Autism Debate Go-To Blogs

Autism Debate Go-To Blogs

By Matthew Herper
Forbes.com

There's been quite a bit of hubbub in the blogosphere about the U.S. government's decision to concede that vaccines may have caused autism-like symptoms in one little girl. Anti-vaccine activists have used the case to argue that a chink has appeared in the government's armor. Government officials and researchers counter that the girl had a disorder related to her mitochondria, not just autism, and that little has changed from either a legal or scientific perspective. The girl's father believes that the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks. (See this WebMD story.)
You can read plenty about this elswhere on the Web. Here are some great places to start.
Autism Vox is one of my favorite blogs about not just autism, but anything. It's written by Kristina Chew, a Ph.D. in classics who has an autistic son. It is by turns personal and erudite, with a real appreciation for what the science on autism actually says.
Neurologica is a good place to go for a neurologist's perspective. Blogger Steven Novella practices at the Yale University School of Medicine and is president of the New England Skeptical Society.
Stop. Think. Autism. is another thoughtful blog by the parent of an autistic child. Her writing is movingly straightforward, and she's good at finding appropriate articles in the scientific literature.
Respectful Insulence is written by a surgeon who goes by the nom-de-blog Orac. He blogs on this issue so often that I'm beginning he has some kind of alarm that goes off when someone, somewhere tries to point to vaccines as the primary cause of autism.