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I wrote to my MP about autism and immigration claims

Deleted User

Today I simply felt like adding here that I sent an email to my MP with a few scientific resources expressing what I think are correct and false claims about autism.

About immigration, I didn't add links, I got too tired, but may end up diving into the government's statistics eventually.

Spent about 1 hour crafting my email, and now feel like resting.

My summary with respect to increase in autism cases was:

  • There is a widening of criteria in the testing
  • Coalescence of related conditions (like Aspergers, and in some cases Down Syndrome) into autism
  • Wider availability of testing
  • Wider awareness

The links in increase due to medications taken during pregnancy or vaccinations during early years are pretty mild or flatly false, and if you know about specific studies I would appreciate them.

I did read the BBC fact-checking Trump, but the article felt pretty silly, so I skipped linking that.

The article I cited was Global prevalence of autism: A systematic review update (2022) but there are surely others. Their key point in my view, is:

  • Our findings reveal an increase in measured autism prevalence globally, reflecting the combined effects of multiple factors including the increase in community awareness and public health response globally, progress in case identification and definition, and an increase in community capacity. Hypotheses linking factors that increase the likelihood of developing autism with variations in prevalence will require research with large, representative samples and comparable autism diagnostic criteria and case-finding methods in diverse world regions over time.

I should've cited this NAS response, or this Gov statement linked by Bunny somewhere, but it's too late for me now.

I told him that stating his opinion, backing it up with scientific facts or expert opinions in parliament or media (maybe by Simon Baron-Cohen) would be useful, especially if he shows a slide or a graph, or at least tells a good story.

It may be worth to add more useful links, in case others find it useful if they write to their MPs. 

Parents

  • Well done Almond! 

    The statistics on immigration are a minefield as there have been so many figures quoted but when you delve into it, there have been occasions where some politicians have been selecting different figures from the studies that were being talked about at a particular time/event. However, the source material should get round that.

    To date, Nigel Farage says that he “doesn't know” if what Trump says is true about paracetamol causing Autism. 

    The one hopeful thing that I heard so far is that some politicians and party members are calling on politicians of different parties to forget the tribal politics when it comes to the big issues, work together to solve things such as the mess the NHS is in. Everyone except Farage wants the NHS to work, but at the moment, if one political party says we are doing A, the other party says no, that’s wrong, we are doing B, and the other party says no you are both wrong, we are doing C. It would be much more productive for the parties to work together, to get the very best long term plan possible so that when a change of government occurs the plan can continue. It is hard to argue that this would not be in the country’s interest. 

    I’ve swayed off course here, but the events of the last few days and your initiative in writing to your MP have inspired me to do something more about all this too. I’m in Northern Ireland and we have one or two aspiring Trump clowns here. Our health minister has denounced Trump’s claims on paracetamol/autism, but our political system is different here as a result of the Good Friday Agreement and although our first and deputy first minister should be working together on things, they are not and they have no will to make compromises and to seek a common ground. Many suggest they are just tootling along for the money, status and benefits the positions bring. Our NI politicians are largely ineffective because they are more interested in tribal politics which has made our NHS, police force, roads, transport links and so on, so much worse than they might have been.

Reply

  • Well done Almond! 

    The statistics on immigration are a minefield as there have been so many figures quoted but when you delve into it, there have been occasions where some politicians have been selecting different figures from the studies that were being talked about at a particular time/event. However, the source material should get round that.

    To date, Nigel Farage says that he “doesn't know” if what Trump says is true about paracetamol causing Autism. 

    The one hopeful thing that I heard so far is that some politicians and party members are calling on politicians of different parties to forget the tribal politics when it comes to the big issues, work together to solve things such as the mess the NHS is in. Everyone except Farage wants the NHS to work, but at the moment, if one political party says we are doing A, the other party says no, that’s wrong, we are doing B, and the other party says no you are both wrong, we are doing C. It would be much more productive for the parties to work together, to get the very best long term plan possible so that when a change of government occurs the plan can continue. It is hard to argue that this would not be in the country’s interest. 

    I’ve swayed off course here, but the events of the last few days and your initiative in writing to your MP have inspired me to do something more about all this too. I’m in Northern Ireland and we have one or two aspiring Trump clowns here. Our health minister has denounced Trump’s claims on paracetamol/autism, but our political system is different here as a result of the Good Friday Agreement and although our first and deputy first minister should be working together on things, they are not and they have no will to make compromises and to seek a common ground. Many suggest they are just tootling along for the money, status and benefits the positions bring. Our NI politicians are largely ineffective because they are more interested in tribal politics which has made our NHS, police force, roads, transport links and so on, so much worse than they might have been.

Children
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