I happened to run across this study from last year: Maternal Influenza A(H1N1) Immunization During Pregnancy and Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Offspring : A Cohort Study and thought it worth highlighting. The anti-vaccine movement has been good at moving goalposts and one of their lines in recent years has been that vaccines are dangerous for pregnant women. One line of “logic” holds that as mercury was phased out of vaccines, the influenza vaccine was given to pregnant women. Thus, we are told by anti-vaccine activists, explains why there was never their predicted drop in autism rates ..read more

I happened to run across this study from last year: Maternal Influenza A(H1N1) Immunization During Pregnancy and Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Offspring : A Cohort Study and thought it worth highlighting. The anti-vaccine movement has been good at moving goalposts and one of their lines in recent years has been that vaccines are dangerous for pregnant women. One line of “logic” holds that as mercury was phased out of vaccines, the influenza vaccine was given to pregnant women. Thus, we are told by anti-vaccine activists, explains why there was never their predicted drop in autism rates ..read more

I am very fortunate that my state classified parents of high risk disabled kids (young adults, in my case) as “health care workers” and granted us access to the COVID-19 vaccine. 4 weeks ago I got dose one, and today I got dose 2. As a short PSA–nurses like food and nothing stops you from showing them some gratitude. Here I am with the nurse who administered my shot, handing off a bag of chocolate. “High risk” isn’t just a phrase. It’s a reality. My kid has a higher chance of complications or death than others. So I do this to protect them. And hospitals don’t have the capacity to handle a h ..read more

California is opening access to COVID vaccines to more people. As part of this they have issued “Updated COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Guidelines” which includes guidance on vaccines for people with developmental disabilities. Access will start March 15. Individuals must be 16 years or older, and meet these requirements: 1) The individual is likely to develop severe life-threatening illness or death from COVID-19 infection 2) Acquiring COVID-19 will limit the individual’s ability to receive ongoing care or services vital to their well-being and survival 3) Providing adequate and timely COVID car ..read more

I am very fortunate that my state classified parents of high risk disabled kids (young adults, in my case) as “health care workers” and granted us access to the COVID-19 vaccine. 4 weeks ago I got dose one, and today I got dose 2. As a short PSA–nurses like food and nothing stops you from showing them some gratitude. Here I am with the nurse who administered my shot, handing off a bag of chocolate. “High risk” isn’t just a phrase. It’s a reality. My kid has a higher chance of complications or death than others. So I do this to protect them. And hospitals don’t have the capacity to handle a h ..read more

California is opening access to COVID vaccines to more people. As part of this they have issued “Updated COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Guidelines” which includes guidance on vaccines for people with developmental disabilities. Access will start March 15. Individuals must be 16 years or older, and meet these requirements: 1) The individual is likely to develop severe life-threatening illness or death from COVID-19 infection 2) Acquiring COVID-19 will limit the individual’s ability to receive ongoing care or services vital to their well-being and survival 3) Providing adequate and timely COVID car ..read more

California Department of Developmental Services (CDDS or California DDS) has deemed that “family members of certain people are “health care workers” and are “prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination”. In this letter, COVID-19 Vaccine Phase 1A Letter for Family Members, Nancy Bargman, Director at Cal DDS, states: The purpose of this letter is to clarify that family members of certain people are “health care workers” pursuant to the State of California’s Vaccination Plan (https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccines/#When-can-I- get-vaccinated), and thus are prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination within Phase 1A ..read more

15 years ago I went online to find out information about autism. Like many parents, I didn’t know much before my kid was diagnosed. And like many parents, I’m still learning. With the rise of the internet and, later, social media, advocacy by and for autistic people was increasing. It wasn’t new (for example, Jim Sinclair‘s “don’t mourn for us” was published in 1993). There were multiple autistic led online discussion groups, with perhaps the largest being Alex Plank’s WrongPlanet.net. It was the heyday of blogs and there were blogs by and about autistic people. It wasn’t uncommon to find ou ..read more

Xavier Becerra, the news is reporting that you will be nominated to be the new head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Congratulations. You will have a lot to do when you get started. One of those tasks is to seat a new Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. Please do this quickly. Please. The IACC serves a very important mission, and we really could have used them this year to address the unique challenges of the pandemic. Not having an IACC in place hurts our communities, our people. The law reinstating the IACC was signed on Sept. 30, 2019. Over a year ago. Nominations for ..read more

Let’s put this another way. Masks don’t work if you wear them “all the time” but not when you are in the most risky situations. Imagine sitting down to drinks with your friends and saying, “Hey, I wore a mask all day. So I’m safe drinking my beer and talking to you all while in this room filled with other people who aren’t wearing masks”. Do you wear a mask? How would you characterize your mask wearing? By that I mean, do you wear your mask all the time? Often? Let’s say you said “all the time”. A lot of people, heck the majority of people say that. Do you wear your mask when you sleep? Whe ..read more