they dont care, not one bit.

[cyranothe2nd]

@marlorodo No doctor can guarantee that a baby will be healthy for life. And, rather than chalk it up to bad luck, people like poor Ms. McCarthy are looking for someone to blame, evidence be damned. She doesn't care that there isn't a shred of real evidence to support her position--she just needs it to be someone's fault because if it's not, she has to accept that sometimes things just happen. And that's sad. Because there are a lot of dumb ppl that will listen to her and their kids will suffer.

[macornelius]

Yeah, @marlorodo, those doctors that have dedicated their lives to saving lives are just greedy and empirical knowledge has no place in medicine. Eating boogers on MTV is a much better qualification to make a scientific statement than actual research.

[johnnyd101]

@marlorodo bullshit and its ph not f

[wgfcrafty]

@marlorodo I agreeezzzzz dem farmecutical kompaniesss kill muh babayayiesssss!!!!!!!!11!11

Holy shit. Companies whose best interest for profit is developing blockbuster drugs to make billions by SAVING PEOPLE have your worst interest in mind? Not only would hurting you, hurt their profits, but would open them up to gigantic lawsuits.

Besides, IF (which they don't) vaccines cause autism, as Pen and Teller point out, you would still be better off vaccinating.

[803brando]

some of the authors, it was 10 authors that retracted.

[HoovedAvenger]

I see Steve wearing some electronic devices on his belt... Is it the prototype of the Skeptics' Utility Belt? Let's hope so! :-)

[thpt]

Pre-industrial autistic-spectrum members of society baked bread every day, gathered wood, herded sheep, etc. Because today's society has obviated these manual-labor jobs, autistic-spectrum occupations have dwindled (and, arguably, toxins have increased the number of a-s members). What seems like a 'sudden crisis' today has, in the past, been a constant sturdy benefit to the village.

[HippieEater]

And which toxins would that be then?

[thpt]

Pthalates and other estrogen-mimicking additives to plastics. Google "the disappearing male", a documentary by CBC. Males, male genital size, undamaged male babies, and male fertility rates are all dropping fast. Bye bye human race!

[c6gunner]

That's mostly scare-mongering. CBC documentaries are very hit-and-miss.  However, even if the statistics/analysis are completely accurate, your conclusion is unwarranted.

[tjockisgurra]

Or, it could be the broadened diagnosis that has caused the increase in diagnosed...

[HoovedAvenger]

Exactly. Nail hit, right on the head!

[thesheep91]

Steven fucking Novella! Gotta love him!

Where can I see the rest of this video?

[leporidus]

Dr Novella is one of these people with apparently never-ceasing energy. He writes on his own neurologicablog, on sciencebasedmedicine, on sgublog ("The Rogues Gallery") and on skepticblog. He's conducting and editing two podcasts (SGU and 5x5). All this between family and work.

Who needs sleep, right?