My personal feeling is that one of the most criminal acts in recent
times was committed by the IOM when they recommended that no more
time be spent on the mercury-autism connection, encouraging
that "available funding for autism research be channeled to the most
promising areas. [implicit that mercury was not one of them.]"

If Autism Speaks wants to be different from CAN, NAAR, and all the
other organizations that many of us feel are not representing our
children's interests, it is time to acknowledge the giant elephant
sitting in the middle of the room, making lots of noise, farting and
burping: kids who are detoxifying are getting better.

Because of the prominance of Bob Wright and Bernie Marcus, Autism
Speaks could be a great agent for change. If they start talking about
the "puzzle of autism", the "multifactorial challenge", and searching
for the autism gene, I don't think any of our kids are better off.

My opinion is that autism speaks should set up a three-pronged
approach:

1. Go after this elephant in the room right now! Do you really think
all the parents and doctors claiming their children are getting
better through detoxification are lying? Of course they aren't!! With
your money:

A. Immediately do a study of 100 children with autism who have never
been chelated and test for mercury toxicity. Work with the preeminent
metal toxicologists in the country to find the optimal tests to do
(not a blood test, for chrissakes!!!) Best plan would be a hair test,
standard chelation challenge test, and a blood test to
assess "markers of mercury". See what those 100 tests say!!

B. Immediately get behind Jim Adams' study about to begin at ASU
which is a double-blind placebo study for 3 months using Oral DMSA on
40 autistic kids. Offer to co-sponsor, extend, or help the funding
for getting DMPS FDA-approved so it, too, can be used in a double-
blind placebo now.

C. Contract with the best toxicologists in the country to devise an
optimal agent for chelating children. DMPS was created 60 years ago!!

D. Work with DAN! to expand their Doctor network and study what is
working in clinical practice to standardize the treatment further.

2. Spend the other half of the budget on finding the gene,
discovering the autism brain is inflamed, etc. This "pie in the sky"
stuff is unlikely to yield actionable results, but knock yourself
out, you might find something.

3. If #1 starts yileding results, spend your money lobbying to get
Thimerosal out of other world countries. It is neither acceptable nor
true that thimerosal-free vaccines are too expensive for the third
world. That violates every principle my parents and God ever tried to
teach me!

I just do not understand how organizations like CAN cannot address
the very obvious fact that kids are getting better. This is one of
the goofiest dynamics in the history of medicine:

- Most "diseases" without a known cause receive tons of funding and
spend all their time trying to establish cause/cure!!
- There are many, many intelligent parents doctors, and scientists
who freakin' KNOW the cause of autism. Wake up - it's cure time!!

To Mark's point, it's too early to judge Autism Speaks. Having said
that, if their website is a reflection of how they feel, they are not
earning any respect from me, and they are alienating the community of
activists who I believe represent the change for autism. The Wrights
are smart people. I'm holding out my hope that Bob Wright has plenty
of sack to do the right thing. Just because he has power doesn't mean
he lacks courage, as Dan Burton and Dave Weldon (and many others!!)
have shown us.

My 2 cents,

JB