The Duffy Theory

So yes, I too was once a believer, that the MMR vaccine could have caused this incredible upsurge in Autism.  It’s an easy, jump.  “My kid was fine, then he had his MMR and after that he was not.”  But as time moved on, more and more research was published, I fell from grace.  In 2009, scientific proof was published, that children with Autism have a rare mutation in certain genes called CNV’s which are deletions or duplications of certain genes in DNA. The interesting thing about this is that all of us have deletions or duplications in the DNA of our genes; it’s just that in children with autism these CNV’s are all clustered along the communication pathways of the brain. 

Understandably people question... “So if it’s genetic, where has it been hiding for the past millennium?” Now, here is a question that opens many doors, and truly is the crux of the problem.  Where has it been hiding?  Have we recently overturned some rock, some catalyst to expose it?

I have my own idea. I have no proof. (But apparently, neither did Wakefield)  It’s just an idea.

I noticed that when I was teaching,  my classroom parents whose children were diagnosed with Autism were particularly bright.  Actually, for the most part, they were significantly more intelligent than the rest of my parents. Hardly a “Regular Joe” among them.  So here’s the Duffy Theory (at least for 2011), perhaps Autism is on the rise because our society today is so mobile, so techie  making the world flat. This makes it easy for two very highly intelligent people to find one another at MIT, at work or even at the State University, marry and have kids together. 

My own father is truly brilliant.  But 50 years ago, women did not fill technical positions, or even university classrooms like they do today.  Dear dad married the sweet pretty girl from the neighborhood (she was great, terrific even).  If that were today perhaps he would have married the sweet brilliant techie girl who helped him fix his printer, while he was cramming for his Calc III exam. We live in a different world.

A connected world.

I suggest that the gene was always there, but now, it is so easy for “liked brains” to find one another. 

Perhaps, this should be studied. The intelligence gene.

Perhaps, Dorothy was right. Maybe when we go looking for our own heart's desire, we shouldn’t look any further than our own back yard.