"Be it Darfur or Dundalk, Syria or Stoneybatter, Palestine or Portlaoise, no one’s auntie anywhere is safe until everyone’s auntie everywhere is safe"
My article in today's Indo👇
Thursday, 23 December 2021
Wednesday, 22 December 2021
Nature Walk: Birds song & nice sunsets
Starlings (I think 🧐) Part 1
Starlings (Part 2)
I wish I knew what these little beauties are 💓
Monday, 6 December 2021
This week's top nature walk pic: Locals protest against "This sort of thing"
Protest, Galway schtyle 💥💪
Thursday, 25 November 2021
With the nation's health again in peril, now is not the time for misplaced deference to Nphet
My piece in today's Indo👇
"Public health measures underpinned by flawed modelling
has brought us to the brink of yet another preventable lockdown. The louder the
scientists
clamour for ventilation mitigations such as HEPA air purifiers and
upgrading masks to N95/FFP2, the more Tony Holohan doubles down on “wash your
hands”, despite evidence showing the risk of transmission from surfaces
is low.
With the nation’s health again in peril, now is not
the time for misplaced deference. The country’s Chief Medical Officer should be
accountable for his dogged denial of the scientific consensus within the WHO,
ECDC and others, that: children can catch and spread Covid as effectively as
adults, Covid is an airborne
disease, asymptomatic transmission is common and Long-Covid exists
which can cause multi-organ damage".
...."It’s not too late for Dr Holohan to take responsibility instead of blaming individuals for NPHET’s doomed deployment of hand sanitiser as our primary defence against a deadly airborne disease".
Covid safe Halloween party mentioned in article👇
Pre-Covid, my kids' Halloween parties were legendary. The whole neighborhood was 'round our house. This year, with Covid rampant in the community & health care professionals on their knees with exhaustion, I had 3 & made sure they a) were all safe & b) had great craic. Mission was accomplished 👻💀
Masked up for indoor horror filim in conservatory: windows open either end for cross breeze, Hepa air purifier in shot & blankets provided for extra snugness 😎
"Den of doom" (ramshackle doorless polytunnel) for unmasked hijinks & eating (all kids fully vaccinated 👍)
Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Top 4 nature walk encounters this week...& 1 burnt pie
Always been a walker. Taking a crappy camera along for the ride gets me out of my head & focused on the beauty around me 👇
Here's looking at you kid!
The Burren & the deep blue sea
Winter's closing in
Blackberries still ripe for the picking last week (technically not this week...)
Baked blackberry & apple pie. Not bake off standards but went down well with steaming hot custard & a cuppa tea 👍
Get outside & out of your head for 10 minutes. See if you can find something(s) that makes you smile. Go on, go on, go on! 💓
Thursday, 28 October 2021
Lure of lobbyists & Martin's failure to follow science puts nation's health at risk
My article in today's Indo👇
Snippets from long unedited version:
...."Ireland’s adoption of the UK’s “Living with Covid”/survival of the fittest non-strategy is the antithesis of science and doesn’t bear scrutiny.
For example, last week Nphet’s modelling lead, physiologist professor Nolan, claimed “All international evidence says children transmit much less than adults”. What evidence? The international scientific evidence, endorsed by the WHO and ECDC is incontrovertible: Children both catch and transmit Covid and even asymptomatic children may develop Long-Covid which can be debilitating.
This month, the Journal of American Medical Association published
research on the role of primary school children in the transmission of Covid
and found that, where mitigations weren’t in place, they not only spread Covid
more efficiently than adults, they’re the main drivers in the pandemic. Most
transmission occurred between teachers and children within the school, with
spill-over into their households.
Nphet’s denial of the international
evidence led to flawed school guidance which served to fuel the flames of
rising cases. Within weeks of re-opening, there were 200 outbreaks in Irish
schools, overwhelming the test and trace system. Rather than introduce face
masks for primary school children and isolate the whole class to break chains
of transmission, as our European neighbours do, Micheál Martin stopped testing.
Removing testing of close contacts in
schools is akin to removing the batteries from a smoke alarm. It doesn’t stop
the fire, it just prevents it being detected until the building is engulfed in
flames. Which is what happened in at least two schools this month alone.
With 35% of students absent due to
Covid, the CBS Primary School Board of Management was forced to move learning
online. Principal Vicky Barron described serious flaws in the HSE guidance
regarding protecting children in schools. She raised concerns that Co2 monitors
are inadequate in overcrowded classrooms with poor ventilation where opening
windows is insufficient to reduce CO2 levels. Principals like Vicky Barron who put
safeguarding staff and children first, are being failed, not just by
government, but by opposition politicians (with the exception
of the Social Democrats) and their unions.
Micheál Martin has form when it comes
to science denial. Last December, he dismissed Ireland’s Independent Scientific
Advisory Group’s (ISAG) and Nphet’s warnings against easing restrictions but the
voices of industry prevailed. Within weeks, Ireland ranked worst in the world
as Covid incidence and deaths sky-rocketed. Prolonged school closures and
lockdown ensued.
In January, ISAG urged the government
to impose mandatory hotel quarantine to prevent the importation of new vaccine
escaping variants, something honorary epidemiologist professor Michael
O-fecking-Leary objected to. Winging it on NewsTalk in July, he predicted the
“variant scariant” would be proved bogus because, “Delta would not result in
increased hospitalisations, serious illness and death”. Disinformation. Is.
Dangerous.
In October, there were almost twice as many recorded
deaths as the same time last year when we didn’t have vaccines, 10
hospitals are on Code Red, there’s zero paediatric ICU beds
and 910,000 on hospital waiting lists. And nightclubs/super-spreader events
have re-opened. What could possibly go wrong. Covid is an
airborne disease so why wasn’t re-opening of indoor venues contingent on
installing HEPA filtration and visible CO2 monitors?
Yesterday, a man conscientiously
sanitised his trolley handle and hands outside SuperValu before sauntering in
with his mask under his nose.
Gabriel Scally, president of the
Royal Society of Medicine’s Epidemiology and Public Health, calls this “hygiene
theatre” and says it does little to reduce the spread of Covid. Scally warns of
the urgent need to explain that Covid spreads through the air. “It’s much more
important to have fresh and purified air in schools than to have surfaces
sterilised. If it was coming through our water supply we’d take action, and we
should be taking action with our air supplies.”
Numerous countries have installed
HEPA filtration is schools. In New York City, the ventilation status of every
classroom is published on a website, and classrooms must have at least two
functioning methods of ventilation. Belgium is mandating that all public
buildings display their CO2 levels.
Nphet’s expert advisory group, made
recommendations for safe indoor air standards in February which weren’t adopted
by government. Assistant Professor Orla Hegarty was a member of the committee.
She advises that the safe recommended levels of CO2 should not exceed
800ppm and
that plug in HEPA filtration systems (no
ions, plasma or ozone), coupled with mask wearing by
school children of all ages, would reduce the risk of pupils contracting Covid
by 90pc.
Why have these inexpensive safeguards
not been implemented? Where are the sheltered outdoor areas for children to
have lunch? Where is the political will to protect citizens and end this
pandemic?
“Living with Covid” means accepting
that around 2,000 people a year will die from a preventable disease (compared
to 150 road deaths deemed unacceptable), that it’s fine for children to become
infected and potentially suffer multi-organ failure, that our vulnerable will
be shielding indefinitely and our beleaguered health service, followed by the
economy, will collapse.
That’s not science, that’s really bad
politics. Irish citizens did not consent to that.
Friday, 8 October 2021
"The waiter gestured at my breastfeeding baby as though he was an unexploded bomb and told me to cover up or leave"
This in support of Ireland's national breastfeeding week👇
Extract:
With only 6% of Irish babies exclusively
breastfed to six months, Ireland is a world breastfeeding laggard.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO)
and Unicef, breast is best, yet only 40% of infants are fed exclusively with
breastmilk for the first six months of their life.
On
Monday, in support of National Breastfeeding week, President Higgins described
the “commodification
of child feeding” by largely unregulated organisations that deploy
vast funds in the “abuse
of advertising” and lobbying. The infant formula market is a €60bn a year industry. Subsidised by
taxpayers, Ireland produces 13% of the global supply of formula, worth over a billion euro a year. President Higgins passionately urged government to promote and protect
breastfeeding as the most natural and sustainable food source.
Wednesday, 22 September 2021
IOM Elections: It's time to put the women who know what they're doing in charge
“Do you want to speak to the man in charge or the woman who knows what’s going on?” As global pandemic responses unfolded, it became apparent that female led countries fared best. As a result of Jacinda Ardern’s elimination strategy, New Zealand recorded less deaths by far (26) than any other developed country with the economy outperforming the OECD average.
I wanted to document what it’s like to live in a country where the person in charge was a woman who knew what she was doing. Unfortunately, New Zealand doesn’t count “wordsmith” as essential work, so I headed for the Isle of Man, where the man in charge had achieved similar results. The country, like New Zealand, had used its island status to eliminate Covid, allowing citizens to avoid prolonged lockdowns and live relatively normal lives.
Within weeks, I was running around the island bribing pharmacists (unsuccessfully) for LFTs. The single mother of a disabled child needed them because her other child caught Covid and she was too frightened to go out. She emailed me, a stranger she heard on the radio, because she didn’t know how to live with a virus capable of killing her child.
What went wrong? In June, Chief Minister, Howard Quayle, Health Minister, David Ashford and the Council of Ministers (CoMin), opened the borders too soon and in an inexplicable act of self harm, unleashed Delta, a highly transmissible, vaccine escaping variant, onto a Covid free island. Why? The economy, stupid. Except, by July, local businesses surveyed by the Chamber of Commerce reported an 80% reduction in income compared to the same time last year. Some described that period as 'the worst they've experienced during the pandemic'.
With no mitigations in place, Covid spread like wildfire collapsing the test and trace system. Hundreds were in isolation. Mr Ashford’s solution? Scrap isolation, which accelerated spread. The health system was hit with bed shortages, visitor restrictions and cancelled operations.
Why would the men in charge sabotage their own legacy?
Minutes
from a Public Accounts Committee meeting published in August answered that
question: It wasn’t their legacy. The committee took evidence from the Island’s
Medical Director, turned reluctant whistle-blower, Dr Rosalind Ranson. She
testified
that Howard Quayle, David Ashford and Director of Public Health, Dr Ewart, were
wedded to following UK strategy in March. Dr Ranson described her battle to
adopt an island specific approach, a task reportedly thwarted by the Department
for Health and Social Care’s CEO, Kathryn Magson who allegedly forbade Dr
Ranson from liaising directly with ministers. Ms Magson gave medical briefings
to the Council of Ministers (CoMin) herself, despite being unqualified (medically) to do
so.
It’s
noteworthy that the women who masterminded one of the world’s most successful
pandemic responses have been ostracised by men who unashamedly claim their accomplishments
as their own.
On
24 March, when asked at a presser why he hadn’t locked down, Mr Quayle replied,
“We take advice from our medical experts”. Concerned, Dr Ranson asked Ms Magson
if she had relayed her advice to Mr Quayle. She didn’t reply. That question
must be answered but notwithstanding that, why didn’t Mr Quayle, Mr Ashford or
CoMin solicit the advice of the highly qualified medical director directly? With the exception of Julie Edge (who was one of only 5 MHKs with the integrity & courage to vote against unmitigated border opening), why aren't MHKs clamouring for an investigation into this?
Before the borders
opened, the average positivity rate was circa 0.31% of tests. The 3 day average
now is around 11.43% despite significantly reduced testing and in mid-late
July, the island had the highest incidence of Covid worldwide. Last week,
Covid outbreaks occurred in a care home having previously loosened visitor
restrictions. The “dodgy” dashboard numbers
don’t tally, but piecing together information from various sources, an
estimated 20 people have died from Covid since borders opened.
David
Ashford suggested I represent the views of the Great Barrington Group (GBD):
for “balance”. That’s like giving equal weight to climate change deniers when
writing about global warming. It implies there’s no scientific consensus. There
is. The GBD is a fringe group that has lobbied for “unscientific”, “unethical”,
herd immunity through mass infection. The risk that COVID poses is not a matter
of opinion, it’s a scientific fact.
Monday, 6 September 2021
One day, our children will ask what we did to prevent them from being exposed to Covid
My article in today's Indo. Please share, wherever you live in the world, with #wedonotconsent & tag relevant ministers & agencies.
".....Delta is doubly transmissible with high vaccine escape and waning immunity and has raised the bar to achieving population immunity. Uncontrolled global transmission facilitated the emergence of the Delta variant, uncontrolled domestic borders expedited its importation to our shores and uncontrolled community transmission has seen Ireland’s incidence rise to the highest in the EU. The government is responsible for putting us in this perilous position just when our unvaccinated children return to schools which, amidst such high community transmission and negligible mitigations, cannot credibly be deemed safe.
Covid related
absences doubled in a week after schools opened in Scotland with
Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, admitting, “There’s no doubt that pupils
and staff returning to school over the past fortnight had contributed to an
"unprecedented" number of cases”.
Instead of mitigating against a similar scenario here, Micheál Martin, with NPHET as cheerleaders, are already lining up the fall guys: Parents"
"....If the government continues to expose our children to
harm, it’s our job to protect them. Unless parents are prepared to say, “We
do not consent” to exposing our children to Covid infection at school which
could saddle them with long term disability, congenital disorders, organ
failure and cognitive deficiency, our consent will be presumed tacit”.
One day, our children will ask what
we did to prevent them being exposed to infection when masks and inexpensive
HEPA filtration systems could have prevented them from getting sick. Sending
our under twelves to school with masks or chipping in for air filters are
viable options. Deferential acquiescence is not".
Thursday, 15 July 2021
Isle of Man Covid Strategy: Mitigation or Herd Immunity by Mass infection?
My article in today's Manx Independent
Our immunosuppressed & children are guinea pigs in government's "dangerous experiment".
Word version👇
The UK’s
plan to ditch restrictions, including mandatory face masks and social
distancing, exposing citizens to mass infection, was described by the WHO’s Dr
Mike Ryan as “moral emptiness and epidemiological stupidity”.
Over 1,000 internationally renowned
scientists published a letter in The
Lancet admonishing the policy as “A dangerous unethical experiment”. Ireland’s Taoiseach, Micheál Martin,
commented, "I certainly don't want to
be presiding over something that says it's okay for young people to get Covid,
it's not actually”.
On Tuesday, per head of population, IOM
reported two thirds as many new Covid cases as the UK and three times as many
as Ireland. In response to my
article in Saturday’s Irish Independent, incredulous readers
commented, “How did the Isle of Man go from safe haven to plague island so
quickly”?
I’ve been reporting on International
responses to the pandemic for 16 months. No jurisdiction, except the Isle of
Man, has ever knowingly imported Covid in order for its citizens to “learn to
live with it”. It’s all the more incomprehensible given the island had survived
most of the pandemic living without Covid and all the restrictions necessitated
by an infectious disease ripping through communities.
Just as the vaccination programme was
gaining momentum, in an act of inexplicable self-harm, instead of waiting a few
weeks, the Manx government imported the delta variant, jeopardising lives and
livelihoods just as vaccines may be waning in our vulnerable.
Not only was Covid actively imported on
island by the government, it did so without putting sufficient public health
measures in place to protect the vulnerable and unvaccinated population. Unsurprisingly,
delta now has the island in its grip. The educational and business disruptions,
the cancelled operations, lost incomes and Long Covid that will ensue were not
inevitable. They, and any resulting deaths, were entirely avoidable.
On 7 June, I wrote to Education Minister, Dr Allinson, asking“ Do you
not think that deferring border opening until children break up for the summer
is the safest way of ensuring our children are not unnecessarily
exposed to harm associated with getting Covid and Long Covid in the high risk
classroom environment? He did not reply to that. I removed my child from school
informing Dr Allinson that I do not consent
to him being subject to an “unethical, dangerous experiment” involving infection
at school.
The government claims to have a mitigation strategy which implies the existence of masks, distancing and work from home directions, for example. Not only are these not mandated, they are not encouraged and there’s no apparent role modelling of these behaviours amongst political leaders.
The government’s messaging/catchphrases, such as “Numbers don’t
matter” and “we must live with Covid,” without mitigations and financial
isolation support says, this is not serious, it’s safe to carry on as normal
sending children to school, socialising indoors. If it wasn’t safe, the
government would put mitigations in place, right? By saying “live with it” and “numbers
don’t matter”, the government is lulling citizens into a false sense of
security, implying that getting infected is fine. It’s not.
Numbers DO matter because as more people get infected, hospitalisations will follow and with that, as we’ve seen elsewhere, the likelihood of deaths. How many avoidable deaths does the Chief Minister deem acceptable? Increased infections also provide fertile ground for the emergence of new, potentially more dangerous, vaccine escaping variants, which would be catastrophic.
On Monday, BMJ
columnists, Dr Helen Salisbury, explained the difference between achieving herd
immunity by infection (unsafe, unethical, unscientific) and by population
vaccination (safe, ethical, scientific). She described the UK’s plan of herd
immunity through infection as “criminal”.
If herd
immunity by mass infection is not the IOM government’s intent, in order to
credibly claim a strategy of mitigation, it needs to urgently introduce actual
mitigations, not least to protect the immunosuppressed and children from the
now raging spread of what the WHO describes as a “deadly disease”. Basic public
health mitigations include (but not limited to): Mandatory masks in indoor
spaces and public transport, social distancing, financial support for isolating
workers, work from home orders, installing ventilation in workplaces and
schools, vaccinating children 12-16 years (as is already happening elsewhere in
the world).
The government’s downplaying
of the threat posed by Long Covid to the nation’s health and economy is
concerning, particularly given children are particularly at risk. “This is not a benign virus,” Professor Stephen
Griffin, a virologist at Univeristy of Leeds said. “We know that around eight
or nine percent of hospitalisations are children at the moment.” We do not
fully understand the long term implications of severe disease in children or
the impacts of Long Covid and there have already been reports of neurological
damage and damage to the heart and lungs, even in very mild cases.
10pc
to 20pc of young people with Covid experience Long Covid, lasting many months.
The UK’s Office for National Statistics reported that at least 13,000 children
aged two to 11 and 20,000 aged 12 to 16 have suffered Long Covid. Contrary
to Dr Ewarts astonishing claim recently that the risks posed by Covid to
children were “vanishingly” low, the evidence raises sufficient doubts about
longer term effects on children to NOT say the risks to them are extremely low.
Having imported a highly
infectious disease, the IOM government has abdicated all responsibility by
instructing us to “learn to live with it”. Failing to put mitigations in place
to protect the most vulnerable, the government then came up with another
catchphrase: “personal responsibility”. Public-health is about preventing sickness in entire
populations. Infectious diseases are always collective problems because they are…infectious. An
individual’s choice not to wear masks or distance, has widespread implications.
One infected person can seed an entire continent of cases. The odds of any of
us becoming ill depend on the choices of those around us.
The immunosuppressed,
unvaccinated children and essential workers rely on the government to ensure
our schools, workplaces and public transport are safe. Anything short of that
constitutes moral emptiness and epidemiological stupidity.
Saturday, 10 July 2021
Parent's should not be forced to choose between our children's education and their safety
My article in today's Irish Independent👇
As parents, we must not settle for hospitalisations & deaths as the only valid metrics in this pandemic. Long Covid threatens to saddle a generation of children with chronic, disabling illness for years to come. In 10 years time our children will ask us what we did to protect them. They have no voice, no vote, no agency. We must speak up on their behalf 💓
Word version 👇:
“I’m skared of going to school”. Meet Aoife (not her
real name) who contacted me after reading an article I wrote invoking Jaws to describe school safety. Until
schools are safe, I pledged last August, “My child’s not getting back in the
water”.
Aoife is 13 and was shown the article by a teacher months
after it was written, as “proof” that her safety concerns were justified. Her
anxiety, which manifested as school refusal and self-harm, was dismissed as “nonsense”
by a priest, which made her doubt her sanity. Relief at being told by her GP
that he’d seen “an explosion” of pandemic related anxiety in children (i.e.
“I’m normal”) was dashed on realising the waiting list to see a psychologist
was over a year. Clocking my background as a therapist, Aoife messaged me for
help.
The contempt with which children have been treated
throughout this pandemic reminds me of The
West Wing scene where Director of Communications, Toby Zeigler, is confronted
by a teenager for snubbing him. “In society we’re meaningless because we’re
powerless” he railed, “No risk in offending us, we don’t exist”.
School closures (a feature of “living with Covid”),
meant abuse and neglect went unnoticed forcing some children to call the gardaí.
Pause for a moment and think how frightened and courageous a child must be to
dial 999 only to hear an automated message promising a call back that never
comes.
The recent Ombudsman for Children’s report, “A childhood
paused”, showed that 100%
of children who contacted them cited the impact of the pandemic on their mental
health. The more socially disadvantaged and medically
vulnerable, the harsher the impact. The highest
number of complaints, 49%, were about education, describing 2020 as a
“devastating year for children”.
Two months after emerging from a lockdown prolonged by
importing the Alpha variant from Britain, the Delta variant, which
is 60% more transmissible with higher vaccine escape, is on our
shores. Public
Health England data shows that, with increasing numbers of adults
vaccinated, this variant is targeting unvaccinated youngsters. We also know
that double vaxxed people can catch and transmit coronavirus and that
vaccines may wane within months against this variant. This has significant
implications for international travel, indoor socialising and the safe
reopening of schools in September.
Unable to return our child to school last September, we
weren’t offered any alternatives. Some teachers kindly kept us in the loop but
others just didn’t have the time. Joy at being able to participate in remote
learning with classmates in January, descended into dismay. Teachers did their
best, but being in ear shot of live classes, it was apparent that many children
struggled to cope. Some were sharing laptops and bandwidth with multiple siblings
and missed classes. One child was so overwhelmed, she broke down in tears. The
teacher offered reassurance to the faceless child, but her voice too faltered.
The strain on everyone was palpable.
Instead of using months of lockdown to install ventilation,
the government herded children back into unsafe, unventilated, overcrowded
classrooms. Desperate to get my son back to school safely and seeing no
prospect of that happening at home, we loaded up the car and came to the Isle
of Man, whose elimination strategy meant life continued as normal for most of
the pandemic.
As luck would have it, the Manx government recently
announced they were shifting to a “living with Covid” non-strategy. Given there
were zero cases at the time, they fast tracked the Delta variant’s arrival so
that we could all learn to live with it. Schools are now several teachers down
with pupils and parents isolating. Businesses that were previously open and
thriving are shut because infected visitors ambled through their doors. Having
3 feet (see flag) doesn’t mean shooting yourself in one of them is advisable.
Aoife’s parents don’t have the luxury of upping sticks.
They’re both (un)employed in hospitality, which has been decimated by the
government’s choice to put the aviation industry before SMEs; the lifeblood of
our communities and economy. Last year, with less than 10 cases a day, we were
living without Covid. Rather than
opening pubs and eateries, we opened borders and imported new variants instead.
A year on, “Living with Covid” has killed 5,000 Irish
citizens and condemned the rest to a purgatorial existence where deprivation of
human and social contact has become a way of life.
Hospitalisations and deaths cannot be
the only metrics in operation “Saving Summer”. Nphet warned that actions resulting
in higher cases now, jeopardise the safe reopening of schools. We know that
children have suffered psychological and physical harm
as a result of both school closures and attending unsafe schools.
UK data indicates that around 7,000
children suffer with Long Covid beyond 12 months. Dr Deepti Gurdasani,
epidemiologist at the University of London warned: “Exposing children
to a novel virus that has long-term impacts, is completely unethical”.
Parents should not be forced to
choose between their child’s education and their safety.
For those unmoved by children being
potentially saddled with a chronic, debilitating illness for years to come,
gifting Covid unvaccinated, compliant hosts has other consequences. Dr Stephen Griffin, virologist and
associate professor at the University of Leeds warned, “We can’t ignore
children in vaccination campaigns. If we do, we could end up in a cycle of
variants.”
Sunday’s announced plan to vaccinate
12-15 year olds, whilst welcome, was conditional on NIAC’s long awaited
recommendation. For schools to open safely in September, as a minimum, we need
eligible children to be vaccinated and ventilation systems installed in all
classrooms.
Nelson Mandela said, “The true
character of society is revealed in how it treats its children”. Instead of
gaslighting children like Aoife (now fully recovered) for raising safety
concerns, we should join them in holding this government to account.
Friday, 28 May 2021
Isle of Man snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with Delta variant
13 year old: Why do you have to criticise the government of every country we live in?
Me: That's my job
13 year old: Then change your job
Having spent 13 intense months covering the Irish government's catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic whilst simultaneously homeschooling, grieving & fielding online abuse, I came to the Isle of Man for a quieter life.
How it's going so far👇
"Why risk it? Journalist's fear Delta Variant Will Cause Significant Outbreak". Interview here👇
In his interview this morning, Health Minister, David Ashford, told listeners that the data relating to the increased transmissibility of the so called Indian variant has changed. What he didn't mention is that Public Health England increased it from circa 50% on Saturday to circa 66% on 26 May 👇
https://twitter.com/Dr_D_Robertson/status/1398169118097002496
Friday, 12 March 2021
The feminist movement must include all women - not just the white middle class ones
My article in today's Indo👇
Exerpt: A few years ago, I was disinvited from speaking at an International Women’s Day (IWD) corporate event when the organiser belatedly realised an article I wrote (which led to the booking) was satirical. It was called, ‘Women should embrace inequality, not fight it’.
Organiser: “So… you didn’t mean it when you wrote that we should prepare our daughters for working life by giving them less pocket money than our sons…?”
Me: “WTF?”
Another time, I was invited to talk about female empowerment at a women-only event. I suggested tackling female disempowerment at source instead by having a men-only workshop for the 21-member entirely male board.
Me: “Women don’t need assertiveness workshops, we need equal pay, equal rights and equal representation at the top table.”
Organiser: “Sorry, wrong number.”
More recently, I declined an invitation to speak at an IWD event because all six panel members were privileged white women. I suggested they give my place to a friend who fled persecution in Sudan and is now a kick-ass (very cool) doctor. I was replaced by... a privileged white woman.
Perusing the week-long IWD events, I couldn’t help noticing the glaringly absent voices. One panel had 16 women – all of whom were white. ‘Choose to challenge’ was this year’s IWD theme and some marginalised women chose to challenge the women’s movement itself.
When Mincéir Beoir Rosemarie Maughan called out the exclusion of Traveller women from IWD panels, she was offered a last-minute slot resulting from a settled woman cancelling. She declined, instead joining other Traveller women on the Sligo Traveller Group forum where she expressed frustration at being excluded by female allies, adding: “We deserve more than crumbs from other people’s plates.”
Catherine Coffey O’Brien talked about her mother being picked up by the “cruelty man” (agents of the State that took Traveller children from their families and put them into institutions). Three other families were seized the same day, all of whom were first cousins, and all were split up and “thrown like leaves in the wind”. They never came back together as a family and “our clan system”, Catherine said, “was destroyed”.
Catherine, a Bessborough survivor, also expressed irritation that Traveller and other marginalised women’s voices were ignored by the Mother and Baby Home Commission. “They never listened. We were not heard.”
If I could only challenge one act of state-sponsored misogyny this year it would be the egregious Mother and Baby Homes Report. An official document containing evidence of human rights abuses perpetrated against women and babies, yet describing them as “lobbyists” while dismissing, distorting and deleting their testimonies, cannot be accepted as a legitimate historical record.
Bereft of moral and legal integrity, the process exposed survivors to retraumatisation, was underpinned by misogynistic preconceptions and enabled by silence – past and present.
Annette McKay, whose testimony documenting her mother’s ordeal in Tuam was returned to her in tick-box form, vowed to continue the fight after lockdown. “Bring a shovel,” she tweeted, “we are burying their report and digging up the truth.” I've got my shovel.
It references an earlier article, "Women should embrace equality, not fight it". Health warning: contains satire👇
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