tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3553167434673254344.post5891985309926324274..comments2008-07-10T18:14:03.053-04:00Comments on R. Gerald Lovejoy: 1 in 150? Really?R. Gerald Lovejoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05578621740723050110noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3553167434673254344.post-8602365724541447102008-06-14T20:25:00.000-04:002008-06-14T20:25:00.000-04:00Regarding jonathan's comment:All of the scare stor...Regarding jonathan's comment:<BR/><BR/>All of the scare stories that Autism Speaks tosses around is <B>fantastic</B> for fund-raising purposes. Nothing motivates donors more than a lot of superheated rhetoric about how the opposition or the 'enemy' will be able to do all sorts of dastardly things if they do not send in that check.<BR/><BR/>Groups like Autism Speaks capitalize on the fears of parents. Autistic adults are not their target audience, which is why they brush us off. Austism Speaks is in kind of a weird position: they are trying to maintain a veneer of scientific respectability while pursuing a eugenicist agenda, while relying on the support of militant parents of ASD children, many of whom support the mercury superstition.R. Gerald Lovejoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05578621740723050110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3553167434673254344.post-5673830225127529832008-06-14T20:11:00.000-04:002008-06-14T20:11:00.000-04:00Regarding anonymous' comment:That is not how stati...Regarding anonymous' comment:<BR/><BR/>That is not how statistics works. The 1996 Atlanta study worked with a little less than a thousand autistic children out of a population of over 250,000 elementary school students in the Atlanta area. <BR/><BR/>Your knowing five children with Autism out of a population of less than a hundred (you did not say how much less) is entirely anecdotal. The sampling and the population are not large enough to be able to draw any sort of statistically significant conclusions.R. Gerald Lovejoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05578621740723050110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3553167434673254344.post-34684928392822665202008-06-14T18:48:00.000-04:002008-06-14T18:48:00.000-04:00a little epidemiology of my own I know 5 kids with...a little epidemiology of my own I know 5 kids with autism under 6 years old (not aspergers) and I don't know 100 kids.<BR/>I must be plain unluckyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3553167434673254344.post-39127247084330094202008-06-14T13:29:00.000-04:002008-06-14T13:29:00.000-04:00Actually the 1 in 150 figure comes from a study th...Actually the 1 in 150 figure comes from a study that the CDC published last year which was an average of various metropolitan areas on the prevalence of autism among 8 year olds. As you correctly point out, this figure has never been really replicated in the rest of the epidemiologic literature on autism. Assuming autism rates have remained stable throughout history which may or may not be the case then we can presume that if the CDC study is correct than 1 in 150 persons across all age groups would have some sort of autism spectrum disorder. <BR/><BR/>The statement of the president of autism speaks about 1.5 million <B> children</B> was clearly a gaffe on his part. But people are known to make mistakes. Also one of the problems is that groups like autism speaks want to keep autistic adults such as myself as invisible as possible because they don't want people to know what the true grim prognosis for us is. They want to treat us like peter pans.jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14972394536850151087noreply@blogger.com