Antivax Movement Goes to the Dogs

In The Politics of Autism, I look at the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism

Colin Mixson reports at Brooklyn Paper:

“We do see a higher number of clients who don’t want to vaccinate their animals,” said Dr. Amy Ford of the Veterinarian Wellness Center of Boerum Hill. “This may be stemming from the anti-vaccine movement, which people are now applying to their pets.”

The increased skepticism towards inoculating pets is likely the result of a national movement that claims vaccines can cause autism in children, according to the doctor, who said she has seen an increase in clients unwilling to have their dogs vaccinated in recent years. Core vaccines for canines include distemper, hepatitis, and rabies, which is required by law.

Hip youngsters who promote a more holistic lifestyle for their pets tend to be the most vocal anti-vaxxers, Ford said, but rarely have a particular reason for leaving Fido open to infection.

“It’s actually much more common in the hipster-y areas,” she said. “I really don’t know what the reasoning is, they just feel that injecting chemicals into their pet is going to cause problems.”

A Clinton Hill–based veterinarian, however, said she has heard clients suggest the inoculations could give their pups autism, echoing the argument of those who oppose vaccinating kids. But even if pooches were susceptible to the condition, their owners probably wouldn’t notice, according to the doctor.

“I had a client concerned about an autistic child who didn’t want to vaccinate the dog for the same reason,” said Dr. Stephanie Liff of Clinton Hill’s Pure Paws Veterinary Care. “We’ve never diagnosed autism in a dog. I don’t think you could.”

IACC Wants to Double Autism Research Funding

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the sources of autism research funding -- including the Pentagon.

Michelle Diament reports at Disability Scoop:

The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, a government advisory panel comprised of federal officials and members of the autism community, voted last week to request that public and private dollars for autism research double.

The committee wants to see funding reach $685 million in 2020, roughly twice the $343 million spent in 2015. Under the plan, spending would rise 14.85 percent each year in order to meet the goal.

From IACC's draft strategic plan:

In 2008, the reported autism research funding for Federal agencies and private organizations was $222.2 million and 745 projects. In 2015, funding for ASD research among both Federal and private funders totaled $342.6 million and spanned 1,373 research projects. Over the eight years, autism research showed a general upward trend in funding, increasing by 35% since 2008. Looking over the last eight years, significant advances have been made in autism research in each of the question areas prioritized by the Committee. But, there are still some areas of research that lack the support needed to foster significant progress. Since the development of the last IACC Strategic Plan, we have reached milestones in our discoveries in autism research, but have also uncovered emerging areas in need of investments. This next edition of the IACC Strategic Plan builds on the priorities established in the previous Strategic Plans, identifies the gaps in research, and provides recommendations for future research and services endeavors so that we continue to make a difference in the lives of people with ASD and their families.

ABA Provider Advocacy Group

The Politics of Autism includes a discussion of major interest groups such as Autism Speaks.

Lauren Rabin writes at The Huffington Post:

ABA is the only empirically validated method to address behaviors and deficits commonly associated with an autism diagnosis. However, it’s intensive and thus expensive which makes insurance coverage of the service extremely important. (A third important feature of ACA was the expansion of Medicaid funding, but we can leave that for another day).

While concern is understandable, there are organizations that are fighting to protect access to these services, including Autism Society of America and Autism Speaks. Another such organization is the National Coalition for Access to Autism Services (NCASS). NCASS is one of the only groups focused specifically on protecting access to autism services.

NCAAS was founded by prominent leaders in the autism community - consisting of organizations like Autism Business Association, Autism Spectrum Therapies, Center for Autism and Related Disorders and Butterfly Effects. These leaders realize that providers of autism services need a voice in order to protect access to quality autism services for all families in need. While NCAAS membership is primarily comprised of providers, its mission is to ensure access to the services needed by the autism community.

It was important for these leaders to join forces rather than advocate in Washington on their own.

“This is an extremely fragmented market made up of many small providers which makes it hard for our voices to be heard on a national level. Many of the leaders in the industry felt it was important to join together and protect the community we serve by ensuring access to evidence-based treatment,” said Justin Funches, a vice president at Autism Spectrum Therapies. Justin explained that together, there is a better chance we will be able to protect these critical services.
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To learn more about NCAAS visit their website or to learn about one of their top leaders,Autism Spectrum Therapies, click here.

Another provider group is the Coalition of Autism Service Providers (CASP). 

British Hacker

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between law enforcment and autistic people. 

Cara McGoogan reports at The Telegraph:

'I won’t go to America,’ says Lauri Love. ‘But I might die – that’s my alternative.’ Long-term imprisonment in an American jail or suicide: such is the 32-year-old British hacker’s bleak assessment of his options as he contemplates his future from a Bayswater café.

Two years ago, officers from the Metropolitan Police Service appeared at the door of the Suffolk home where Love lives with his parents to arrest him on an extradition request from the US. His alleged crime? Hacking into dozens of government computer systems, including those of the FBI, US Army and Department of Defense, stealing ‘massive amounts’ of data and defacing official websites.

Last September, Westminster Magistrates’ Court granted the extradition request. If found guilty of the charges, Love faces up to 99 years in prison and $9 million (£7 million) in fines. He is appealing the decision in the High Court in November on the grounds that he has Asperger’s syndrome and severe depression, and would be a suicide risk in the care of a US penal system unable to deal with his conditions.

...
If Love’s plight sounds familiar, that’s perhaps because it has echoes of the case of Gary McKinnon, the British hacker who was arrested in 2002 for allegedly penetrating the defences of Nasa and Pentagon computers in pursuit of evidence of UFOs. He believed the US government was hiding extraterrestrial technology that might solve the world’s energy problems.

Three years later, McKinnon was charged by US authorities who applied for his extradition from the UK. The case dragged on for years, during which time McKinnon, like Love, was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. By 2012, when Theresa May, then Home Secretary, ruled McKinnon would not, after all, be extradited, he was holed up in his house, researching suicide methods.

But their cases differ in one crucial respect. After ruling on McKinnon’s case, May introduced legislation that transferred the final decision-making power to the courts, making it difficult for the current Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, to intervene in Love’s case. All now rests on the High Court’s decision in November.

Restraint and Seclusion: State and Local Policy

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the use of restraint and seclusion.

Douglas J. Gagnon, Marybeth J. Mattingly, and Vincent J. Connelly, have an article in The Journal of Disability Policy Studies titled "The Restraint and Seclusion of Students With a Disability: Examining Trends in U.S. School Districts and Their Policy Implications." The abstract:

Restraint and seclusion are possible aversive responses to problematic student behavior used in some public schools, most commonly on students with a disability. Considerable recent attention has been paid to these practices both in the media and in Congress, and subsequently roughly half of U.S. states have made changes to their laws or policy statements around restraint and seclusion since 2009. In this article, we illuminate trends in restraint and seclusion across the United States in recent years to better inform policy discussions on these matters. Specifically, we examined rates of reported restraint and seclusion across U.S. districts in the 2009–2010 and 2011–2012 school years. We found that general trends persist between the data collections: Most districts report no/little use of restraint or seclusion, with a small percentage of districts reporting exceedingly high rates. Furthermore, the vast majority of variation exists within rather than between states, which may suggest the importance of local factors such as district policy, school culture, and practitioner support in determining the frequency of restraint and seclusion in schools.

Pushback on Trumpcare

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss Medicaid services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as other government programs at the federal and state levels.

Advocates with disabilities from @nationaladapt protested cuts to Medicaid today in the Hart Senate Building. This takes real courage. pic.twitter.com/UIvnj5PVXy

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 25, 2017

 

Medicaid Cuts Would Hurt Schools

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss Medicaid services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as other government programs at the federal and state levels.

Edwin Rios at Mother Jones:

As mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) from 1975, schools must provide a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities. But Congress has historically fallen short on covering the cost of educating special-needs students under IDEA, so states and local agencies have turned to Medicaid to help offset the difference and pay the cost for medical services and equipment. Starting in 1988, schools, like hospitals and insurance providers, have been able to request reimbursements from the Department of Health and Human Services for such expenditures.

In 2015, schools received nearly $4 billion in Medicaid funding, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, less than a third of what’s doled out for special education spending under IDEA.

That $4 billion has been essential to schools covering the costs of speech and physical therapy, behavioral services, and medical equipment, such as wheelchairs and walkers. For low-income students, districts use such funds to pay for vision, hearing, and other health screenings, as well as for school nurses and mental health services. It’s also important to note that school districts don’t just offer services to poor and disabled students during school hours; they act as a connecting point to enroll eligible low-income families in Medicaid and in the Children’s Health Insurance Program and help families find health care providers. In turn, schools get reimbursed for their outreach efforts.

Sherri Smith, the superintendent of Lower Dauphin, a suburban Pennsylvania school district of just 4,000 students, was also in D.C. recently to meet with representatives. She says the small but targeted $50,000 in Medicaid funding her district receives each year helps pay for more medical-related services, such as occupational and physical therapy, along with mental health services to serve a growing need for students in the district. The money also allows the district to pay for additional nurses and personal care aides for students with disabilities and low-income students.

“Schools are doing more outside the peripheral of just teaching and educating,” Smith says. “So actually getting Medicaid dollars for medical services for our students, which they need, allows us the opportunity to do so. I’m afraid that without those kinds of dollars, that will go away.”

Disability Turnout in 2016

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential campaigns. As I explain in the book, Hillary Clinton has a long history with the issue. In the 2016 campaign, a number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. He also has a bad record on disability issues more generally.

Fact sheet: Disability and Voter Turnout in the 2016 Elections Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse

Key points:

• 16.0 million people with disabilities reported voting in the November 2016 elections.

• The voter turnout rate of people with disabilities was 6 percentage points lower than that of people without disabilities. 

• Employed people with disabilities, however, were just as likely as employed people without disabilities to vote, suggesting that employment helps bring people with disabilities into mainstream political life. 

• The voter registration rate of people with disabilities was 2 percentage points lower than that of people without disabilities. The lower voter turnout was due both to a lower registration rate among people with disabilities, and to lower turnout among those who are registered. 

• If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as people without disabilities who have the same demographic characteristics, there would be about 2.2 million more voters. These figures are based on analysis of data from the federal government’s Current Population Survey Voting Supplement for November 2016. The computations were made using six disability questions introduced on the Current Population Survey in 2008. 

Note to political activists:  if you mobilize people with disabilities, you expand the electorate and you get different outcomes. 

DeVos Literally Does Not Know the First Thing about IDEA

In The Politics of Autism, I write about special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act:

DeVos at Office of Special Education Programs Leadership Conference:

Student success requires we put each of them at the center of everything we do, especially when things don't go right.

That’s why I’ve reestablished equal treatment of IDEA cases in the Office for Civil Rights, ensuring they are prioritized as much as any other complaints.

At Education Week, Evie Blad interviews Catherine Lhamon, the assistant secretary for civil rights in the Obama administration’s Department of Education:

I certainly don’t think that the posture of this administration—in what it has said and the actions it has taken to date—is consistent with the traditional ebbs and flows of administration change. The particular hostility to civil rights enforcement and a callous and astonishing lack of knowledge about the civil rights minimums—that are bipartisan and long-standing in this country—amaze me.

To be concrete about that, just two days ago, the secretary of education gave a speech in which she said that she directed the office for civil rights to return to improved [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] enforcement, but the office for civil rights does not enforce the IDEA. So that core lack of knowledge about the jurisdictional charge for the jewel of civil rights within the Department of Education is distressing and dangerous and is unprecedented in the existence of the Department of Education. So I don’t think what we are witnessing today is just the shift in administration. I think what we are witnessing today is dangerous on a level that we have not yet seen as a country.

The Business Council of Alabama Has Some Explaining To Do

The Politics of Autism includes an extensive discussion of insurance legislation in the states.

Mary Sell reports at The Times Record:

A group of lawmakers who fought for expanded insurance coverage for children with autism said they weren’t invited to the Business Council of Alabama’s summer conference at Point Clear next month.

The BCA was an opponent of the autism coverage legislation that was approved overwhelmingly by lawmakers, calling it an Obama-style mandate on employers that would increase premiums.

Rep. Jim Patterson, R-Meridianville, sponsored the bill in the House. He said this is the first time he hasn’t been invited to the BCA’s summer conference since he was elected in 2010.

“It looks like I’m in pretty good company,” Patterson said today. He also said he’s always had a good relationship with the BCA.

“I have a very good voting record when it comes to business,” he said. But on the autism issue, he said he listened to people in his area.

“I’m more concerned about pleasing my district than I am any group in Montgomery,” he said.

Brian Lyman reports at The Montgomery Advertiser:

Two senators said Thursday the Business Council of Alabama froze them out of an annual governmental affairs conference because of their support for legislation mandating coverage of autism therapies.

The House sponsor of the legislation and another senator who supported it said they also weren't invited, though they were not entirely certain why.

Sens. Dick Brewbaker, R-Pike Road and Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, who pushed hard for the legislation last spring, said in separate interviews they believed their support meant invitations to an annual summer conference hosted by BCA in Point Clear were withheld this year.

“I was viewed as the face of that bill,” Ward said. “That created some ill feelings with them and leadership.”

Nancy Hewston, a spokeswoman for BCA, strongly denied Thursday that the autism bill -- which BCA opposed -- was the reason they were not on the guest list, though a statement from Hewston did not give another reason.

Kyle Whitmire writes at the Alabama Media Group:

"They're mad at me because of the autism bill," Brewbaker said.

Brewbaker was a little more candid than others I spoke with. He's not running for reelection next year. He called the BCA a "punitive organization." While he supports 90 percent or more of what the BCA proposes, that apparently wasn't enough for them.

"That's the way politics is," he said. "It's a contact sport, and you have to have a thick skin. It's their conference and they can invite whoever they want. There are no hard feelings here."

Among a subset of anti-crony capitalism Republicans, BCA has been making enemies. State Rep. Ed Henry is among them. Like Brewbaker, he too, has said he won't seek reeelection and now he's not holding anything back.

"There's quite a few of us who tanked all their bull crap this year and now they're mad at us," he said.

Henry's no AEA Democrat or liberal snowflake. He supported Donald Trump before Trump was cool (at least among Republicans). He says his experience in the Legislature has been eye-opening.

"If corporate welfare is not as bad as regular welfare, it's right there on the cusp," Henry said. "We don't even know who is getting any of this stuff half the time when we vote on it."

Fighting Trumpcare

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss Medicaid services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as other government programs at the federal and state levels.

People with disabilities and their families have pushed back against Trumpcare.  Their protests have impact because the public tends to have more sympathy for the disabled than for able-bodied program recipients.

Jeff Stein at Vox:

“I think the concern of citizens generally has made an impact on me, yeah. Obviously, I get it a lot of feedback from the other side, too, in editorials and newspapers like the Wall Street Journal attacking me,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), one of the crucial swing votes on the bill. “And then you have the protesters on the other side ... those voices are heard, absolutely.”

It’s hard to keep an exact tally of the flurry of health care activism since Republicans took control of Congress. Daily Action, one progressive group, reported 200,000 calls — which, when added together, would stretch to a combined 495 days of call times — to Senate GOP offices over the health bill. Dozens of activists with disabilities have been arrested at sit-insprotesting Medicaid cuts throughout the country.

More than 400 protesters have been arrested in the Capitol alone over the past three weeks, including the NAACP’s William Barber. Activists have chartered planes to fly anti-TrumpCare banners in West Virginia and Ohio; others have driven anti-TrumpCare tractors or launched cross-state bus tours.

In Fort Wayne, Brian Francisco reports at The Journal-Gazette:

About 40 people played dead for one minute Tuesday outside the E. Ross Adair Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse downtown.

Holding paper replicas of tombstones, they lay down on the plaza in front of the building to silently protest Republican efforts in Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Rowan Greene, dressed as the Grim Reaper, walked among the reposing crowd.

Their demonstration – organized by Indivisible, Fort Wayne Liberation Movement and United Activists of Fort Wayne – was aimed at a tenant of the federal building: Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., who has not said how he will vote on the Better Care Reconciliation Act.
...

Susan Catterall of Hamilton, a mother of two adult children with autism, said people with disabilities are at risk of losing medical care if Congress curbs state Medicaid expansions created by the Affordable Care Act. She said Indiana's expanded Medicaid program, known as Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0, has drastically cut the waiting time for people enrolling in home services for autism and developmental disabilities.

“This is the United States of America. We are capable of taking care of the disabled, the poor and the elderly,” Catterall shouted to the crowd.

AMA Opposes Vaccine Commission

In The Politics of Autism, I look at the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism

Sara Berg writes at AMA Wire:

At the 2017 AMA Annual Meeting in Chicago, the AMA House of Delegates (HOD) adopted policies aimed at protecting children’s health by addressing vaccine policy...
It remains clear that the use of vaccines benefits public and individual health. Yet the authors of a resolution on the topic said that “physicians remain concerned the current federal administration may attempt to establish new vaccine policy based on unfounded and unscientific facts.”

In recognition that vaccinations are safe and effective, and that their benefits far outweigh any risks, the AMA adopted policy that:

• Supports the rigorous scientific process of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices as well as its development of recommended immunization schedules for the nation.
• Recognizes the substantial body of scientific evidence that has disproven a link between vaccines and autism.
• Opposes the creation of a new federal commission on vaccine safety whose task is to study an association between autism and vaccines.

“The AMA fully supports the overwhelming body of evidence and rigorous scientific process used by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices which demonstrate vaccines are among the most effective and safest interventions to both prevent individual illness and protect the health of the public,” William E. Kobler, MD said in a statement. Dr. Kobler is a member of the AMA Board of Trustees.

“We are deeply concerned that creating a new federal commission on vaccine safety to study the already disproven association between autism and vaccines would cause unnecessary confusion and adversely impact parental decision-making and immunization practices,” Dr. Kobler added. “The United States has a long-standing system for ensuring the ongoing development, safety, and efficacy of vaccines.”

“The AMA will continue its work to promote public understanding and confidence in the use of vaccines in order to prevent resurgence in vaccine-preventable illnesses and deaths,” concluded Dr. Kobler.

Crime Against People with Disabilities

In The Politics of Autism, I write that people with disabilities are victims of violent crime much more often than people without disabilities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics does not report separately on autistic victims, but it does note that the victimization rate is especially high among those whose disabilities are cognitive. 

Erika Harrell has a report at the Bureau of Justice Statistics titled "Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009-2015 - Statistical Tables."

In 2015, the rate of violent victimization against persons with disabilities (29.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older) was 2.5 times higher than the rate for persons without disabilities (11.8 per 1,000), which was adjusted to account for the differences between the age distributions for persons with and without disabilities (see Methodology) (figure 1). 1 In every year from 2009 to 2015, the rate of violent victimization against persons with disabilities was at least twice the age-adjusted rate for persons without disabilities. The rate of violent victimization increased from 2011 to 2012 for both persons with and without disabilities. From 2012 to 2015, the rate  emained steady for persons with disabilities and decreased for persons without disabilities.

...
During 2011-15, persons with cognitive disabilities had the highest rates of total violent crime (57.9 per 1,000), serious violent crime (22.3 per 1,000), and simple assault (35.6 per 1,000) among the disability types measured [emphasis added]