More autism news

Recently J&J’s Risperdal, a drug formerly approved to treat schizophrenia, was approved to treat irritability symptoms stemming from autism. A group has taken issue with the ruling, claiming that the risks (including the risk of tardive dyskinesia) outweigh the benefits.

TV and autism — let the debate begin

??Slate?? has an article on how TV might cause autism. It’s a good food for thought article, but should be read along with the comments. Who knows whether TV has a role in autism. It probably does, to a small degree, just as thimerosal probably does, to a small degree (and probably in a relatively [...]

Statistical critique: where do we draw the line? (An application to drug safety analysis)

I just read an interesting entry (and thread) on Andrew Gelman’s statistical blog that goes along the lines of some questions I have been pondering lately. Specifically, these two paragraphs hit me (this is form an email to Gelman): The whole spirit of your blog would have led, in my view, to a rejection of [...]

Lying with statistics: when statistics can’t tell the truth, or why I’m interested in the statistics of drug safety (and an application to the thimerosal-autism controversy)

Drug safety is hard to study. There are so many things that can go wrong with the human body. To statistically analyze every single possible thing that can go wrong is impossible. There are thousands of possible adverse events, a whole lot of laboratory measurements that have to be taken (so we can address, among [...]

While anti-vaccine researchers are being charged with ethical lapses, the mercury issue marches on

Dr. Mercola links to an public service announcement about the presence of mercury in vaccines. This PSA(Public Service Announcement) contains one tidbit that I haven’t heard yet: that the EPA suggests that the amount of mercury still present in vaccines is safe only if you weigh over 500 pounds. Is there a source for this [...]

Mark and David Geiers’ IRB: If there is a story here, I’m disappointed

Activists asserting a connection between vaccines (or components of vaccines) and autism have had a hard time of late. First, it was Dr. Wakefield, proponent of the theory of the connection between the MMR(Mumps, Measles, Rubella) vaccine and both autism and irritable bowels, was formally charged with professional misconduct. Now, Kathleen Siedel of Neurodiversity has [...]

Author of MMR and autism link paper charged with misconduct — a tale of two opinions

By now it’s no secret that Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a major impetus behind the original 1998 paper in ??The Lancet?? (now retracted) that showed a link between the MMR(Mumps, Measles, Rubella) vaccine and autism, has been charged with misconduct related to the research. Everybody’s favorite skeptie writes about the topic here (and a more obnoxious [...]

Statistical commentary on the Geiers’ latest paper, Part IV

In “Part I”:http://www.randomjohn.info/wordpress/2006/03/03/statistical-commentary-on-the-geiers-latest-paper-part-i/, “Part II”:http://www.randomjohn.info/wordpress/2006/03/03/statistical-commentary-on-the-geiers-latest-paper-part-ii/, and “Part III”:http://www.randomjohn.info/wordpress/2006/03/03/statistical-commentary-on-the-geiers-latest-paper-part-iii/ of this series I discussed the statistical methodologies in the recent paper by Mark and David Geier, who extracted data from the VAERS(Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) and the CDDS(California Department of Developmental Services) and tried to show that efforts to remove the compound thimerosal from vaccines [...]

Statistical commentary on the Geiers’ latest paper, Part III

In “Part I”:http://www.randomjohn.info/wordpress/2006/03/03/statistical-commentary-on-the-geiers-latest-paper-part-i/ and “Part II”:http://www.randomjohn.info/wordpress/2006/03/03/statistical-commentary-on-the-geiers-latest-paper-part-ii/ of this series I discussed the statistical methodologies in the recent paper by Mark and David Geier, who extracted data from the VAERS(Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) and the CDDS(California Department of Developmental Services) and tried to show that efforts to remove the compound thimerosal from vaccines have resulted [...]

Statistical commentary on the Geiers’ latest paper, Part II

In “Part I”:http://www.randomjohn.info/wordpress/2006/03/03/statistical-commentary-on-the-geiers-latest-paper-part-i/, I discussed how Mark and David Geier in their paper used a bizarre analysis of VAERS(Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) data to support their conclusion that the removal of thimerosal from vaccines resulted in a decline in cases of newly diagnosed/reported autism. I concluded that their incorrect analysis did not really support [...]