The IACC is failing the autism community. Join us in protest on July 10th!!
On Tuesday, July10th at 9am, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee will be holding the first meeting of the newly empaneled members. The Autism community will be showing up to let them know that their actions have been wholly unsatisfactory.
in 2006, Congress passed the Combating Autism Act, giving the federal government almost a billion dollars to find ways to prevent and treat autism. The head of NIMH, Thomas Insel, was appointed to lead the IACC in coordinating that effort.
Six years and almost a billion dollars later, Insel has not only failed to produce even one medical intervention or recommendation to prevent or treat autism, the autism rate has DOUBLED on his watch. Tens of thousands of reports of improvements and recoveries via biomedical intervention have been ignored and gone uninvestigated. He broke federal committee rules to strip vaccine research out of the autism research agenda. Every year the complaints of Insel’s malfeasance have become louder and louder in the autism community.
His abuse of his position came to fruition this past April when he announced the new members of the IACC. The authentic autism community that is seeking to bring an end to the autism epidemic had nominated well respected researchers, doctors and advocates with impressive histories and large followings, however Insel ignored every one of the nominations, and instead seated a panel consisting of purely political appointees, four of who publicly state that they do not believe that autism should be prevented or medically treated.
That was when we reached our breaking point. A coalition of advocacy groups representing tens of thousands of families held a press conference and demanded that Insel be fired, that the current mockery of a an IACC panel be disbanded, and that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius meet with leaders of the coalition to chart a path forward to actually address the autism epidemic.
The only response that we received was what amounts to a form letter signed by NIH chief Francis Collins, that was clearly written by a staffer, and that did not address any of the points made to Secretary Sebelius.
We have had enough.
Join us for a demonstration of our concern over a public health disaster that is devastating a generation of children.
July 10th, 9:00am
L’Enfant Plaza Hotel
408 L’Enfant Plaza, SW
Washington, DC 20024
Map and Directions
We will be demonstrating our concern to the new committee and letting them know that that we believe that the IACC as currently constituted has lost its legitimacy and its right to lead during their public comments portion of the meeting mid day, followed by a gathering in front of the Department of Health and Human Services in the afternoon
We strongly encourage you to give your own public comments. The procedure is as follows:
Notification of intent to present oral comments: July 3th by 5:00 p.m. Eastern
Submission of written/electronic statement for oral comments: July 5th by 5:00 p.m. Eastern
Submission of written comments: July 5th by 5:00 p.m. Eastern
Send notifications to:
Ms. Lina Perez
Office of Autism Research Coordination
National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
6001 Executive Boulevard, NSC
Room 6182S
Rockville, Maryland 20892-9669
Phone: (301) 443-6040
E-mail: IACCPublicInquiries@mail.nih.gov
Details on the IACC meeting can be found here:
http://iacc.hhs.gov/events/2012/full-committee-mtg-announcement-july10.shtml
More details coming soon.
