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Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

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Human Rights in Ireland
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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Seven Highlights From Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?s HHS Senate Confirmation Hearings Sun Feb 02, 2025 11:00 | Rebekah Barnett
Brattish senators, partisan politics and Bernie Sanders ranting about onesies ? RFK Jr.'s Health and Human Services confirmation hearings were a massive let down, says Rebekah Barnett.
The post Seven Highlights From Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?s HHS Senate Confirmation Hearings appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link No Laughing Matter as Net Zero Nutters Target Your Anaesthetics and Painkillers Sun Feb 02, 2025 09:00 | Chris Morrison
Now the Net Zero nutters are targeting your medicines and painkillers, including the cheap and safe nitrous oxide. This despite scientists noting their effect on the atmosphere can hardly be measured, says Chris Morrison.
The post No Laughing Matter as Net Zero Nutters Target Your Anaesthetics and Painkillers appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Trigger Warning: Your Local University, Literary Society or School Board May Contain Nuts Sun Feb 02, 2025 07:00 | Steven Tucker
Chocolat author Joanne Harris has added trigger warnings to her books and urged others to do the same, so readers don't "feel unsafe". But it's only ever for things that upset thin-skinned Lefties, says Steven Tucker.
The post Trigger Warning: Your Local University, Literary Society or School Board May Contain Nuts appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Sun Feb 02, 2025 00:51 | Will Jones
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Ed West: Grooming Gangs ? Britain?s Chernobyl? Sat Feb 01, 2025 17:00 | Richard Eldred
In Britain, after decades being swept under the rug, the full horror of the grooming gangs is now coming to light. Historian Ed West asks: could the fallout bring down our multicultural regime?
The post Ed West: Grooming Gangs ? Britain?s Chernobyl? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?118 Sat Feb 01, 2025 12:57 | en

offsite link 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp Sat Feb 01, 2025 12:16 | en

offsite link Misinterpretations of US trends (1/2), by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jan 28, 2025 06:59 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter #117 Fri Jan 24, 2025 19:54 | en

offsite link The United States bets its hegemony on the Fourth Industrial Revolution Fri Jan 24, 2025 19:26 | en

Voltaire Network >>

New autism campaign to be launched in Dublin tomorrow.

category international | health / disability issues | news report author Wednesday January 11, 2006 20:54author by Kathy Sinnott Report this post to the editors

The absence of formal data on the incidence of autism throughout the EU is about to be addressed.

We have Roman records of Down Syndrome and medieval descrptions of cerebral palsy. Medical historians can find no trace of autism.

A few years after the end of the Reign of Terror in Paris, a boy wandered out of the woods on the outskirts of the city. He was so unusual that people thought he was raised by wolves. Doctors came from great distances to study the boy because there was no precedence for his condition. Reading the contemporary accounts, he clearly had autism.

Interestingly, a feature of the French Revolution in post-Terror Paris was that tradition was discarded. In medical circles this meant that doctors outdid each other to embrace everything and anything that could be considered new and progressive, including Jenner vaccination.

The next child we find in the literature was a little boy on the east coast of the United States in 1919. Again he attracted widespread interest because he was seen as one of a kind. Seven years before the United States Public Health Service had been launched with lofty aims like getting rid of quackery and witchcraft and establishing immunisation programs. In the USA in the 85 years since, autism first increased to the point of being named and recently was declared a 'national epidemic'.

There are many effective medical and nutritional interventions for autism. There are also important educational and therapeutic approaches. Some parents and professionals are open to them all, others are invested in one or two. Still others put all their faith in custodial care and think that people with autism are beyond help.

There is also wide variation on the causes of autism. This generally divides into those who point to genetics and thsoe who point to environment. There is great controversy in everything to do with autism.

I have learned a lot about the difficulties we at home are experiencing in reaching authorities at both EU and national level and the difficulty in convincing them to accept their responsibility for people with autism and the 'epidemic' itself. As a new member of the Environment Public Health and Food Safety committee in Brussels, I asked the commission about the atuism epidemic and its plans to tackle it. The response stated that there was 'no comprehensive or comparable data at EU level concerning the incidence or prevalence of this condition'. I, of course, went crazy but, speaking to the official after I discovered he was not being dishonest, he explained that my question had shaken them - that 'no-one had ever mentioned autism to the health commission before'.

The position was clear. Autism is still officially considered a rare condtion and not even considered a disease because of the lack of reliable and consistent data in respect of the incidence and prevalence of ASD. And in EU terms and consequently in terms of the policy of many European countries, that reliable data must come before we will see our demands fulfilled for earlier diagnosis of children, improved accessibility to appropriate treatments and services, supports for families caring for people with autism, etc. That data must be in place before we will se an end to the autism 'epidemic'.

Providing the necessary European data therefore became a primary goal and gratitude is due to Dr Alvaro Ramirez for agreeing to a full commitment to the strategy and within it to the development and leadership of an autism project.

Our proposal to establish the European Autism Information System has been sanctioned by the EU Commission and will be launced tomorrow in Dublin. The central aim of the project is to establish an agreed information system to record ASD data. This data, recorded in common format across the EU will provide the strongest, most robust evidence available to determine both the prevalence and the financial burden of the disease. It will also provide a means of monitoring trends. After the completion of the initial project this sytem can be further developed as a full scale EU surveillance system.

When the commission realises the numbers, the cost and the detriment to the lives of so many young people, hopefully all else will follow.

author by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethicspublication date Thu Feb 02, 2006 22:28author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Personally, I sustained a head injury, have an anxiety and am bipolar. Anything related to neurological interests me.

I listened to Mr. Tim Lynch, Neurologist at the Mater on the TV earlier tonight. Ireland is lacking in services for people with specific neurological needs and he said that an impetus similar to that behind Cancer is needed for Brain related matters. I am sure Beaumont and other hospitals who are short-staffed and crowded support this.

I highly endorse this. Every road accident we hear about the person who has died but now as medicine has advanced, more live, a multiple of those that die, and we need to remain alert to their quality of life and how improvements can be made by sharing experiences, information and knowledge.

From my 'foibles' above, I compounded my situation with all kinds of phobias and fears.......a person who had worked with Autistic children in the US had the foresight to give me a Jack Russell. Jack is with me over a year now and he is one of the greatest gifts and companions I have ever had. At times I feel he reads my insecurities and coaxes me ahead.

Again the news, the other day. I was thrilled to see the Initiative of the Guide Dog project for children who are autistic. I have agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces, so I had some empathy with the little girl being able to go to a supermarket with her guide dog and Mum.....Let's have more freedom for children and people who need exceptions made.

Ironically, I don't drink but I have been refused entry to two near empty pubs in Ballsbridge and Merrion. I explained that all I needed was a coffee and a rest. In both cases, and this took guts for me, I explained why......yet I was refused.

This ignorance must stop........

Well done Kathy Sinnott and others.

Michelle
Gandhi 'You have to be the change you want to see in the World.....'

 
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