(READ) CDC releases an alarming increase in U.S. autism numbers: 1 in 44 8-year-olds


The following is a news analysis.

Around the year 2000, before autism became so routinely seen and diagnosed among children, if the American public had been told a serious affliction would be hitting America’s children at a rate of one in every 50 babies… it might have led to understandable panic and demands to find the cause at any cost.

But autism has so seamlessly become a part of the American landscape, and the discussion so controlled by special interests, few are even raising eyebrows over today’s unthinkable numbers.

And the establishment effort to try to deflect attention from the role vaccines play in the autism equation, according to many scientists and published studies, has dominated the media landscape. Instead, the predominant discussion centers on the mystery of it all, or the theoretical genetic and environmental causes. In fact, independent scientists and studies have long associated autism with vaccination, coupled with a particular child’s genetic or biological susceptibilities.

The government’s own chief pro-vaccine witness defending vaccine companies against autism injuries, himself, came to conclude that vaccines play a role in some cases of autism. He says when he said as much to the Dept. of Justice lawyers he worked for years ago, they covered up his findings and misrepresented his medical views as if he’d said the opposite. The government also notoriously, secretly settled a key vaccine-autism case while continuing to deny in public there was any possible link. News later leaked to the public. (Read more under Vaccines and Autism here.)

According to a new analysis released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), one out of every 44 eight-year old children in the U.S. has autism or a related disorder. CDC says “this is higher than the previous estimate published in March 2020, which found a prevalence of 1 in 54 8-year old children.”

The worst of it among 11 “surveillance sites” seems to be in California, according to the statistics gathered by the government, where more than 41 kids-per-thousand has autism. In Utah, it’s more than 9-per-thousand. Some of the difference, say the analysts, could be in efforts to identify and diagnose the afflicted children.

According to the data:

  • At every site, more boys than girls had autism
  • Asian/Pacific Islander children had the highest rate among 4-year olds
  • Hispanic children had the next-highest rate, followed by Blacks, then Whites with the lowest rate

The following is an excerpt from the analysis.

Results: For 2018, the overall ASD prevalence was 17.0 per 1,000 (one in 59) children aged 4 years. Prevalence varied from 9.1 per 1,000 in Utah to 41.6 per 1,000 in California. At every site, prevalence was higher among boys than girls, with an overall male-to-female prevalence ratio of 3.4. Prevalence of ASD among children aged 4 years was lower among non-Hispanic White (White) children (12.9 per 1,000) than among non-Hispanic Black (Black) children (16.6 per 1,000), Hispanic children (21.1 per 1,000), and Asian/Pacific Islander (A/PI) children (22.7 per 1,000). Among children aged 4 years with ASD and information on intellectual ability, 52% met the surveillance case definition of co-occurring intellectual disability (intelligence quotient ≤70 or an examiner’s statement of intellectual disability documented in an evaluation). Of children aged 4 years with ASD, 72% had a first evaluation at age ≤36 months. Stratified by census-tract–level median household income (MHI) tertile, a lower percentage of children with ASD and intellectual disability was evaluated by age 36 months in the low MHI tertile (72%) than in the high MHI tertile (84%). Cumulative incidence of ASD diagnosis or eligibility received by age 48 months was 1.5 times as high among children aged 4 years (13.6 per 1,000 children born in 2014) as among those aged 8 years (8.9 per 1,000 children born in 2010). Across MHI tertiles, higher cumulative incidence of ASD diagnosis or eligibility received by age 48 months was associated with lower MHI. Suspected ASD prevalence was 2.6 per 1,000 children aged 4 years, meaning for every six children with ASD, one child had suspected ASD. The combined prevalence of ASD and suspected ASD (19.7 per 1,000 children aged 4 years) was lower than ASD prevalence among children aged 8 years (23.0 per 1,000 children aged 8 years).

Read the news announcement from CDC below:

 Autism Prevalence Higher in CDC’s ADDM Network

Improvements being made in identifying children with autism early

One in 44 (2.3%) 8-year-old children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder according to an analysis of 2018 data published today in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Surveillance Summaries. This is higher than the previous estimate published in March 2020, which found a prevalence of 1 in 54 (1.9%) 8-year-old children. The 2018 data come from 11 communities in the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) network.

A second report on children born in 2014 (4-year-old children) in the same 11 communities shows progress in the early identification of children with autism.  These children were 50% more likely to receive an autism diagnosis or special education classification by 48 months of age compared to children born in 2010 (8-year-olds).

“The substantial progress in early identification is good news because the earlier that children are identified with autism, the sooner they can be connected to services and support,” said Karen Remley, M.D., director of CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. “Accessing these services at younger ages can help children do better in school and have a better quality of life.” 

Racial and ethnic differences persist

In several of the 11 communities in the ADDM Network, fewer Hispanic children were identified with autism than Black or White children. In addition, a higher percent of Black children with autism were identified with intellectual disability compared to White or Hispanic children with autism. These differences could relate in part to access to services that diagnose and support children with autism. Understanding the prevalence and characteristics of children with autism can help communities work towards identifying all children with autism early and enrolling them in services.

Community differences in autism prevalence

Autism prevalence in the 11 ADDM communities ranged from 1 in 60 (1.7%) children in Missouri to 1 in 26 (3.9%) children in California. These variations could be due to how communities are identifying children with autism. Some communities have more services for children with autism and their families.

ADDM

CDC’s ADDM network is a tracking system that provides estimates of the prevalence and characteristics of autism among 8-year-old and 4-year-old children in 11 communities in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin.

ADDM is not a representative sample of the United States. Previously, the ADDM reports were published every other year in the spring. However, in 2018, CDC updated and simplified the ADDM methodology and data system to directly reflect community identification of autism by healthcare provider diagnosis or special education eligibility. These changes provide similar prevalence estimates as the previous method and allow for faster publication of results.

Tools for Parents, Healthcare Providers, Early Childhood Educators and Caregivers

CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early” program provides free resources in English, Spanish, and other languages, to monitor children’s development starting at 2 months of age. CDC’s Milestone Tracker Mobile app can help parents and caregivers track their child’s development and share the information with their healthcare providers. For more information visit www.cdc.gov/ActEarly


Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

18 thoughts on “(READ) CDC releases an alarming increase in U.S. autism numbers: 1 in 44 8-year-olds”

  1. One in forty four? The fact that this is not a front page story being covered by every major news outlet says all you need to know about who is pulling the strings in Washington D.C. All of this government over reach has nothing to do with our health, whatsoever. The CDC might as well publish the Planned Parenthood cost rates for baby parts….

    1. One in FORTY FOUR. Not four! And it’s not really that many more than it was before, we just have better testing that is more accessible. That’s why they’re seeing more autism in minorities now. Children from minority groups are statistically more likely to have their school issues related to behavioral problems instead of having them tested like they do in predominately white schools.

      But oh no can’t talk about that. It might upset white folks.

  2. Better resources help diagnoisis. In the past less was known. I know more than one adult who wasn’t diagnosed until audulthood.

    1. I agree. I am convinced my late brother was within the spectrum. He died at 72 years of age. What we now know about the different degrees of autism within the spectrum explains what we considered eccentric behavior.

  3. This is just more of the same anti-vaxxer nonsense you’ve been promoting for years. It’s on a par with your nonsensical promotion of Hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment to fight Covid. No wonder CBS cut the cord.

    You ought to be ashamed of yourself – if that’s possible. Unprofessionalism in spades.

    1. Being dismissive of the extraordinary troves of data provided by peer-reviewed studies published in scientific journals does not make the data any less valid. Adjuvants and excipients used in modern vaccines (post 1986, when pharmaceutical companies were granted exemption from liability) have been consistently shown to be detrimental to biological development. While live, attenuated vaccines do save lives, their acellular counterparts, i.e. DTP, DTaP have been demonstrated to have as high as a 5 times mortality rate by comparison:

      The Introduction of Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis and Oral Polio Vaccine Among Young Infants in an Urban African Community: A Natural Experiment. Volume 17, March 2017
      https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352396417300464

      Reduced Mortality After Oral Polio Vaccination and Increased Mortality After Diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis Vaccination in Children in a Low-income Setting. January 01, 2021
      https://www.clinicaltherapeutics.com/article/S0149-2918(20)30520-8/fulltext

      The inherent dangers of acellular vaccines for young children and their cognitive development have been recently brought to light. Fortunately, as a result, this has generated an incentive to produce live, attenuated nasally administered vaccines, which are currently being safety tested in clinical trials:

      Live attenuated pertussis vaccine BPZE1 induces a broad antibody response in humans
      https://www.jci.org/articles/view/135020

  4. My guess is the mother’s prenatal metabolic syndrome is a factor.. We’re all weakened by it. Carbohydrate profiles and types of oils we eat have changed quickly and dramatically.. We should get a metabolic panel and A1C for every mother-to-be in the first week of the 2nd trimester as a blind study.

  5. I was born in 1963 and had all the standard vaccines for kids of my era.

    Do they give more, or different, vaccines these days, or were cases of autism not reported back then?

    What theory accounts for the increase in autism these days if the vaccine schedule hasn’t changed since the ’60s and ’70s?

    1. I am 51 and I had almost no vaccines because my mom was against them. I was too young for the polio thing but that one I know my brother got because he still has the scar.

      I went through so many mental health providers growing up. I barely speak out loud, I’m painfully shy. I struggle to make phone calls, I have so many phobias. I was tested in second grade and found to have an IQ of 136. I was put in a special program for children with high IQ and I thrived in that program because it was small and quiet and all the students worked together. No desks, all hands on. It was great. But then the program ended and after that the school system just let me slip right through the cracks. I started self-medicating by age 14. I was considered a problem student soon after. I dropped out in 10th grade. I have never held a job for long until a few years ago I found a way to make money online. The pay isn’t great but it gets the bills covered. I never understood my issues. I struggle with clothing, like I can’t wear bras so that made me look … kind of Walmart-y. I wear nothing but cotton tees and shorts, all about 3 sizes too big because I hate anything confining. I can’t understand people on the phone. I can’t bear certain sounds. I have been called “quirky” my whole life.

      Mental health clinics gave me all sorts of demeaning treatments and meds that turned me in to a drooling zombie. When I was 39 my son was diagnosed with autism. ASD-PDD-NOS to be specific. I was given a lot of doom and gloom warnings but he’s thrived. He’s 16 now and yes he’s autistic but it’s not what people think. As long as you give your child what they need it doesn’t matter what that label is. When he was 12 I talked to his speech therapist about how I worried about what was the autism and what was just having a a weirdo like me for a mom. And she asked if I’d ever been assessed for autism. That question changed my life.

      At age 47 after about a year of different rule-out tests including a brain scan and a very extensive 8 hour autism evaluation I was diagnosed with ASD-1.

      And it’s funny the comments I’ve gotten. People who have known my son and have experience with autism say they weren’t surprised at all. But people who hardly know me will tell me my diagnosis is a scam. That I need to change my diet. That I don’t “look autistic”.

      Autism doesn’t come from being poisoned or from vaccines or diets. We have genetic tests now that can pinpoint specific differences in our genetic makeup. We’re just a different kind of person. Much like left handed people used to be treated like they had everything from demons to disease, they eventually discovered that if you help a left-handed person survive in a right-handed world we will survive and we will THRIVE.

      So don’t worry too much about the uptick in cases. It just means assessments are getting better and reaching more children. And when they’re reached they are hopefully helped instead of behavioral therapists “training’ the autism out of them. Celebrate it! My son and I sure do!

  6. The Autism Epidemic took off when Tylenol use began in the early 1980s.
    Aspirin was erroneously linked to Reyes Syndrome.
    Pediatricians recommended Tylenol which depletes glutathione, a vital antioxidant and detoxification
    molecule.
    YouTube Autism Tylenol.
    Janet Woodcock of the FDA was notified of this in 2014. Her reply; “Not enough evidence”.
    There are now 28 peer reviewed articles affirming the Tylenol Autism
    link…
    FDA protects big pharma.
    No doubt Tylenol has increased the mortality of COVD19 also…

Scroll to Top