As should be clear from yesterday’s post, I am an advocate for vaccination as well as finding the true causes of autism. That’s why I support the Autism Science Foundation, a group dedicated to this goal.
They hold an annual Recipe4Hope campaign to raise funds for science-based research into autism, specifically for pre- and post-doctoral research, in the hopes of getting young scientists’ careers off to a good start.
I love this idea.
I’ll note that there are groups out there claiming to be autism advocates but are more accurately described as being antivaccination, such as Jenny McCarthy’s Generation Rescue. Autism Speaks is another big autism advocacy group, but it continues to spend a lot of money trying to find a link between vaccines and autism, despite all the evidence that no such link exists.
In fact, Autism Speaks got so bad with their vaccine witch hunting that Alison Singer, their vice president, vocally resigned from the organization. As I pointed out at the time, “Throwing more money at a problem that doesn’t exist cannot solve it.”
What did Singer do next? She founded (and is now president of) the Autism Science Foundation. And that’s how I know they’ll do their research right. That, plus having on their Board of Directors the science hero Paul Offit, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a man who fights tirelessly against antivaxxers, is a definite plus in their favor.
This year, Recipe4Hope is focusing on families touched by autism and the love and support a family can provide. They have a lovely set of pictures from one such family—the Congdons of Hendersonville, N.C.—and I urge you to visit the page and give if you can. This is a wonderful, science-based charity that can do real good in the world.
They’re trying to raise $15,000 by the end of the year, and as I post this are at about 10 percent of the goal. Let’s that push that forward a bit, OK?
