The 7% (ish) derives from several sources- Richard Lathe quoted the 7%- although he didn't go into much detail about the MMR as he's more interested in what is behind the big rise on autism. He spends the first chater or so explaining why the big rise is real by the way. One big source on the 7% I am going to remain tight liped on because they are trying to get publication in a peer reveiwed journal at the moment. However suffice it to say that these 7% have different physiological markers to other autistic children/adults as well.They also have a very particular history- severe and rapid regression following MMR accompanied by very serious bowel problems. My friend's little boy is fairly typical. Noraml development, MMR, massive seizures within a day or so, hospitalised in intensive care (the hospital thought he was going to die), recovery but left severely autistic. A very different regression to the one my son went through, and no doubt they belong to different autistic subgroups.
As for Richard Lathe- Tamum knows far more about him than me, so I will let her message speak for itself. He is well known for developing a rabies vaccine which I believe is the most widely used, so I doubt he is anti-vaccinaiton. In fact in his book he says that vaccination (in general) may be a way of avoiding autism being triggered in suscpeptible children by reducing the risk of encephalitis. That doesn't stop him recognising that MMR may still unfortunately damage a few children. I guess DC you just doon't care about that because it's stupid women (mothers) who have reported the link, and anyway your child isn't involved so who gives a stuff eh?
By triggered I mean triggered. It is failry well accepted that autism has a strong genetic component, but variation (autistic vs NT for example) can have a genetic and environmental component. So a child can be born with a genetic predispostion and autism then triggered by exposure to something, whether that something is a chemical, or virus, or heavy metal. The trigger may of course be antenatally. This is not particularly contentious btw. You are making the huge mistake of assuming that autism is one condition with one cause, I think every researcher into autism in the world knows that that is untrue. The type of autism involving regression appears to be related to a family history of autoimmune conditions. That's obviously simplistic, but broadly true. For an overview of the various subtybes you can eithyer spend a month trawling through the internet (try Waring Birmingham for sulphation problems, Megson retinol, for vitamin A processing problems etc that'll get you started) or you could read autism the brain and the environment.
DC I don't know what you mean by duped by people in the media. My son is severely autistic- the one
possible trigger we know didn't play a role in his case was the MMR. We have a fairly good idea of what happened in his case, but I'm not about to go into that here because I don't for one moment think you are interested, and anyway talking about how my son reached the state he is in is something I only do with people who care and who have some vague comprehension of what a tragedy severe autism is.
I don't think you understand anything at all about autism actually, so I suggest you do more reading if you want to argue further.