Caroline Struthers

Increasingly grumpy `healthy control’ research participant.
Working to develop a way to involve patients in designing health research from the beginning

[Caroline Struthers @Healthy_Control]

ICYMI minutes of NHS Puberty Blocker Research Board from March obtained via FOI
Have the rest from May 2023. DM me for all the files and/or RT
Politburo-style brevity and "3.6 roentgen: not great, not terrible" framing is (almost) comical. https://t.co/wltShFbHTH
.@JamesEsses

[Rita Rake #IStandWithSalGrover @rita_rake]

Oh dear. Canon Clare of Sunderland Minster has had her arse handed to her by the trustees, who’ve obviously been advised by decent lawyers.

FAFO indeed.

[Long Covid Advocacy 💙 @LongCovidAdvoc]

We have written to the editors @WIRED & requested:
🔹Editorial Review
🔹Apology
🔹Right of Reply
🔹Review to investigate whether the Levinovitz article meets WIRED standards for fair & evidence-based reporting in health & disability.

📨 Letters can be sent to: [email protected]

[Caroline Struthers @Healthy_Control]

@trailtreaderxx @HallisseyC What was their behaviour? Did they shout at anyone? Call anyone names?

[Justin McLachlan @justinmclachlan]

The problem with this piece is that the author's actual expertise is how narrative shapes belief, which is the lens the piece applies. It's structured as a narrative analysis — two communities in a religious war, both captured by stories rather than evidence. That framing is seductive and partially true. But! It requires that the competing scientific claims be treated as roughly equivalent when they are not, otherwise the narrative of the pice doesn't work. So it defaults to "both sides have methodological critics" and then moves on to just anecdotes. That's not a neutral choice it's a conclusion.

[Bev Jackson @BevJacksonAuth]

What an unedifying spectacle it was to see MPs speaking out against the EHRC Code of Practice - displaying embarrassing ignorance of the law. One MP even suggested that the CoP meant some people could no longer get married! 🤣

Worse than their ignorance is their dishonesty as to their real intentions - to have another run at amending the law to introduce Gender Self-ID in the UK.

They are welcome to try: they can consult Nicola Sturgeon for advice. But at least they should spell out their intentions instead of making a song and dance about the Code of Practice.

Another enraging aspect of the MPs’ brain-dead performances was their refusal to say the word “lesbian.” Not a single mention of the Lesbian Intervenors who helped to reaffirm the sex-based rights of gays and lesbians.

So it is a relief to see @soniasodha explain these matters to the legally, intellectually, politically - yes, and ethically - challenged members of parliament whose only version of courage is the courage to make fools of themselves in public.

[Amy @alexandrite113]

If LC and ME/CFS are due to the brain being "stuck in a feedback loop of fight or flight," then why are we not allowed to give blood? Why does our blood damage muscle tissue that's exposed to it? (See study👇🏼)

Maybe it’s Maybelline. Maybe it’s fucking mitochondrial damage.

[Akua Reindorf KC @akuareindorf]

@stellacreasy @EHRC I understand you told your constituents that the law is wrong & new primary legislation is needed.

If you want effectively to destroy the protected characteristics of sex & sexual orientation, that is extremely serious and the consequences for women's & LGB rights are grave.>

[Caroline Struthers @Healthy_Control]

@trailtreaderxx @HallisseyC So you think I should have reported the woman to the run director? Really? What good would that have done? I believe in free speech. She wasn't inciting violence. I was shocked and upset at the time but I got over it.

[Justin McLachlan @justinmclachlan]

“Illness narrative” psychiatry can be so gross sometimes … maybe they don’t move forward because they feel like shit Hannah and the only treatment they get is being told to think their way out of it

[Justin McLachlan @justinmclachlan]

What's fascinating to me about this is that doctors — supposedly very smart people — fall into this fallacy again and again. Ulcers were psychosomatic until they weren't. MS was psychosomatic until it wasn't. Lupus was psychosomatic until it wasn't.

https://t.co/3VcdhwkLEe

[Caroline Struthers @Healthy_Control]

@DreyfusJames I'll get my coat

[Sex Matters @SexMattersOrg]

“How are they supposed to stop themselves being in serious danger if they’re not allowed to ask?”

Thank you @sharrond62 for your question in @UKHouseofLords on the importance of being able to challenge male players in women’s sport.

[Emma Harriet Nicholson @Baroness_Nichol]

Ms Hayden - the British public - first the electorate of Torridge and West Devon,then the electorate of the South East of England - unlike you I’ve been elected by millions of UK citizens and I respect and serve them. And you? We haven’t met so I would be delighted to know. BNoW

[@justsay_mother @justsay_mother]

BIRTHING PEOPLE? MP Clive Lewis refuses to JUST say "pregnant women" or "MUMS". You do NOT "birth" a baby lost under 12 weeks. Why are MPs erasing our words? Do they understand the pain of losing a wanted baby? Where is the research for deleting our WORDS?SIGN OUR PETITION ⬇️

[ME/CFS News @MECFSNews]

@AlanLevinovitz @WIRED I suggest that you get these kind of reactions because the article is superficial, weirdly in favour of a fringe approach that still lacks evidence, accuses patients of being close-minded and violent.

[Megan Stevenson @MeganTStevenson]

Turns out I was featured in this very dumb article about long covid. And the guy lives in my small town and didn’t even reach out to ask for my perspective! Just sent him this email.

[Let Women Speak North East Locals @LWSNorthEast]

For anyone who thinks "Trans is over"...it isn't. We spoke to about 20 people in Gosforth on Saturday and heard one lady's incredibly sad story.

A thread 🧵 1/4

[Tony 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @tonydixonUK]

Roughly three years ago my employer said to me “you will need to come into the office for DEI training next week”. I said, “I don’t want to”. They said, “It’s compulsory, you have no choice”. So, I attended. On the day there were roughly 30 of us in a large room. The tutor opened by saying, “Before we start, I want to do a little exercise. All those who think DEI is a good thing please go and stand in the left-hand corner at the back of the room. All those who think it’s a bad idea please stand in the right-hand corner”. I stood on my own in the right-hand corner. The tutor said to me, “would you like to say anything”. I had prepared! I then spoke for about 5 minutes on the anti-white racism embedded in DEI and how recruitment and promotion should be based on merit and not based on race or ethnicity. I was lucky, I was close to retirement and didn’t give a shit. I felt that many of my colleagues agreed with me but were too afraid to speak freely in case they lost their job. We really do need to tell the thought police to fuck off and to rediscover freedom of speech. We need to recognise that anti-white racism is real and remove it from all aspects of life. The lion is roaring, but will this Labour government listen?

[Julie Burchill @BoozeAndFagz]

'I don't think you have, mate.' MATE. The world of contemptuous DEI-fuelled smugness in that word. The whole ruling regime is rotten - the #BeKind police force, who treat a dying young man like a lying nuisance in the name of being anti-racist, perhaps worst of all.

[Caroline Struthers @Healthy_Control]

Out of a crowded field of brilliantly scathing and witty letters, this is my winner, at least until the next one.

[Emma Harriet Nicholson @Baroness_Nichol]

A big Trades Union seems ignorant on Employment Law