An Unfortunate Coincidence: A Mother's Life Inside the Autism Controversy by Julie Obradovic

Author:Julie Obradovic [Obradovic, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autism - Personal Stories, Autism - Recovery, Vax - Risk Awareness
ISBN: 9781510704633
Google: hTWCDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2016-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Anger—A Vaccine for Autism, or Something Like It

Although it wasn’t slated as the keynote address, it very well could have been. The National Autism Association had gotten the National Institutes of Health to come to their annual conference, this year in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Tom Insel, the appointed leader of the new task force created by the Combating Autism Act, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), was coming to speak.

It was a big deal. Until then, November 2007, autism conferences were frequently criticized for not being scientifically based. Accusations of selling hope and snake oil were common and would only get worse.

Having the head of IACC present not only opened the door for parents to ask questions and feel heard, it also legitimized the conference. Significantly, I felt, it was also one of the first conferences where Jenny McCarthy was speaking.

And so I waited in the ballroom patiently with other parents making sure to get a seat. It was the same ballroom where Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill had just asked me to join the Age of Autism team, only this time, I sat almost all the way to the left of the stage toward the back.

A couple of friends of mine, Kevin and Becky, both activists and parents of affected children, joined me. We made small talk, discussed other presentations, and made each other laugh. Their friendships, as well as the many others I have gained through autism advocacy, have been some of the most important I’ve ever had.

I couldn’t wait to hear what Dr. Insel had to say. For two years, I felt like I had something to prove to explain why we thought autism was environmentally caused and why we were pursuing the treatments we were. Dr. Insel was as mainstream and respected as anyone could be. He was from the National Institutes of Health, for crying out loud. If he confirmed what we knew, that our children were physically ill, not mentally ill, it would be a game changer.

Another doctor and he stood on the stage together. For a while their presentation felt disappointing, as they weren’t offering us any new or interesting insights, and I found myself distracted by my friend’s sarcastic and humorous comments. It was during one of his jokes that I happened to look up and see these words across the two gigantic screens behind the speakers:

A VACCINE FOR AUTISM

My eyes bulged and my mouth dropped. I gasped, laughing ever so slightly in shock, and nudged my friend while pointing, wide-eyed.

“Look!” I whispered in utter and complete shock, bumping his arm. “Look!”

He made the same face and then looked at me. It was impossible to process the significance of what those words meant, but our expressions said it all. Either Dr. Insel had no idea who his audience was and how insanely insensitive that was to suggest, or he didn’t care.

The room slowly started buzzing, a ripple of heads turning, pointing, and starting sidebar conversations moving across the chairs in a wave.

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