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ttqs84
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12 Nov 2012, 1:33 pm

is this true?

link:

Flu During Pregnancy Linked to Autism


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Trencher93
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12 Nov 2012, 2:28 pm

I've seen this sort of pattern too many times. Many or most people X, a few people Y, therefore X is linked to Y. A scientist can almost generate these sorts of links any time you need to produce a paper. Just add a line at the end about more research being needed. They found a correlation in some data, but can't establish any reason for causation. Have any of these links ever been followed up?

There was one several years ago where the media was hyping up how dangerous Aleve (the NSAID painkiller) was to people - when you actually read it, high doses were given to very old people, and a certain percent died, but they were all so old and in poor health, and probably that many would have died regardless. This did not stop the media from distorting the story.



ianorlin
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12 Nov 2012, 3:23 pm

Correlation does not imply causality. We do not know yet. There may be good news in bladder infections not causing it. This does have a fairly large sample size so that is one step in making it more credible. Science needs to be repeated and this makes sense.



gretchyn
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12 Nov 2012, 7:39 pm

While I love and respect science, I find it hard to swallow many of the research reports du jour. Show me more evidence, and quit making news articles about mysterious "links." Wait until we know something before writing an article about it!



Taverson
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14 Nov 2012, 1:18 pm

Once it was vaccines.

"Don't vaccinate your child! He'll get autism!"

Then it was fathers over the age of 35.

"You can't have children! You're too old of a man!"

Now it's the flu.

"You have flu and are pregnant. Abort! Abort! Abort!"

It reeks of one, two, or both things:

-Population control
-The quest for a cookie-cutter population

I'm so f*****g sick and tired of people getting these ret*d (I rarely use this word but I will this time) notions that this or that causes autism and make the results public to cause a ripple in the water before anything is conclusive.

Stop sensationalizing science.

Sorry for my language.


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Taverson
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14 Nov 2012, 1:21 pm

This just in: studies show a correlation between babies being born and a huge belly.

Therefore all obese women are going to give birth soon.


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Uncommon
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14 Nov 2012, 5:54 pm

- The study was only a collection of data based on interviews with mothers. They "reported" having the flu and/or fever but were not actually tested. This is not a very reliable method for collecting this kind of data.

- This data only shows correlation, not causation/causality.

- Although I'm having difficulty finding it, in many articles regarding this new study, there is another study mentioned, from Sweden, which found no link between autism and flu.



Darkone101
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17 Nov 2012, 10:31 pm

Is there anything not linked to autism? I heard a mom say "One night I turned around sleeping with my head at the footboard and that's why my child is autistic"