Autism study retraction opens conversation
by Jackie Johnson on February 5, 2010
in Children & Families,Health & Medicine
A medical journal this week retracted a study it published in 1998, saying indications of a link between the MMR vaccination and autism were false. Autism author Chantal Sicile-Kira reacts to that retraction, saying it’s kind of a setback and a disappointment, but it doesn’t answer any questions. Sicile-Kira says the back-pedaling highlights the fact that more studies and research needs to be done to find out what causes autism. She first looked at this issue very closely when she wrote her first book, Autism Spectrum Disorders, which won the outstanding literary award from the Autism Society of America in 2005, at which time she says there were relatively few people talking about the connection between vaccines and autism.The autism expert, parent of an autistic child, and author is in the Milwaukee area presenting a workshop on what to expect during an autistic child’s adolescence.
NOTE: The session will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at Country Springs Hotel Conference Center, 2810 Golf Road, Waukesha.
NOTE: Chantal Sicile-Kira has a book coming out “41 Things About Autism” in March-April 2010 that will answer the most common questions that people ask her about autism and having a child with autism. She’s also promoting a new biographical HBO movie about her close friend Temple Grandin, who is a very popular autism activist, who also has the disease.