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Autism One is an annual summit where parents can come together and discuss new torture treatment methods for their autistic kids. Mainstays there include anti-vaccine quackery, alternative medicine, and general woo of all kinds.[1] Panels there include such wondrous minds of our time as Andrew Wakefield and Kerri Rivera.
Since this is a summit dedicated to "alternative treatment methods", anti-vaccine propaganda is bound to be present. They cover every single anti-vaccine conspiracy known to man, from thimerosal[2] to heavy metals.[3] Wakefield has played a large role in sustaining this myth, and is a very popular guest at Autism One. You would think these people wouldn't take this man seriously due to his lack of a medical license, but they have ways of dealing with that.[4]
Another mainstay of the summit is the supposed "corruption" of the CDC and the "brave whistleblowers" dedicated to getting "the truth" out to the masses. Of course, this is all just a manufactroversy devised by Wakefield and Brian Hooker as an excuse to attack the CDC. They've even sent a formal letter of complaint to the CDC[5] just to show how dedicated they are to their own made-up conspiracy. Old man Brian, on multiple occasions, has talked about the CDC's supposed "malpractice" regarding vaccines.[6][7] Honestly, we could make an entire article dedicated to this nutjob and his crusade against modern medicine.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this "summit" dedicated to "treating" kids on the autism spectrum has officially gone off the deep end and has started marketing industrial bleach as a way to treat autism.[8] For those of you who don't know, MMS contains 28% sodium chlorite (NaCIO2), which is an ingredient most commonly found in, you guessed it, bleach. Chugging down some MMS comes with serious side effects, including (but not limited to):[9][10]
And who exactly is pushing all this nonsense about the supposed "benefits" of MMS? Ladies and gentlemen, meet Kerri Rivera, MMS supporter and alternative medicine extraordinaire. If one were to track down one of the sources of the MMS treatment, Kerri would be one of those people. She has been seen constantly trying to push MMS as some kind of miracle cure that will somehow miraculously flush away your child's lunch autism.[11] And the worst part is, people actually buy her nonsense and buy MMS in bulk to treat (read: roll the dice with) their children.[note 1] Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like she'll stop peddling these "cures" any time soon.[12]
As if bleach wasn't worrying enough, these nuts also push quantum medicine as a treatment method.[13] According to the website:
The presenter reveals an advanced quantum medicine model that balances the immune system of individuals on the autism spectrum. Based upon patents and experiments of Nikola Tesla, this proprietary scalar-wave, morphogenetic re-patterning process can improve individuals with acute, standard, and chronic health conditions that are caused by microbiology, pesticides, toxic chemicals, electrosmog, geopathic stress, mercury, heavy metal, and other environmental factors.
Needless to say, if you use terms like "proprietary scalar-wave" when talking about a neurological condition, you have immediately lost all credibility.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a type of therapy where the patient is placed in a pressured chamber and continuously supplied with oxygen. While this is mainly used by astronauts and people with oxygen deficiencies, some people have started pushing it as a treatment for symptoms of autism.[14] The problem with that is that autistic children (presumably) have all the oxygen they'll need, and putting them into a hyperbaric chamber will just give them excess oxygen. This, of course, can lead to things such as oxygen poisoning and lung damage in most individuals.[15] Unlike the other "treatments" in this article, it's hard to find many sources talking about the risks of using hyperbaric oxygen therapy for treating autism, so not that many people know what they're actually pumping into their children.