IACC Votes to Include Research on Several Environmental Exposures, including Vaccines, in Strategic Plan for Autism Research
The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) met on Tuesday, November 10, at the National Institute of Mental Health in Rockville, Md. to discuss revisions to the Strategic Plan for Autism Research.
The meeting began with the agenda period for Public Comment. Anita Miller Sostek, Ph.D., Autism Speaks' vice president of scientific review and operations, provided, in advance, a detailed statement to the IACC outlining key concerns and focusing on the need to comply with Combating Autism Act's (CAA) legislative intent; support rigorous, evidence-based scientific research into all aspects of autism from potential causes, to diagnosis and treatments; and through rigorous and evidence-based science, engender the trust of the scientific, medical and entire autism community. The full statement submitted is here.
The remainder of the meeting was devoted to considering the revisions to the Strategic Plan that is required by the CAA to be updated annually. IACC Chair Thomas Insel, M.D. framed this discussion by asking the committee to consider whether they would be “tweaking” the existing plan or “re-writing” it each year. He encouraged the group to be mindful of the IACC's purpose as articulated in its Mission Statement: to focus, coordinate and accelerate high quality autism research. The committee decided that it would review suggested revisions provided by its Scientific Workshop panels line-by-line as it had done for the first version of the plan. Public member Lyn Redwood and Dr. Insel each suggested that the scientific panels would benefit in future years from the portfolio analysis that the IACC commissioned and that should be updated on a regular basis to support the strategic planning process.
Panel Makes Revisions to Question Concerning the Causes of Autism
The most substantive changes the IACC made were to Question 3 of the plan: What caused this to happen and can this be prevented? The IACC unanimously approved a short-term research objective for studies to determine if there are sub-populations that are more susceptible to environmental exposures such as immune challenges related to naturally occurring infections, vaccines or underlying immune problems. Autism Speaks continues to be committed to exploring a wide range of environmental and genetic factors that may contribute to risk for autism spectrum disorders. Autism Speaks is a strong proponent of childhood vaccines and believes that ongoing rigorous science is the best way to engender trust by the public in the vaccine program. Although no research to date has established a link between autism and vaccines, questions still remain that a sub-set of children, with underlying conditions, may be susceptible to vaccines. As a science-based advocacy organization, Autism Speaks has encouraged continued research that includes vaccines as one among many environmental exposures that might contribute to risk for autism.
Two additional specific objectives to support vaccine research were not approved. One of these objectives was to conduct epidemiological research to determine the health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children. Dr. Insel stated that the NIH is already conducting an observational study to examine health outcomes among various populations of vaccinated, unvaccinated and alternatively vaccinated groups.
The IACC also voted to restore “prevention” as an aspirational goal for Question 3. Dr. Insel and other IACC members stated that they thought the Strategic Plan would be weakened without prevention as an aspirational goal. The IACC will continue its revision process during the next meeting, Friday, December 11.
Read the press release here.
The meeting began with the agenda period for Public Comment. Anita Miller Sostek, Ph.D., Autism Speaks' vice president of scientific review and operations, provided, in advance, a detailed statement to the IACC outlining key concerns and focusing on the need to comply with Combating Autism Act's (CAA) legislative intent; support rigorous, evidence-based scientific research into all aspects of autism from potential causes, to diagnosis and treatments; and through rigorous and evidence-based science, engender the trust of the scientific, medical and entire autism community. The full statement submitted is here.
The remainder of the meeting was devoted to considering the revisions to the Strategic Plan that is required by the CAA to be updated annually. IACC Chair Thomas Insel, M.D. framed this discussion by asking the committee to consider whether they would be “tweaking” the existing plan or “re-writing” it each year. He encouraged the group to be mindful of the IACC's purpose as articulated in its Mission Statement: to focus, coordinate and accelerate high quality autism research. The committee decided that it would review suggested revisions provided by its Scientific Workshop panels line-by-line as it had done for the first version of the plan. Public member Lyn Redwood and Dr. Insel each suggested that the scientific panels would benefit in future years from the portfolio analysis that the IACC commissioned and that should be updated on a regular basis to support the strategic planning process.
Panel Makes Revisions to Question Concerning the Causes of Autism
The most substantive changes the IACC made were to Question 3 of the plan: What caused this to happen and can this be prevented? The IACC unanimously approved a short-term research objective for studies to determine if there are sub-populations that are more susceptible to environmental exposures such as immune challenges related to naturally occurring infections, vaccines or underlying immune problems. Autism Speaks continues to be committed to exploring a wide range of environmental and genetic factors that may contribute to risk for autism spectrum disorders. Autism Speaks is a strong proponent of childhood vaccines and believes that ongoing rigorous science is the best way to engender trust by the public in the vaccine program. Although no research to date has established a link between autism and vaccines, questions still remain that a sub-set of children, with underlying conditions, may be susceptible to vaccines. As a science-based advocacy organization, Autism Speaks has encouraged continued research that includes vaccines as one among many environmental exposures that might contribute to risk for autism.
Two additional specific objectives to support vaccine research were not approved. One of these objectives was to conduct epidemiological research to determine the health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children. Dr. Insel stated that the NIH is already conducting an observational study to examine health outcomes among various populations of vaccinated, unvaccinated and alternatively vaccinated groups.
The IACC also voted to restore “prevention” as an aspirational goal for Question 3. Dr. Insel and other IACC members stated that they thought the Strategic Plan would be weakened without prevention as an aspirational goal. The IACC will continue its revision process during the next meeting, Friday, December 11.
Read the press release here.
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