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Script:
Let’s keep looking at more evidence in this cases lines of evidence numbers 5 through 7 that acetaminophen use in susceptible babies and children causes autism in.
If you haven’t seen the videos on the first four lines of evidence, please go back and watch those as well.
This is William Parker, the scientist, with Dr. Parker Reports.
The three lines of evidence we are looking at today lines 5 through 7 are correlations in time.
Starting in the early 1980s, shifts in the amount of regression and increases in prevalence in autism were observed. About the same time that acetaminophen replaced aspirin as the most popular drug in children.
That’s two correlations in time.
The third correlation in time occurred during the 1990s when direct to consumer advertising dramatically drove up the use of drug in general, and the prevalence of autism skyrocketed.
Nobody questions the fact that these correlations in time exist. The question is, what do they mean?
I’ve had many people scold me, saying “correlation does not prove causation”, which is to say that, just because two things happen at the same time does not mean that one cause the other.
And they’re right!
But, reminding a professional scientist of this is sort of like reminding a professional basketball player that the hoop is the round metal thing at the end of the basketball court in front of the backboard.
As a scientist, we know that, first, correlation is necessary for causation to exist,
and second, multiple correlations with numerous other lines of evidence can be conclusive. Very conclusive.
These correlations in time are just 3 of 20 lines of evidence we have.
And that’s the broad strokes on lines of evidence numbers 5-7 out of 20 total, with Dr. Parker Reports.
To watch a more detailed video on this topic: please watch our similarly titled video on this WPLab Youtube channel.
To get more information and to see how this fits into the big picture, read the peer-reviewed research.
The following references describe the original published research mentioned in this blog:
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