As Autism Epidemic Intensifies, JAMA Viewpoint Supports Recruiting and Training Doctors with Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Push to Normalize Public Health Problem without Investigation Into Causes or Treatment

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH

Physician education and training is the longest and most rigorous of any occupation. Before 2003 when the ACGME adopted a set of duty hour regulations limiting resident workweeks to an average of 80 hours over 4 weeks, it was not uncommon for doctors in training to log 120+ of 168 hours per week in the hospital on duty. Even at 80 hours per week with ever-expanding knowledge base and intensive testing, the selection of medical students keys on intellectual ability, adaptability, communication skills, teamwork, and the potential to work far beyond average students in critical situations.

There is an epidemic of increasingly prevalent neuropsychiatric disorders among young people including attention deficit disorder, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), tics, and seizures. In the 1960’s the rate of ASD was 1:10,000; now it is 1:36 and climbing. The epidemic has not been intensively investigated for its determinants or potential treatments in large-scale (>20,000 subjects) epidemiological studies or randomized trials. Public health agencies and the mainstream media continue to push a narrative that the etiology of ASD remains elusive, yet with great certainty they assert ASD is not associated with the ever-increasing childhood vaccine schedule.