RE: Vaccines didn't cause GWS (or autism, or ___, or ...)

Well, if we’re going to be nit-picky, I’ll still have to disagree.

The term “autism” refers to the set of symptoms that characterize “autistic disorder”, but because those symptoms overlap to a substantial degree with Asperger’s syndrome and PDD-NOS, the term has become somewhat ambiguous, but is often clearly used to refer specifically to autistic disorder, while ASD is used for the broader grouping.

For example, Wikipedia offers this clarification:

The terminology of autism can be bewildering, with autism, Asperger syndrome and PDD-NOS often called the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or sometimes the autistic disorders, whereas autism itself is often called autistic disorder, childhood autism, or infantile autism. In this article, autism refers to the classic autistic disorder; in clinical practice, though, autism, ASD, and PDD are often used interchangeably. ASD, in turn, is a subset of the broader autism phenotype, which describes individuals who may not have ASD but do have autistic-like traits, such as avoiding eye contact.

Clear as mud, no?

The problem is really that the notion of a spectrum of disorders related to autism is relatively new, only coming about over the last twenty years. Language is often much slower to adapt.