David Kirby

Page Contents (hide)

1. Background
2. Kirby and Impartiality
3. Kirby's Shifting Goalposts
4. Conclusions
5. Blog Resources (A - Z)
1. 5.1 Citizen Cain
2. 5.2 Autism Diva
3. 5.3 Joseph
4. 5.4 Kevin Leitch
5. 5.5 Kathleen Seidel

1. Background

David Kirby is a New York based freelance reporter who used to work regularly for the New York Times. He become involved with autism through the publication of his book, Evidence of Harm (St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312326440)[1].

It related the story of the original 'mercury parents' and how they came to believe their children were the victims of a unique type of mercury poisoning which Leo_Kanner had mislabelled 'autism'. Kirby also postulated that there had been an 'autism epidemic' and that the cause of this epidemic was the vaccine preservative thimerosal.

This was in direct contrast to the mainstream science which demonstrated quite clearly that whilst there had been a rise in numbers, there was no rise in prevalence.

2. Kirby and Impartiality

The reviews of Evidence of Harm speak of the book's and Kirby's integrity and impartiality:

"David Kirby’s superb, even-handed account of the investigation into this ongoing, high-stakes controversy is fascinating and compelling." Bernard Rimland

"Walking the middle line, Kirby’s book remains one of the most thoroughly researched accounts of the thimerosal controversy thus far." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

However, it became clear that David Kirby was neither impartial, nor even handed. In an open letter to David Kirby, Kathleen Seidel asked Kirby:

"If you were truly objective, why is it that Lyn Redwood, co-founder of Safe Minds, was identified as the contact person for [the domain] evidenceofharm.com until just recently? (The WHOIS record changed after I made note of the domain's contact information...)"

Just as intriguingly, fellow blogger Kevin Leitch, discovered that the designer, developer and maintainer of the website that accompnied the book and which the above domain pointed to was in fact Wendy Fournier who is the President of the National Autism Association - another group who believe that thimerosal causes autism - under the auspices of her web design business Wendy's Web.

3. Kirby's Shifting Goalposts

As noted above, David Kirby is a vocal supporter of the idea that there has been an epidemic of autism. In order to support this he uses the source data from the California DDS which releases quarterly reports of autism data. Kirbys alleges that all through the 1990's whilst thimerosal was in mainstream use, these rates soared until thimerosal was removed and now they are in decline.

Blogger Citizen Cain took Kirby to task over this interpretation, pointing out that the figures Kirby used were not new cases at all but only a register of those people scheduled to recieve services. He also points out that Kirby uses bad data as he uses the total caseload figures rather than the much more pertinent 3 - 5 cohort. Shortly afterwards Citizen Cain recieved an email:

"Understandably, Kirby doesn’t seem interested in mucking around in the data with me too extensively, or in answering my detailed questions. But in an e-mail, he did address the key point, and concede that if the total number of 3-5 year olds in the California DDS system has not declined by 2007, that would deal a severe blow to the autism-thimerosal hypothesis. He also conceded that total cases among 3-5 year olds, not changes in the rate of increase is the right measure."

This was a very unequivocal statement. Blogger Kevin Leitch realised however that there was a significant difference between what Kirby had mailed to Citizen Cain and something Kirby had said in an interview with the New York Times in 2005.

"Because autism is usually diagnosed sometime between a child’s third and fourth birthdays and thimerosal was largely removed from childhood vaccines in 2001, the incidence of autism should fall this year."

Kevin Leitch emailed David Kirby to ask him why he had added on two years to his original quote to the NYT when communicating with Citizen Cain. Kirby replied, saying that:

"Many thanks for your note. The Times misquoted me. I actually asked for a correction, but did not receive one. What I told the reporter is that we should know in the next few years. I believe this is also what I said on Meet the Press"

Leitch decided to email the two reporters that interviewd Kirbys to ask them if this was true and if it was why they had not granted Kirby's request for a retraction. Reporter Gardiner Harris replied:

"Prior to publication, we read the entire passage relating to this matter to Mr. Kirby. He approved it."

And reporter Anahad O'Connor said:

"...we stand by that quote. David Kirby was interviewed at length, and we verified that quote and additional information with him before the article was published. He certainly did not object to that assertion at the time. Hope that helps"

And so the mystery remained. Why had David Kirby moved the goalposts by two years regarding the cut-off date for when we should expect to see a sharp decrease? Further, why had he attempted to mislead Leitch?

4. Conclusions

David Kirby wrote Evidence of Harm to support parents. What he failed to do was take into account how autistic people themselves - as well as a lot of other parents and autism professionals - might feel about what he has written and the side he has chosen. Judging by the evidence of non impartiality indicated by the fact that both Safe Minds and NAA have made both financial and technical contributions to Kirby's PR machine for Evidence of Harm it is hard to see how he can be considered 'untainted' by the more extreme positions adopted by these pressure groups. This is further evidenced by his obvious propensity to mislead people who stand in opposition to his beliefs over very important facts.

There is also the matter of Kirby's shifting of the goalposts. It is difficult to place any other interpretation on events than Kirby believed autism rates would plummet after the removal of thimerosal and that the CDDS data he quoted would demonstrate that. When the rate did not drop before meeting his self imposed deadline, he decided to tack on a couple of extra years breathing space. This can be considered dishonest at best and cynically manipulative at worst.

David Kirby

1. Background

2. Kirby and Impartiality

3. Kirby's Shifting Goalposts

4. Conclusions

5. Blog Resources (A - Z)

5.1 Citizen Cain

5.2 Autism Diva

5.3 Joseph

5.4 Kevin Leitch

5.5 Kathleen Seidel