Google Flu Trends meet Google Autism Trends?
I’ve read a lot lately about Google Trends tracking the flu at Google Flu. It is pretty amazing. Google Flu has not only been able to track Flu outbreaks, they have consistently done so weeks ahead of the CDC. Somehow, they are able to sort out people just searching for the flu from those who actually have the flu.
(Incidentally, I am not sure the difference between Google Trends and Google Insights.)
Google Flu vs CDC:
Maybe Google can put their super algorithms to work on Autism Spectrum Disorder questions. The possibilities for this technologies seems endless. In addition to the spread of infectious disease, you could probably also detect side effects in new medicines and vaccines.
A couple of questions that Google could answer come to mind.
Google Autism Trends Wish List:
- Incidence of Autism (World, Country, State). The latest number from the CDC is 1 in 100, but there is still debate about whether autism is actually on the rise. I don’t know if Google could answer that question, but it would be interesting to see how their numbers compare to the CDC numbers.
- How many unvaccinated kids have autism? Maybe Google could step in and finally provide a definitive answer on the Vaccinated vs Unvaccinated study that neither side seems willing to do. There should be plenty of unvaccinated kids out there with autism if vaccines are unrelated. We know there are apparently lots of unvaccinated kids “flooding” our schools if the headlines are accurate. The demographics show that the kids who are not vaccinated at all are from families that are white, middle class, college educated, and have an annual family income of >$75k. These are people who don’t trust their doctors and one would think, should be all over the internet. Autism parents in general are usually very vocal, that should be the case with these too. There is nothing to suggest that if these kids started showing signs of autism that their parents wouldn’t seek treatment. I would suspect quite a few on them online saying “Look people, my kid didn’t receive any vaccines because I was worried about safety and he got autism anyway!” If the rate of autism is the same for these kids and there are thousands and thousands of them invading our schools, let’s find them, Google. And yet, it’s hard to find them using standard Google searches. If you do, please post in comments. (I did find Tina Brown, which apparently Paul Ofitt likes to talk about). She vaccinated her first son, he was diagnosed with autism. She didn’t vaccinate the next son and he ended up with autism anyway.
- No results found for “my child is unvaccinated and has autism”.
No results found for “my child was not vaccinated and has autism”.
No results found for “my child is not vaccinated and has autism”.
No results found for “not vaccinated and has autism”.
No results found for “was never vaccinated but has autism”
No results found for “was not vaccinated and has autism”.
No results found for “not vaccinated and has autism”.
No results found for “never received any vaccines, but has autism”.
No results found for “no vaccines, but has autism”.
No results found for “no vaccines, but has autism”.
“never vaccinated, but have autism”
1 result containing query from someone as confused as me
“not vaccinated, but have autism”
1 result containing query from someone as confused as me
“not vaccinated” “got autism anyway”
1 result My friend’s child wasnt vaccinated for this reason and he got autism anyway
Your search – “was not vaccinated” “got autism anyway” – did not match any documents.
- “decided not to vaccinate” “subsequently diagnosed with autism” … 6 results and 1 very well documented kid who was not vaccinated, but has autism.
- Nature Magazine: Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data
- Google Flu: How does this work?
- Children Who Have Received No Vaccines: Who Are They and Where Do They Live
Filed under: Autism Tech, Autism and Computers, CDC, Center for Destroying Children, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Computers, Seizures, Swine Flu
This is really interesting. A study needs to be done, doubt it ever will, though…
What a straw man argument! You went looking for specific strings of words and Google didn’t find a result. Well, no duh. If you type in quotation marks, Google will only look for EXACTLY those words, not the CONCEPT you’re looking for.
By the way, I did a search for unvaccinated autism and returned 301,000 results. THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND.
If you’d like some research (peer-reviewed) on the rates of autism in a population that stopped vaccinating, here you go:
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2005 Jun;46(6):572-9.
No effect of MMR withdrawal on the incidence of autism: a total population study.
Honda H, Shimizu Y, Rutter M. Yokohama Rehabilitation Center, Yokohama, Japan.
P.S. The rates of autism in the 30,000 people in the study went UP slightly after they stopped vaccinating.
Sorry, but science isn’t based on restrictive Google searches.
There is a reason for the quotes, I am looking for specific unvaccinated kids mentioned on the internet, most likely by their parents. Find a couple for me, pretty please.
That study looks like the kids just quit vaccinations, we not unvaccinated from the get-go.
[...] Unvaccinated Children – Oregon Department of Health must conduct an independent study of unvaccinated children in Oregon and compare their rates of ASD, asthma, diabetes, and food allergies to vaccinated [...]
To the person who posted the link about the MMR and people still having Autism. If you read the study you will SEE that it refers to MMR only. The kids in this study HAD OTHER VACCINES. So try reading before you post.