Fill it out so we continue to rely on correlation equals causation!

Once again, Senator Malcolm Roberts is attempting to cast doubt on research involving more than 1.2 million children by promoting a self-selected internet survey involving, being generous, fewer than a thousand respondents. That 2014 meta-analysis combined five cohort studies covering 1,256,407 children, plus five case-control studies covering another 9,920, and found no association between vaccination and autism. Kirsch’s survey is something entirely different. It specifically recruits parents who already believe their child was developing normally and then experienced a sudden change. Kirsch himself describes the results as preliminary, and his recruitment method is an open online survey promoted through audiences already interested in vaccine-autism claims. That can generate anecdotes and hypotheses. It cannot somehow outweigh population-level research involving more than a million children. And yet, somehow, that isn’t even the part of this that disappoints us most. Once again, Senator Roberts is publicly presenting autism through the language of children who were supposedly “normal” until something happened to them. Think about what you’re actually saying to autistic Australians when you repeat that framing. That we’re damaged. That we’re broken. That something happened which took the “normal” child away and left us behind. We are not failed versions of neurotypical people. We are not damaged goods. We are not tragedies waiting for somebody to identify the contaminant responsible for creating us. There is absolutely nothing wrong with researching autism. There is nothing wrong with investigating regression, support needs, genetics, development or environmental factors. Good science should continue doing all of those things. But repeatedly amplifying weak evidence because it points toward the conclusion you already want, while dismissing vastly stronger evidence that doesn’t, isn’t scientific scepticism. It’s fear of where the science leads. And autistic people are the ones who get to sit here, publicly, while an Australian Senator repeatedly talks about us as though our existence represents damage that needs explaining. Senator Roberts, you keep asking people to listen to parents. Perhaps every now and then, you might consider listening to us.

Oh not another moron traitorous politician telling us what's "good" for us. Piss off Senator Malcolm Roberts you and ALL of your fellow "politicians" deserve to face TREASON TRIALS, not a single one of you TRAITORS are above the LAW, never forget that old boy.

Senator Malcolm Roberts who made up this nonsense survey and what are the end goals?

You are an appalling excuse for a representative of the people. The reason that symptoms appear sudden is because that relates to its progression. Rather like people who are diagnosed with MS, Dementia or MND it can happen abruptly or subtly and be unnoticed and thus appear abrupt. The fact that our tax dollars pay you makes me ill.

What an awful thing to post on social media Senator Malcolm Roberts.

Still on with your conspiricy theories, see your mate kennedy in US has lost his marbles also. All his lies has led to lot sick people there

So how will parents know?? Referral and diagnosis by a qualified Psychiatrist based on the DSM symptomology and spectrum?? Yeah right. Yet again those, like you, are creating problems out of nothing. Sudden-onset autism. Why don't ya be honest, for a change and say what they're getting at... Autism caused by vaccinations of infants. FFS, don't you get that Autism is part of developmental disorders in the DSM. Let alone EVERY medication having minor and major side effects and individual reactions. I know, I bloody well have lived them my whole life. It's bad enough for informed people who have support and know the where and how to think about this. But for everyone who doesn't, your at fault. Leading questions are known to lead to the answer asked. If your truly wanting to investigate with integrity, then you don't put out leading questionairres that induce volumed echo chambered agreement, for who and whatever is pushing that agenda. It's wrong like you.

This isn’t how you investigate autism. It’s how you manufacture the answer you wanted. Look at the survey Malcolm Roberts is promoting. It specifically asks for parents whose child was developing normally and then suddenly changed. Think about how ridiculous that is. If I created a survey asking only people who got a headache after eating toast to tell me about it, I could produce a very impressive looking collection of people who “got headaches after toast”. I still haven’t proved toast causes headaches. That’s the entire problem here. Autism signs, including regression for some children, often become noticeable during the same period of childhood when vaccinations are happening. “After” does not mean “because of”. And when you deliberately recruit people based on the outcome you’re trying to connect to something, you’re not testing a theory. You’re collecting stories that fit it. For a Senator who constantly tells people to “do your own research”, Malcolm Roberts really should learn what research actually is.