The Unwilling

Steven Novella, religions and other groups display a logical facility type failure that is not often talked about, the unwillingness to look at the evidence, to understand the implication, and to even consider the possibility that the evidence is correct. Consider the vaccination/autistic issue.

What do we know about autism? It is a early development issue that strikes a few children in developed nations; the frequency increases with time and/or development. The frequency of autism seems to be lower in areas where vaccination is less, but in those areas development may also be lagging. We also know that it occurs in children that have closer column spacing and more neurons per column than average; as dyslexia occurs in people with larger than average spacing and fewer neutrons, but only of a few of such children. There must therefore be one more factor, something like an epicgenetic switch that is either on or off, or an allergy/hyper sensitivity that selects individual children. The columnar spacing is a genetic, nutritional, structural that becomes fixed or fully defined by about 18 months of age. What ever the cause, it is in the first 18 months and/or during gestation. This applies to both autism and dyslexia.

People like Steven Novella do not get this, or do not accept this. It is just unwillingness to believe the evidence, and argue, just unwilling to accept the known information.

Vaccinations upset some children considerably, they are often irritable, have minor fever, but nothing helps to settle the child. It is always anecdotal, occasionally with a medical report that shows a mild temperature and little else. Now a child receives some 23 vaccinations before age two. All this does not mean a autistic child, however, it is likely an environmental cause in addition to an hypersensitive/clergy to something in there environment. Vaccinations are one of the potential factors that needs to be explored further, along with other environmental possibilities.

The mothers diet is also a potential factor, as vegans seem to have a higher frequency of autism. It is noted that many if not all autistic children have digestion/gut issues as well. Some find relief by picky eating, totally avoiding some foods, milk, gluten and/or wheat, eggs/ meats, greens, whatever.

So why the reluctance to consider the possibility Mr. Novella? Why the reluctance to consider the facts? Unwillingness to look at the facts is just one more logical facility.

This same reluctance to look at the evidence shows up in climate change deniers, the religious, the emotional, and other places.