Once again I'm reminded that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The recent push by a large number of autistic people to 'own' their diagnosis and try to raise acceptance and dispel harmful myths has kicked up a minority of autistic people to fight against this.

This may seem bizarre - who fights against improved acceptance? - but actually has clear roots in the ongoing culture war the West seems engaged in. The identity positive autistic movement, of which I am a part, is viewed by some as another manifestation of 'wokeness'.

This is the right-wing definition of 'wokeness', of course - ie a modern equivalent of the pejorative take on political correctness, but it's definitely at the core of this 'neurorealist' movement - the idea the autistic community is being hijacked by 'woke lefties'.

They believe that the push for acceptance of neurodiversity and rejection of the medicalisation of autism is misguided and drawing attention away from those autistic people who, in their view, need more help and intervention.

The trouble is, this view is pretty much baseless. Firstly, there is little evidence that autistic advocates who push for acceptance are in any way harming autistic people who require more help and support. Second, the view effectively silences those of us who are able to share.

Many of us who have been health activists have been crying hoarse for years about the need to strengthen our health system, focus on public health
Last summer brought policy and public focus to this dire need. One thought lessons were learnt.
Clearly not.

There is INCREDIBLE stress on the health system right now in many parts of the country. Health professionals over worked, burning out, turning positive with families in droves. And sometimes cannot find beds for themselves or their family in the hospitals they are working in.

I have never seen this kind of a situation before. Lots of people reaching out for help. To provide care, advice, help patients and those in medical need is what health providers are trained for. It is what this is unique about health as a profession.

Imagine not being able to help because there is no capacity, no bed, because there are multiple claimants for that one bed all with medical need. Where the only way a bed might be available is a patient discharge or sadly, a patient death

Ambulances lined up outside hospitals waiting to be able to transfer the patient to the facility, and at times to ferry out those who could not make it.

Long THREAD :

Sources : A litigant named Dr. M. Geethanjali, approached the Madras HC, to redress her grievance wherein, she was denied an MD Opthalmology seat in PSG medical college whereas a candidate who got lesser rank than her was given the same seat. 1/n

The petitioner also alleged that while the initial fee fixed by government at the time of admission was Rs.3 lakhs, PSG college demanded 35 lakhs.

Justice Anand Venkatesh of Madras HC in an elaborate and detailed order, 2/n

went in-depth into the issue and found that, private medical colleges are making a killing in PG medical admissions using the pandemic. 3/n

The Court observed, _“The governments are grappling with the situation and the normal functioning of the society virtually came to a standstill and slowly attempts are being made to restore essential functions with sufficient safeguards. 4/n

Unfortunately, attempts are also being made to take advantage of this situation to justify certain actions. There is an attempt to put every blame on the Corona Virus even where it did not have a direct nexus to the action performed by an institution or any 5/n

The new Variant Under Investigation (VUI) was re-designated Variant of Concern (VOC) 202012/01 on 18 December

This is an excellent report by @PHE_UK, but it’s a bit technical so I’ll try to unpick it for you

https://t.co/M9f3zaimF5

1/14

The team at @PHE_uk begin by explaining that on 8 Dec they investigated the surge in cases in the South of England. Only 4% (255/6130) of Kent cases had genetic sequence data, but of these 117 genetically similar cases had been collected between 10-18 Nov

2/14

When looking at national data, these 117 cases were part of a larger cluster of 962 (to 8 Dec) in Kent, NE London, plus a few in rest London, Anglia, Essex

3/14

915 or the 962 cases had additional data: 828 were from November, 79 in Oct, 4 from Sept

90% were from <60 years old (further detail not yet available here)

6 patients had already died

4/14

As of 20 Dec, most cases were in London, the SE and East of England.

Of note, 3 of the main testing labs use a PCR test for 3 different viral genes: N, ORF1ab, S.

The new VOC has a mutation that makes this test negative for S (spike), but positive for the others.

5/14

What does it take to sustain screwiness in the way the world works? Mostly, it's just good people, trying their best to get us to a better place... within constraints which pretty much preclude us actually getting anywhere! A case in point with

These authors come across as hugely committed to something we might all agree upon: improving young people's experiences of physical education through better school-based-interventions. Sounds great? Agreed, & pretty much everything about their study models best practice 🥳

Sadly, established "best practice" involves further embedding the medicalisation of PE as if it should be about the potential contribution of physical activity to everything from quality of life, self-perception & cognition to the likelyhood of becoming healthy & active adults 🤯

We're reminded of the Chief Medical Officer's "recommended guidelines of 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day for healthy growth and development" 👇 This is a focus on what we can easily measure (generic) rather than on what we might value (individual).

We get recognition that PE "is not merely an opportunity for children to engage in PA" but that's linked to its role in "the development of knowledge & skills to foster their PA engagement throughout life" - so further focus on health outcomes. A long way from @meaningfulPE 🙄

Let’s talk about ORGANIC.

Robert Paarlberg’s new book on the food system is out today, and here’s an excerpt.

He’s not a fan of organic, and he makes some good points but misses others.

Here we go.

Organic's biggest shortcoming is that you need more land to grow the same amount of food.

The yield penalty happens in almost every crop, in almost every study.

The gap could narrow with more research/varieties, but it won’t go away.

This has big, bad climate implications.

The second issue I have with organic, which Paarlberg shares, is that its basic criterion is naturalness.

Natural doesn’t mean safe, or even safer. A farming standard based on it forces farmers to sometimes use more dangerous, less effective tools.

On human health, there’s scant evidence that pesticide residues on conventional produce are harmful to consumers (though it’s possible farmworkers could be at risk).

What I don’t want is for folks who can’t afford organic to worry about feeding their kids conventional produce.

On the plus side, Paarlberg acknowledges that the organic standard has some real advantages for animal welfare.

This is why I buy organic animal products.

Many in the organic world would like more regs ensuring animals have decent lives.

1) Anyone injecting people with EXPERIMENTAL mRNA 'gene-therapy', FRAUDULENTLY labelled ‘vaccines’, WITHOUT informing them they're taking part in an EXPERIMENT with potentially very serious health risks, including death, IS BREAKING THE LAW. Nuremberg Code https://t.co/OY1Q3L3DwA

Cipla concall was today at 10:40 pm (late night)

Here are the key takeaways 😃

@unseenvalue @darshanvmehta1 @AlgoBoffin @iramneek

Introduction

- Company being the first one to launch Remdesivir and the whole portfolio for covid 19

- Company is no.2 in lung leadership. Will try to unlock the complex generics in US.

- Growing faster than the average market growth.

- Trying to bring respiratory technology in China and in Brazil.
- There is a fair amount of unlocking through digitalization.
- ESG to improve in future. Becoming carbon neutral and water neutral.

US business
- Were able to add

- would be doubling the revenue in US.

- The pipeline is nicely diversified , now the products are diversified into respiratory + injectable around 30%

Indian market: One india strategy
- To cosumerize the business.

- Generic business is no.1 in india.

- Brand is moving from generic business to consumer business.

- Goal is to keep beating market growth by expanding the depth in portfolio.

1. “Dr Tomas Ryan : Sociopath Or Psychopath : Or Both ?”

Answer = Both. Shortest Thread Ever. Only joking. Let’s jump in and try to see what makes Dr Tomas Ryan tick 🧵 1/21

2. Dr Tomas Ryan is a Neuroscientist at Trinity College Dublin. He has appeared on Claire Byrne Live, Prime Time & The Tonight Show in addition to radio appearances. He calls himself a Scholar on his Twitter bio.

3. He is part of the Zero Covid Cult Crew (ZCCC) out of that hallowed institute of learning, Trinity College Dublin. Other contemporaries of his in the merry little band are Luke O Neill, Kingston Mills & Aoife McLysaght.

4. Kingston Mills & Aoife McLysaght are staunch proponents of the Zero Covid strategy. Mills is an agenda contributor to the World Economic Forum and recently wrote an article for them entitled "Is reaching zero Covid-19

5. Did I forget to mention that TCD got funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation for Vaccine development to the tune of $230,000. Tomas was also sponsored by Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute to complete his Phd in Cambridge. Let's just say he has connections to Big Pharma

UK variant update:

50% more contagious and the main difference is in the rate of infection in children up to the age of 9.

No significant difference found yet in clinical course, mortality within 28 days or chance of re-infection.

1/

https://t.co/D8DXVvBeew

50% higher infection rate

(Secondary attack rate 15.1% versus 9.8%)

2/

Main effect in children under 9 years old

(see age distributions, second image has overlay of reference onto UK variant)

3/

Essential to stop the UK variant: 50% higher transmission will lead to more cases, more hospitalizations, more ICU cases, more deaths, and greater economic costs.

Independent SAGE's plan for the UK variant

With the new Covid variant everywhere, it's not enough to just wait for the vaccine | Stephen Reicher

Syngene & CRAMS are synonymous in the Indian stock market today.

From Early Discovery to Commercial Supply

NMEs cater to

~Pharmaceutical
~Biotechnology,
~Nutrition
~Animal health
~Consumer goods
~Speciality chemical

In this thread, let’s deep dive into their FY20 AR

1/
Syngene works with clients from around the world to find solutions to their research, development, and manufacturing challenges for small and large molecules while improving productivity, speeding up time-to-market, and lowering the cost of innovation.

Syngene At a Glance

2/

Plans

~Capacity Addition
~Capacity Expansion
~Partnering for Success

Vision: “To be a world-class partner delivering innovative scientific solutions”

3/

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson’s Message

4/

Jonathan Hunt, MD & CEO’s message

My name is Maryjane and the woman in the picture is Okolo Beatrice, my mother.

In August, my mom started having constant headaches. She went to the hospital, and was attended to by a doctor, but the headache persisted.

At a point, she started having loss of memory and disorientation.

We were asked to go to the Neuropsychiatric hospital to ask for a Neurologist.

She went, but did not see a Neurologist on seat, but met with another doctor there.

She was given some medications and asked to come back in a month. She returned to the hospital on the 29th of September with the same complaints. She was given medications again and was sent back home.

At a point I was no longer comfortable with the complaints.

I assumed it was a result of stress. So on the 1st of October, I went to my parents house, picked her up and went straight to the lab, where blood work as suggested by a doctor was carried out. From the lab, I took her to my house. My plan was for her to rest well.

The results of the test came back on the 4th of October, and the outcome prompted me to start looking for a Neurologist. I started making calls. Fortunately, we got a number and the following day which was the 5th of October, I took her to the doctor in Onitsha.

What reaching the peak means for the NHS: We're increasingly confident we have hit *a* peak and hopefully *the* peak of the second wave of coronavirus infections. Hospital admissions lag behind and will carry on rising for another week or so, but this is still a key moment… 1/10

I have talked before about how and why the healthcare the NHS provides right now is simply not as good as usual. We have protected emergency care but routine care for cancer, cardiac disease and so many other illnesses has been badly affected. Especially surgical treatments. 2/10

The surge in COVID patient admissions has a huge impact on other parts of the NHS. We see this pattern often in the winter flu season but it is far worse right now. The shortage of normal hospital beds and ICU beds makes in-patient work very difficult. 3/10

But the key issue is planning. The NHS was not designed to handle huge fluctuations in patient numbers over short periods. We need spare capacity to admit patients into. When the hospital is full, patients must wait to come in, creating serious problems in Emergency Depts. 4/10

Creating spare hospital capacity for a workload we cant predict is difficult. Solutions for small/medium/large patient numbers are all different. If we under-prepare, we cannot admit every COVID patient. If we over-prepare, we ring-fence beds we could use for other patients. 5/10

Autistic behaviours that are generally discriminated against, despite being harmless and just how we are.

A thread🧵

1. Stimming - repetitive physical movement to help regulate our stress levels. They feel nice and are really helpful but people seem to hate to see it. #autism

2. No eye contact. We generally find this too intimate and intense, and will avoid. It can even cause pain if forced. But people don't trust us even though we inform them we're autistic. #autism

3. Sitting in 'odd' positions. We're often very bendable - remember Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a common comorbidity - and loads of feel more comfortable in slightly contorted positions. People always comment 'you can't be comfy like that'.

Yes. Yes I can. #autism

4. Stammering when excited. We can get so passionate about some subjects that we struggle to get the words out as they all get caught in the annoying bottleneck of actually having to leave our mouths. But it irritates people, makes them assume we're somehow lesser. #autism

#Thread

Living with meltdowns.

A personal, very late diagnosed, autistic perspective.

#autism
#AllAutistics
#ActuallyAutistic

1/

Before my autism diagnosis I had occasional emotional outbursts. These generally happened at home after a sustained period of pressure at school or at work.

When I discovered I was autistic I realised that these were actually what people call meltdowns.

2/

Getting intensely upset was a bit of a family thing. Sudden shouting and throwing of things, with resumption of peace and calm afterwards, wasn’t that unusual.

In fact we had a kind of mantra that it was much better to express our emotions than to keep them bottled up.

3/

It was hard to gauge my own emotions against other people’s but by any measure I felt things incredibly intensely.

As a child the injustice of being told off for something that wasn’t my fault burned into me. I sobbed until the tears stang my face and I could hardly breathe.

4/

But suppressing emotion was necessary for me to survive in the outside world. That’s partly what led to uncontrolled outbursts of feelings at home.

I melted down because there was no justice and I’d been misunderstood. I wasn’t using emotion as some kind of bargaining tool.

5/

Pathways to Public Policy Careers for those interested and looking for global opportunities

Public policy is made when a governing body attempts to address an issue of widespread public concern, such as health care. The process often runs in cycles and can take years.

■After new laws are created, Policy Implementation occurs, often involving federal agencies, state and local governments, bureaucratic entities, and NGOs. Courts get involved as laws and policies are challenged on a variety of fronts.

■Analysis and Evaluation occurs throughout the cycle and involves many players. Policies may be changed — and the cycle begins again.

What is the best advice for someone pursuing a career in public policy?

People often find their way to public policy careers because of an

interest in a particular substantive area. Public policy work can be found in virtually any subject area.

Your ears should perk up when you hear the words “Center for,” “Institute,” “Association,” and “Foundation” because they represent potential employers.

Public policy majors work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, such as a government agency or advocacy group.

Continuing education, such as a certification or fellowship, can also advance your career as someone interested in public policy and politics.