Dr. Tenpenny, Autistic Adults "Wearing Diapers and Helmets" are Right Here.

Notorious anti-vaccine quack Sherri Tenpenny posted a meme on Facebook today. It’s a picture of Yoda from Star Wars with the statement, “If autism today is because of better diagnosis, where are all the 30-year-old autistics wearing diapers and helmets?”

I’m not sure what version of Star Wars Dr. Tenpenny has seen that includes Yoda talking like that, but I’m not terribly surprised that a woman who is so revoltingly unfamiliar with science-fact is also unfamiliar with science-fiction.

Tenpenny's question follows less scientific reason than my infant son's "Throwing The Spoon On The Floor Again" experiment and shows a willful dismissal of scientific evidence surrounding autism-- not to mention a tremendous disregard for the lives and dignity of autistic individuals.

Autistic adults are out there. I know many of them. Some of them have jobs and spouses and children of their own. Some of them are non-verbal and communicate through typing or sign language. Several of them live with their parents and a few need assistance from home-health services. A couple of them might be incontinent, but that's none of my business and none of my concern.

One hundred percent of them are human beings.

Absolutely none of them are autistic because of vaccines.

Most were not diagnosed with autism as children.

Don't believe me? A study in 2006 looked at a large amount of data collected from various studies and epidemiological records. They found strong evidence that the increase in diagnosed autism were purely because of changes in diagnostic criteria, and no evidence whatsoever that rates of autism are actually increasing. The authors of the study stated:

"There is a strong genetic component which, along with prenatally determined neuro-anatomical/biochemical changes, makes any post-natal 'cause' unlikely [...] There has (probably) been no real increase in the incidence of autism. There is no scientific evidence that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine or the mercury preservative used in some vaccines plays any part in the aetiology or triggering of autism, even in a subgroup of children with the condition."


That same year, another study was published examining the effects of "diagnostic substitution" in the apparent increase in autism rates. The scientists behind the study found that rates of other diagnoses have been declining at exactly the same rate that diagnoses of autism have been increasing. The vast majority of adult with nonverbal autism "in helmets and diapers," as Dr. Tenpenny so insultingly puts it, were diagnosed as children with mental r*tardation without further specification. As I discussed in a blog a few weeks ago, my own autism-like symptoms, such as obsessive interests and phobic avoidance of certain foods and clothes, were diagnosed in the 1990s as pediatric OCD. Many so-called high-function autistics were believed to have OCD, AD(H)D, and various learning disabilities, and were not accurately diagnosed with autism until adulthood, if ever.

As for where they all are? Well, Dr. Tenpenny, autistic adults are among you, but the vast majority don't fit your stereotype, so you're not seeing them. That's because, rather than being in "nonverbal" and in "diapers and helmets," over  80% of autistic people learn to communicate verbally. Nearly 100% learn to use the toilet without assistance. I have so far never met a single autistic person, adult or child, who needed to wear a helmet. Autistic adults are generally indistinguishable from anyone else, other than seeming a bit eccentric.

Some of our brothers and sisters with autism, most of whom were diagnosed with mental r*tardation, have been shipped away to institutions where they are hidden from the public eye and won't be noticed or insulted by people like Dr. Tenpenny. Others live with their parents and don't get out much, or when they do, it's among peers who would be less judgmental than Dr. Tenpenny. If she'd be willing to take a minute to actually get to know the autistic community, Dr. Tenpenny would find that many people who are stereotypically "low-function" would be happy to communicate with her online about their experiences as autistic individuals. They're out there. And their lives and experiences matter.
There is no autism epidemic. There is no increase in the actual rate of autism, and wild and offensive speculation about the supposed absence of autistic adults won't magically undo the insurmountable evidence that autism has always been part of the human experience. Dr. Tenpenny's bullying of the autistic community needs to stop.