USA Today is the biggest selling newspaper across the United States. It sells about two and half million copies a day. On page 11 of today's edition there's a full-page spread from an organization called Generation Rescue, formed in 2005 by parents of a child with autism.
The headline is stark. Are We Poisioning Our Kids In The Name Of Protecting Their Health?. On the left of the page is a syringe containing ten vaccines recommended for children in 1983. On the right, another syringe with 36 vaccines recommended today. Then the claim. The autism rate has gone from one in 10,000 in 1983 to one in 150 today.
The advert, sponsored by Hollywood stars, admits the figures are disputed. It doesn't go as far as to say they are plain silly, or that the association between vaccines and increase in the incidence of autism is hardly plausible and certainly not proven.
Today 20 people from Northern Ireland and Birmingham UK Children's Services are struggling through the snow to view programs aimed at preventing impairments to children's development, emotional and behavioral problems.
A high proportion of children, ten per cent at least, are at risk from impairments that the study tour participants seek to prevent. In addition to reducing impairments, the study tour participants are also looking for new ways of improving the wellbeing of the average child; so their work extends to all children.
But there are no full page ads for these kids. No celebrity sponsors. And no easy answers either. Like autism, progress is slow. Advances depend on careful unglamorous science coupled with rigorous application and testing of ideas.