Calling All Vaccine-Autism Critics

(PLEASE NOTE: Due to tremendous response, the venue for the NYU event has been moved to the Law School's much larger Tishman Auditorium, at the same address: 40 Washington Square South, Ground Floor. RSVP for this is event is still required at kirbylecture@gmail.com)
In the next two weeks, I will give three public lectures and Q&A sessions, free and open to the public, at Brown University in Providence, NYU Law School in Manhattan, and Northeastern University in Boston. (Other events are to be announced soon for New Jersey, Long Island and Southern California).
I sincerely encourage any and all vaccine-autism skeptics, critics, agnostics and cynics living in the northeastern US to please consider attending one of these talks, armed with all of your most pointed, difficult and critical questions.
For my part, I will present slides showing evidence to support and refute the link between autism, vaccines, mercury & heavy metals, air pollution and other environmental factors.
My only arguments will be that the evidence is NOT conclusive against a link, and it is premature to declare that vaccines and their ingredients have been 100% exonerated as environmental contributors to autism.
I hope to have a reasoned and enlightening public discussion with members of the audience. Among the subjects we will tackle are:
1) The Poling Case - in which the government conceded that vaccines induced autism in one little girl, and updates on other court cases.
2) Brand New Evidence - of a link between mitochondrial dysfunction and autistic regression, and evidence of mitochondrial issues in many ASD kids.
3) Research Underway - at top universities on the connection between environmental toxins, oxidative stress, glutathione depletion, neuro-inflammation and autistic encephalopathy.
4) Declarations - By the US Presidential candidates and the former NIH director that autism is epidemic and calling for more research into vaccines and mercury as possible causes.
5) Recent Studies - Linking autism spectrum disorder with heavy metals and contaminants in air pollution.
Here are the times and locations:
PROVIDENCE: Thursday, June 19 - 6:30-9:00PM Brown University, Salomon Center, Room 101On the Campus Green Hosted By Wendy Fournier, President of the National Autism Association
NEW YORK CITY: Thursday, June 26 - 6:30-9:00PMNYU School of Law, 40 Washington Square SouthVanderbilt Hall, Tishman Auditorium, Ground FloorHosted By Mary Holland, NYU Law SchoolNOTE: RSVP REQUIRED: kirbylecture@gmail.com
BOSTON: Friday, June 27 - 6:30-9:00PMNortheastern UniversityBehrakis Health Science Building (Bldg #26) - Room 10Hosted by Dr. Richard Deth, Northeastern University Professor of Pharmacology
This series was made possible by Generation Rescue, Autism Research Institute, National Autism Association, Coalition for SAFE MINDS, and Talk About Curing Autism. Announcements for each event can be downloaded at http://www.evidenceofharm.com/- please feel free to circulate these electronically and otherwise to all interested parties.
ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

The Autism Rights Movement

Wonderful article from New York magazine on the neurodiversity movement. Mr. Solomon also does a brilliant job including the points of view of the bio-medical approach advocates and brushes lightly on the researchers focusing on a genetic answer. If there is a criticism, it's that he doesn't put much weight in the scientific responses to the bio-medical approach or the possible impact of the neurodiverse crowds arguments which would seem to include the suspension of ABA programs nationwide. Below are some choice quotes but I highly encourage you to read the entire article...THE AUTISM RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

“When you know a person on the spectrum, you know one person on the spectrum.”

“When your child is 12 years old and not toilet-trained, or is head-banging at age 15, how much of your acceptance is wise and how much is preventing recovery?” NIMH director Insel

“Why should I force eye contact or hugs on someone for whom that’s just noise?”

“The perception of people like us as lacking emotion is wholly inaccurate,” Ne’eman says. “It’s the failure of society to understand the communication styles of autistics.”

“I’d like nothing more than for her to develop the kind of consciousness that would allow her to join the neurodiversity movement,” Nash said. “If she decides to communicate without speech, that will be her choice, and I would love for her to be capable of such choices. It’s my fantasy that someday my daughter will go to her therapist to say what a terrible mother I was forcing her to do all this ABA. When that happens, I’ll know I succeeded.”

“I protest the wholesale characterization of people on the autism spectrum as toxic. It’s scientifically incorrect and symbolically offensive,” Seidel says.