Dan Olmsted Interviewed on Progressive News Network
Part 2 of 3. Unanswered Questions about the Hepatitis B Vaccine

Peter Bearman – Given Millions for His Opinions

Uncle sam hat money
By Jake Crosby





















I wanted to discuss the spatial clustering – his own brainchild of autism study design. I noticed he said that he found significant clusters between households that share kindergarten and daycare centers, parks and malls – all places where, “people talk.” He supposed that the shared public places resulted in parents talking to one another about autism, making their children more likely to get diagnosed. Of course, places that people tend to go to more often are probably more likely to correlate to where people live – which further raises the plausibility of environmental exposure in relation to locale. Coal burning plants come to mind.

Bearman also did not mention some of the other things parents might talk about, like getting their children vaccinated, like eating foods that may be high in certain substances of interest (such as the levels of mercury in fish), or dental care (such as dental amalgam) – all of these are things that, I would assume, people talk about that could influence exposure to the cause or causes of autism.

Bearman further asserted that pediatricians had a negative affect on autism diagnoses because they are always trying to delay them! That’s quite strange – my pediatrician was the first to spot that I was delayed in my language development. Yet Bearman made his assertion without anything to back it up – no data, not even anecdotes.

He further claimed that pediatricians were not associated with autism clusters and that dentists were more strongly associated with autism clusters, since people don’t talk about getting autism diagnoses “in dental chairs.” What he left out was that in some dental clinics, amalgam fillings are often given which emit mercury! He also seemed to leave out fact that dentist’s offices - like all doctor’s offices – do have places where people talk. They’re called “waiting rooms.”

 In a further attempt to try to back up his claim that spatial clustering directly relates to autism diagnoses, he noted that the clustering was more likely to happen among higher-functioning children than lower-functioning children. But that is probably for the same reason that there is a negative connection between proximity to an autism household and mental retardation, which can only be generalized to the small fraction of people who, depending on their circumstances, could qualify for an autism label, a mental retardation label, or both. Similarly, the small fraction of people who have a borderline autism diagnosis is likely to be higher functioning. But issues with generalizations aside, the associations of functioning levels and mental retardation diagnoses to autism clusters are still very weak.

A Bearman paper claimed close proximity to a person with autism was associated with a 10% decreased risk of a mental retardation diagnosis – just barely statistically significant (meaning, likely attributable to more than just chance). The upper limit of that finding’s confidence interval was 1.00 – a 0% risk of acquiring a mental retardation diagnosis and living near a person with autism. Meanwhile, the positive association with developing autism and living near someone else with autism was much stronger and well within the range of statistical significance.

The high functioning autism claim was very strange; rather than simply divide up the groups into equal proportions – high-functioning, low-functioning and moderate – Bearman created a top 20%, bottom 20%, while putting the bulk of people with autism in the middle. The differences in both the high-functioning and low-functioning groups were not statistically significant when compared to the rest. And the 20% high-functioning group was barely statistically significant compared to the spacing risk in the 20%-lowfunctioning group, which was not statistically significant. Had these groups simply been equally divided into thirds as they should have been – rather than 20%, 60%, 20% - there would have been no statistically significant differences among the functional levels of autism.

And yet, it was on the basis of both of these supposed findings that Bearman dismissed environmental factors, despite having previously shown the audience a real-life example of an autism cluster in a neighborhood next to a construction site, which he acknowledged was an environmental omissions source for “metals.” The relationship between environmental exposures and autism clusters would also link to the correlations found with older parents who are more likely to have greater exposure to environmental insults, but not the “de novo” mutations Bearman asserted that older parents were causing – mutations that have yet to even be discovered.

Bearman sure did not follow Occam’s Razor – the principle that the more simple explanation is the correct one - in his analyses. The idea that “de novo” mutations behind the increase do not parallel at all with “social clustering,” unless he is making the less direct claim that parents are influencing each other to have children later. Environmental exposures, however, would link both of these directly.

Before I was able to ask Peter Bearman about any of these additional concerns, the question and answer session was ended - cut short by 10 minutes, even though there was no shortage of questions from the audience. Evidently, there was a little too much scientific skepticism about Bearman’s work to allot the full Q/A time the audience was promised. 

One of the most amazing remarks Peter Bearman made during his lecture was his prediction that autism rates will go down and that it will be result of economic difficulties that will in turn reduce autism diagnoses. Yet, Bearman’s own research - the one graph he left out of his exhaustive presentation - showed an increasing rate of children getting diagnosed at earlier ages. If he knows something about the future of autism rates that the rest of the audience does not, this would surely seem to contradict his prediction of an autism decrease caused by economic crises, if a decrease were to happen. Certainly, the reduction of thimerosal from vaccines as a cause would not sit well with the man funding him - Tom Insel, or his brother Richard who co-developed a thimerosal-preserved vaccine.

Nonetheless, Bearman shares that special passion with the IOM and its members like NVAC Vaccine Safety Working Group co-chair Marie “"We are not ever going to come down that [autism] is a true side effect [of vaccines]" McCormick of explaining the unexplainable. Perhaps that’s why the CDC took notice and is now giving him additional funds to study assisted birth technology and its possible relationship to autism. If history is any indicator, it’s not science, but Peter Bearman’s opinions that will bring him more of the taxpayers’ millions.

Jake Crosby has Asperger Syndrome and is a contributing editor to Age of Autism. He is a 2011 graduate of Brandeis University with a BA in both History and Health: Science, Society and Policy. In August, he will attend The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services where he will study for an MPH in epidemiology.


C. Colovaris

Jake, I am enjoying your articles investigating the "truth" behind the so called experts. It is unfortuate these days that so many people have an agenda or financial incentive to make their cases for such things as vaccines, add, adhd, autism, etc. I still can't believe that the NIMH study on brain development in ADHD did so little to change anything. That study showed that ADHD children develop as do normal children, but are 3 to five years delayed. Many of the brain centers do not develop until the teen years. Leading to immature behavior. Maybe that is what occurred with you, maybe your brain finally developed fully, into the brilliant brain that it is. Keep up the good work. I see others are trying to discredit you, that seems to be par for the couse these days when anyone speaks the truth.

Jake Crosby

For anyone interested - I have written an article about autism rates in relation to thimerosal exposure last year, which relates to the second-to-last paragraph of this article:

Here is the direct link to the Bearman study on the decreasing age of diagnosis:

Peter Bearman relies on the now-defunct archives of the California Department of Developmental Services.


Thanks Jake,and Katie Wright for these to very good articles. It allows us to see what double talk around the issue really is like: Bearman thinks he is so smart and thinks he speaks better, and reasons better than any other cluster in the world, all while he "hatch" new hair brain theories instead of what is obvious.

What in the heck was a hatch anyway? Ahhh never mind, who cares.

I am with Barbara J who said:

" I came into the vaccine issue outside of the realm of autism, I came in wondering what vaccines did to my daughters blood vessels (kawasaki), how they caused my oldest son's crohn's (both of mine Barbara) and what part they play in a younger son's tachycardia (my husband's and my son's) and now the next to youngest's asthma (my kids too). Autism came later for us. BUT vaccine reactions , including my own baby seizures from dtp (mine too), and my children's 105+ fevers (again mine too), were all ignored and continue to be ignored "

Jake Crosby

Agreed Jen, Peter Bearman gives sociologists a bad name.


Hey, I'm all for multiple-disciplinary approaches to research/problems but Bearman's research (silly "cluster" theories) is just bogus and worthy of no monies for such an important topic.


I used to think it was all about the science and now I think it is about the ruling elite's politics. These guys go to school to become a PHD and go grow up to be a prostitute. Jake, you are doing a great job of exposing these jokers!


Some classic Bearman babble... by Katie Wright


By Katie Wright


Blather Merchant

The best opinion money can buy!

Katie Wright

So funny! "Apparently Bearman disagrees with himself."

We need biologists, toxicologists and all types of environmental scientists investigating the causes of autism- not sociologists with no understanding of autism.

"parents aren't afraid of autism!" - one of many crazy proclamations he has made


Is the science in ? Do we know all there is to know about the how, when and why 's of these mutations? It surely seems to be the explanation dejour for autism,yet I have to wonder if it's accepted because there isn't enough known science to dispute it? My question, if my son has this mutated dna, and I don't, why is it assumed he was born with this and not that his dna was damaged shortly after birth by his exposures to his environment starting with his birth eye meds, belly salve and early vaccines?
In search I read this...which doesn't in my thinking exclude dna damage to the growing infant AFTER his birth. "occur during a lifetime"
Mitochondrial DNA is also prone to noninherited (somatic) mutations. Somatic mutations occur in the DNA of certain cells during a person’s lifetime, and typically are not passed to future generations. Because mitochondrial DNA has a limited ability to repair itself when it is damaged, these mutations tend to build up over time. A buildup of somatic mutations in mitochondrial DNA has been associated with some forms of cancer and an increased risk of certain age-related disorders such as heart disease, Alzheimer disease, and Parkinson disease. Additionally, research suggests that the progressive accumulation of these mutations over a person’s lifetime may play a role in the normal process of aging." NIH

Again, why is the money going toward blaming the genes without knowing when ,why and what caused the mutations? I don't think it can be denied that mitochondrial dysfunction can be acquired after birth. Those organs requiring the most energy, the heart and brain, would be the targets for damage. I came into the vaccine issue outside of the realm of autism, I came in wondering what vaccines did to my daughters blood vessels (kawasaki), how they caused my oldest son's crohn's and what part they play in a younger son's tachycardia and now the next to youngest's asthma. Autism came later for us. BUT vaccine reactions , including my own baby seizures from dtp, and my children's 105+ fevers, were all ignored and continue to be ignored , my kids do NOT get a medical waiver. NO doc wants to admit there is a need for one. My baby is unvaccinated , should he have a waiver given that he has five damaged sibs? NOOO..the doctors are failing us and his being another drip in the collateral damage barrel wouldn't bother them at all.

Bob Moffitt


I don't think Bearman has gone out on a limb predicting that autism rates will decease in the near future .. after all .. everyone expected autism rates to fall in accordance with the removal of thimerosal from vaccines. There is simply no way that removing thimerosal did not have any noticeable impact on exploding autism rates .. and yet .. that is exactly what we have been led to believe.

In my opinion .. had the CDC not deliberately created a "three year lag" in reporting autism rates .. the falling rates would have been immediately clear for everyone to see.

In any event .. should autism rates begin to fall in the near future .. various scientific charlatans and career public health officials .. will NEVER admit it was the removal of thimerosal that caused the fall. Instead .. we can anticipate themselves proudly claiming credit for "better diagnosing and early intervention" as an explanation for the decrease. Or .. in Bearman's case .. "economic difficulties"....


Man, he should run for office with all that double speak and nonsense. I will say that I have to agree with one thing, from our experience and those of our friends... pediatricians. Mine ignored everything I told him. He ignored every red flag my son had. I told him he suddently stopped speaking and hasn't spoken since (when he was very verbal before). He ignored my son's running for hours on end, hitting his head into the TV and walls, running into walls and windows, loss of social skills, and so on. He blew them all off. When we got the guts to self-refer to a developmental doctor, he acted odd that they came up with Autism. Really? Red flags were screaming! Friends with other pediatricians had the same situation happen to them. So it's probably a mixed bag out there.

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