Age of Autism
| Needles are scary |
| Choice hysteria |
Age of Autism (often abbreviated to AoA) is a site that hosts the blogs of the leaders in the field of anti-vaccination crankery. Their bloggers include the likes of Mark Blaxill, David Kirby, J.B. Handley, and, of course, Jenny McCarthy. They also peddle "treatments" for autism produced by alternative medicine woo-meister Lee Silsby, which consist of vitamin supplements and other nature woo.
[edit] Why autism?
Autism is one of the unique fields of medicine that draws woo meisters by the bucket. The primary reason is that autism in and of itself is not well defined by the medical community, because they are not sure exactly what they are playing with. Someone is classified as autistic by a set of symptoms, but the causes might well be quite different. Then, like cancer and dieting, it's something that has no real definitive (and easy) medical solution yet. Since no one knows what causes it, and since it is becoming more common, parents fear for their children.