Amish and Autism

[Aurora]

The Amish don't get vaccines, the Amish don't get sickle cell anemia, therefore vaccines must cause sickle cell anemia!!

Nobel committee, please forward meh prize to twin2@freejinger.org. Txs.

Zsu posted a link to this on the PPs wall.

No, no, the Nobel committee CALLS you, not emails. In the middle of the night, from Sweden. Everyone knows that! ;)

[Terrie]

No, no, the Nobel committee CALLS you, not emails. In the middle of the night, from Sweden. Everyone knows that! ;)

I knew that! Mainly because I love Richard Feynman's autobiography, where he describes this. And his wife didn't believe him.

[alaeangelorum]

Argh, even brief googling brings up evidence that she's wrong... http://imfar.confex.com/imfar/2010/webp ... r7336.html

(Though I haven't bothered to read that article yet so it might be useless)

ETA: link not broken as again they won't care

[Aurora]

I knew that! Mainly because I love Richard Feynman's autobiography, where he describes this. And his wife didn't believe him.

Actually, I think that's where I read it, too! That's funny.

[breaker]

Zsu posted a link to this on the PPs wall.

Completely off topic, but did anyone see the Bible verse PP posted in reference to World AIDS Day on his wall? The comments in that thread make me want to bleach my own brain.

"I bet the percentage of people with AIDS that aren't homos is the same percentage of women with unplanned pregnancies who aren't whores."

Wow.

First of all, worldwide, HIV transmission occurs overwhelmingly between heterosexual couples. I can't remember the exact figures but it accounts for something like 97% of cases in certain regions (particularly sub-Saharan Africa, where transmission is highest). If AIDS is supposed to be God's vengeance on gays he is doing it terribly inefficiently and sacrificing millions of innocents in the process. The stupidity is just so sad.

[Rachel333]

In the US about 40% of people with HIV are straight, so 40% of women with unplanned pregnancies aren't whores?. That's actually more generous than I would have expected from PP.

In sub-Saharan Africa HIV is mainly spread by heterosexual sex (though since gay sex is illegal in most of the countries with the highest HIV rates, I doubt statistics are completely accurate). In the rest of the world it's mainly men who have sex with men. Still, there are way too many straight people with HIV to say it's a punishment for the gays.

[breaker]

In the US about 40% of people with HIV are straight, so 40% of women with unplanned pregnancies aren't whores?. That's actually more generous than I would have expected from PP.

LOL, that's actually a good spin to put on it. The comment was from one of his flock though, not PP himself.

In sub-Saharan Africa HIV is mainly spread by heterosexual sex (though since gay sex is illegal in most of the countries with the highest HIV rates, I doubt statistics are completely accurate). In the rest of the world it's mainly men who have sex with men.

That's true, but comparably fewer people get HIV in developed countries so the overall worldwide transmission rate is still mainly heterosexual, around 70-80%, with the rest made up variously of male homosexual sex, intravenous drug use and mother to child transmission. Either way, God cast the net pretty wide if he was aiming for the evil gays.

[Rachel333]

The thing is, we really don't know what the prevalence of HIV is among gay men in Africa, so I doubt the transmission rate is accurate (though I imagine heterosexual sex would still account for the majority of HIV cases). The rate of HIV among gay men in the US is ridiculously high, so it would probably be even worse in sub-Saharan Africa.

It's such a horrible disease. No one deserves it and I'm completely disgusted by those who think God's doing it to punish the gays.

[Lily]

I can't wrap my head around this. The logic is so stunningly bad that it is sending me into system overload.

I'm deeply suspicious of vaccines and only give them on a very selective basis, but the idea that vaccines cause autism has always been preposterous to me.

Honestly, I think the idea that the Amish don't get autism is a combination of two very simple factors:

1: Autism's murky and evolving/broadening definition. A decade ago, few people had even heard of Aspergers. Now it's the new ADHD. Everybody has it! Autism used to be a serious thing and had a much more conservative criteria for diagnosis. Now it's a "spectrum" disorder which can include anything from total system shutdown in kids that won't even look you in the eye and will never speak or dress themselves or interact with other people on a normal human level, to mild social awkwardness or shyness. The Amish aren't exactly up to date on... well, anything. They may not even know what to look for when it's something like Aspergers.

2: The Amish are very secretive and aren't likely to report it even if their kid has low-functioning autism, let alone high-functioning. Hell, from the few Amish people I've met, if you took 3/4 of them into the doctor's looking for a diagnosis and a convenient label like lots of people do today (for whatever reason, I don't understand that mentality, but that's neither here nor there), they'd be diagnosed with "Aspergers" in a heartbeat because they're completely socially stunted. How do you know which ones are just weirdos and which of them have a disorder if MOST of them are weirdos?

[Mama Mia]

The Amish lifestyle might actually fit in very well with people who have some Aspergers characteristics. Not over-stimulating, not needing to engage in complex interactions, very structured etc...

I've always thought my one son who has pretty severe adhd would have been much better off a century or two ago when he could have been happily working on a ranch from a young age, instead of trying to sit still in a classroom.

[Constance Vigilance]

if you took 3/4 of them into the doctor's looking for a diagnosis and a convenient label like lots of people do today (for whatever reason, I don't understand that mentality, but that's neither here nor there)

This was discussed here earlier this week. A "convenient label" (which is a nicely judgemental phrase) opens up access to resources and services you can't get without a diagnosis. So the "mentality" is usually getting the best help for your child. Inexplicable indeed.

[Conuly]

Autism used to be a serious thing and had a much more conservative criteria for diagnosis.

What's funny is that if you read Kanner's original work, the children he first studied weren't that different from the children being diagnosed today.

[bananacat]

In the US about 40% of people with HIV are straight, so 40% of women with unplanned pregnancies aren't whores?. That's actually more generous than I would have expected from PP.

In sub-Saharan Africa HIV is mainly spread by heterosexual sex (though since gay sex is illegal in most of the countries with the highest HIV rates, I doubt statistics are completely accurate). In the rest of the world it's mainly men who have sex with men. Still, there are way too many straight people with HIV to say it's a punishment for the gays.

Homophobes rarely care about what happens in sub-Saharan Africa. Homophobia and racism have a high comorbidity rate. The people who rant about AIDS being a punishment for gay men are probably even barely aware that Africa actually exists with actual people.