Scientists are parents too

There are many topics that I keep my distance from, simply because so many things cause a lot of emotional response.  But today I participated in a short conversation with a friend who is a scientist. She posted this article: http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/a-healthy-conversation/2013/05/emory-site-of-largest-autism-clinical.html and a couple of her friends who are also scientists were overwelmed by the responses from readers just in the first 7 or 8 comments.

They shared their frustrations at the vast expanse between scientific communication and parents with strong opinions.  I have a few thoughts on this topic, but I refuse to expand into data and statistics. My reactions are purely human.

1) The subject of Autism and its causes is obviously an emotional topic for parents.  From what I can see every time I read comments within articles, some people have extremely strong opinions. What I do not know is the source of their opinions. But people have a right to be emotional because it either is or could one day be their children who are affected by ASD. (Autism Spectrum Disorder)

2) I believe there are many people out there who are strongly opinionated but have no idea how to back up their opinions. These people are the ones I believe to be led by panic pushers.  I find that there are many people who will somehow put all credit into an anonymous source on the Internet who seems to be better educated than they themselves on the topic and if they somehow relate to that source, they stop reading there.  They do not work to further educate themselves through other resources. They believe everything they read at this one point and do no due diligence to identify other sources and validate the work. I believe these tend to be less educated people. And I believe they will always be out there, some more outspoken than others, hiding behind their crowned king of the topic at hand.

3) I believe there are some people out there who believe something based on personal experiences, such as the parents who truly are out there whose children were diagnosed with ASD after some apparent developmental regression. Many of these parents are pointing fingers at vaccinations. Some of them even have doctors who are pointing the same direction.   I cannot relate to these parents as I have not had their experiences, and I cannot sit here and say that I myself would not react the same way.

4) I believe there are other parents out there who are scared, who are fighting against giving in to the panic caused by all the ASD related media out there. Parents who may know someone whose child was diagnosed after a regression like in #3.  Parents who are trying to win a psychological war between emotion and reason.  Parents who want to listen to the studies out there, who want more answers to all the questions, but who are very close to losing against the panic.  Can't say I blame them.

5) I believe that there are a lot of greedy people in this world who will do anything for money.  I believe there are people who put dangerous products on the market and successfully bypass the protective agencies in place with slick talk and quick lawyers and a lot of money.  I believe there are also people out there who make their own money off of the panic they instill by bringing such possibilities to light.  If you want to blog about the vaccine companies covering up study results to continue making billions of dollars off the vaccines regardless of harm they may do, then do it for free. Don't write a book about it and sell it for profit, like Dr. Bob Sears is doing. He is generating just enough panic in his blog to entice people to buy his book for more insight.  But there are no answers in his book, just as there are no answers in the studies conducted to date about a link between ASD and vaccinations.

6) I believe that there are some people who do what they do for a living out of passion, not for money. I know this to be true in the science world very often. How many people do you know who would dedicate their entire lives to something knowing they may never actually uncover the truth? They do this because they are filled with curiosity and a passion for learning.  I simply refuse to believe that a vaccine company could put together an enormous study, participated in by thousands of scientists, and every single one of those scientists would roll over and cover up incriminating data for money.  To suggest such a thing would demean every single one amongst them who is a parent, would suggest that they care more about money than the safety of their own children.

7) I believe that in almost any scenario, covering almost any topic, there is a very ugly devil in the center of the controversy pinning all of these agents against each other, sparking little fires everywhere and leaving us to fan the flames however we so choose. That devil is the media.  The media puts all of these topics in the limelight, uncovers everything dirty to steal credibility from every entity involved somehow, and no matter how many gaps there are, the rest of us are left to form our own opinions, or conspiracy theories as it were. And that is how wars are started.  The media is responsible for the great divide between the scientific community and the concerned citizens.

So for today, I would like to be first, a parent who loves her three babies more than anything in the world and will continue to do anything in my power to protect them. Second, an open-minded level-headed intellectual capable of maintaining reason and rationale. Third, a patient watcher of the scientific community to open new doors and find new answers. I believe there are scientists--geneticists, who are looking for answers. I believe there are scientists--physicians, who are looking for a cure. I believe there are scientists-- behavioralists, who are looking for the right treatments and therapies until the former are successful.

And I know that many of those scientists are parents, too.