Media Coverage

Hi everyone,

Autism has been in the news for a couple of things recently so I thought I should address them.  The two stories in question: a study suggesting autism begins a long time before birth, and a second comparing the relative amount of money spent on care and research.


You can find the first story here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27662080

As a scientist, I read through this and then immediately went to find the paper.  If you have a spare bit of time it is worth reading too, its not a long article.  My first thoughts were pretty sceptical; whenever you see a study like this you automatically look to the sample size.  Fairly typically it was what I would class as quite small (I'm a particle physicist at heart, I think sample sizes should be up in the millions), but when you read it again the sample wasn't as bad as I thought.  The base sample and control group were both large enough to reduce statistical errors, and the size of the measurement group is a fair representation from that base sample.  When it is split into the various groups that compromise comes in the individual samples.  However this is necessary for the study and the results are compelling.  Hopefully this aids the removal of the rumours that persist about MMR and autism, but given the weight of evidence already existing against that it probably won't help.

The second story is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27742716

The headline of £32bn is an astounding one, but the main issue is the ratio of care costs to cure costs.  The quote "But right now we spend just £180 on research for every £1m we spend on care."  sums it up quite well.  Personally I am in favour of cure over care, but care is still definitely necessary.  The other tell tale figure is that £6.60 is spent on cure per person, compared to £295 for cancer.  I don't want to devalue cancer, I've raised money for cancer research in the past, but I think this underlines a change that needs to happen.  The project I am going to be involved with is a care project, I've only been involved in care project, but hopefully some of the money raised will go towards research for a cure.  Hopefully a cure, a treatment, is on the horizon and is sooner rather than later.