Dr. Eric London has resigned from the Autism Speaks Scientific Affairs Committee. His resignation letter can be found on the Autism Science Foundation Web site.

Dr. London is a the co-founder of the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) which merged with Autism Speaks. He cites a couple of reasons for his resignation in the letter, but the biggie is the organization’s stance on further research into an autism/vaccine link – Autism Speaks supports more research on the subject.

From his letter:

If Autism Speaks’ misguided stance continues, there will be more deaths and potentially the loss of herd immunity which would result in serious outbreaks of otherwise preventable disease. I further fear that if and when herd immunity is lost, there may be a societal backlash against the autism community.

Now that’s a potential consequence I haven’t seen mentioned before.

London is a member of the Autism Science Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board and holds other positions related to autism research.

The Autism Science Foundation Web site, where I found his letter, is the foundation co-founded by Alison Singer, who left Autism Speaks (she was an executive vice president) over the same vaccine issue. The Autism Science Foundation Web site says it will focus on non-vaccine-related research.

I looked at the Autism Speaks Web site to get its point of view and found nothing on London’s resignation. As far as I can tell, his name has been removed from the Web site, which is logical since he is no longer with Autism Speaks. (If I missed a statement from Autism Speaks, fell free to let me know and I will post a link.)

I applaud London’s move. One should not stay with an organization if there are such major philosophical differences. This is probably good news from Autism Speaks point of view as well. I would imagine they don’t want an advisor who disagrees this much with them.

However, I agree with Dr. London. I, too, feel resources would be better spent on research other than the supposed autism/vaccine link.

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