Thursday, March 18, 2010

Dr Phil Plait linked to the Autism Epidemic


Since doctors in the US began testing children for Autism the number of children diagnosed with Autism rose dramatically compared to when children weren’t being tested.

With this rise in the number of children being diagnosed with Autism came a rise in people spouting out crazy reasons for the rise, this has lead to rise in sites that debunk those claims.

One of my favorite sites for debunking those claims is “Bad Astronomy” hosted by well known astronomer Dr. Phil Plait. This site has many links you can follow to the CDC and other medical sources where you can get real information on Autism, as an alternative to the crackpot ranting that gets covered in the news.

Is the rise in Autism linked to the increasing number of websites that debunk the anti-science claims of people like Jenny McCarthy? "Come and see our kids," says McCarthy, "Why won’t the CDC come and talk to the mothers, talk to the families? Then tell us there isn’t a link."

Skeptics say the rise in the number of children diagnosed with Autism is a result of doctors looking for it in children, because if you look for something you are more likely to find it.

1 comment:

Me-Me King said...

I agree, if you look for something long enough, like it or not, you're bound to find it.

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