Andy Wakefield interviews Mark Blaxill, co-author of The Age of Autism

8 Responses to “Andy Wakefield interviews Mark Blaxill, co-author of The Age of Autism”

1. Deborah
   

   29. Oct, 2010

   I would like to wish the channel every success, i look forward to reading and watching , and would ask that you should also advertise the Silent Witnesses books , facinating to see Andy interviewing and doing a wonderful job to , Thankyou so much for the media channel , and many thanks to all those involved

2. Paul Shapiro
   

   30. Oct, 2010

   Brilliant!
   Thank you mark and Andy!
   Paul Shapiro

3. Renee Tagliavia Harrison
   

   30. Oct, 2010

   fantastic interview, thank you

4. Deborah Nash
   

   31. Oct, 2010

   Thank you for this fascinating discussion. It was very informative and I was enthralled from beginning to end. As a result I have ordered the book. Well Done - I

5. Joan Campbell
   

   31. Oct, 2010

   Every since my son had the shots with mercury in them as a young baby and then having the MMR he has lost all skills to learn and fend for himself. As he gets older he just seems to get sicker to the point that he cannot go to school or go outside even. He just wants to stay in bed and have peace and quiet. What sort of a life is that for an 18 years old.

   Great interview, thanks.

6. Janette Robb
   

   03. Nov, 2010

   This was a fascinating interview. I was most interested to hear the history of mercury use in medicine - the syphilis connection - and the part played by coal in the emergence of schizophrenia. Yet another condition blamed 100% on genetics!? I met a lady who has spent most of her life in a mental institution only to be diagnosed as having acrodynia a mere four years ago. Another life wasted because of the ignorance and lack of awareness in the medical profession - present company excepted.

   I love the way you absolve parents of blame Dr Wakefield! It made me realise just how often fingers have been pointed my way.
   Very interesting viewing - thanks to everyone involved and congratulations to Mark Blaxill and Dan Olmsted for writing what promises to be a medical blockbuster.

7. Erik Nanstiel
   

   04. Nov, 2010

   Polly, I’d like to congratulate you and the rest on a fine start to the media channel! I’m honored to be participating and look forward to more productions like these! Andy is a natural talent in front of the camera!

8. Robin P Clarke
   

   08. Nov, 2010

   I did hear a lot of sense in this interview, but I must raise one far-from-minor nit-pick. This is the emphasised notion that autism was a new emergence first discovered by Kanner and Asperger. On the contrary both early and late-onset autism had been well-described 50 years earlier by Dr Down as per http://www.autismcauses.info/2010/09/autism-did-not-begin-only-in-1930s.html. It is of course possible that autism then went away for a while, or maybe only reached Austria and the US at the later date.

   I would further question the significance of Kanner’s failure to mention it in his earlier textbook. Announcing a new discovery is something a person is liable to shy away from until they have gained a level of status such as can result from having a textbook published. And a textbook is a very unsuitable place to present a new concept to the world anyway.

   Furthermore, the simultaneous emergence in the 1940s could very well be an artifact of social/technological changes. A rare condition only gets recognised once specialists get to see a sufficient sample of patients. This would only occur once there are megacities and major transport links. This first developed in 19th c. England. Later it followed in the lands of Kanner and Asperger.

   There is not only the cases of Dr Down but one can also see a similar concept in for instance in Boris Godunov the Holy Fool who is naive and/but says the truths that others cannot. Honestly saying what one thinks does appear to be one of the telling symptoms of autism, and far from commonplace in the neurotypical!