This blog has been active daily for almost 20 years but in the last year readership and engagement has dropped off and comments have largely ceased!
With that being the situation - it is clearly time to do something else with my time.
So good luck to all! It has been fun...
Stay safe and well and good luck to all. Expect the occasional post when there is something that really needs a comment from me. Otherwise "thanks for all the fish!" (Douglas Adams)
David.
This appeared last week:
17 September 2025
By
Associate Professor Kees Nydam
I look forward to AI doing all the heavy lifting when it comes to the science of medicine, thereby allowing practitioners to return to the art.
Please join me on a trip into the future. It might sound a little like science fiction. Bear with me, as the future is circuitous.
The Human Genome Project was a landmark international research effort from 1990 to 2003. Following its completion, scientific inquiry shifted to the field of epigenetics. You could carry, for example, the gene for disease X, but the condition is not inevitable. Certain epigenetic triggers may need to be initiated first.
While scientific knowledge is iterative, currently there is a consensus that allostatic load in early life, plus the complex array of hormonal and other whole-body neuro-signalling, are critically involved in epigenetic trigger discharge. Hence the attention on the First 2000 Days.
One way of scoring allostatic load is the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Score. While a high score does not absolutely predict mind-body “disease”, it significantly increases the odds. The ACE score sits between 0 and 10. A heightened burden of disease is set at scores of four or more. I work with patients who have scores of 8 to 10.
I am an addiction medicine specialist, working in the public sector. For my cohort, drugs were the solution, until they weren’t. Addiction for them is a secondary symptom of a more primary condition, early childhood trauma. Ironically, a traumatised child will get our sympathy, while that same child as an adult will provoke societal malevolence. Therein lies the paradox of stigma and the power of social network theory.
In the future, I predict that the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) and the International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes for mental, or brain conditions will evolve from their current categorical nature. Categorical coding is suited for a stocktaking, inventory or billing purpose. However, it provides little to enhance a deeper understanding of complex mental and behavioural disorder aetiology.
We are now seeing evidence of a gut-liver-brain-neuroendocrine axis. Substance use disorder, for instance, could just as well be named labelled a gut-liver-brain-neuroendocrine axis disorder. This does, of course, ignore the social network and larger environmental predisposing, precipitating and perpetuation factors. At any rate, the consequences of our new paradigm are that we can no longer differentiate between mind and body diseases.
If you accept that modern medicine began in the early 1900s, then the first 100 years were devoted to improving the medical response to acute emergencies.
In the future we will see a move away from acute “magic bullet cures” towards chronic disease management. This will require disinvesting in services at the bottom of the cliff and investing in services at the top of the cliff. In total the return on investment in illness care prohibits further outlay on a proverbial black hole.
We will still need to triage and initiate acute episodic “ambulance” treatments, but they have tended to consume all the oxygen in the room.
Only foolish doctors think they can save a life. At best we can prolong life. We aim to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others. At the micro level we can do this by including psycho-education in our care packages, at the macro level through advocacy.
The last 40 years have seen little shift in population health literacy rates. Around 60% of adult Australians have low health literacy, meaning they struggle to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information to make informed decisions about their health.
This lack of health literacy is a significant concern as it is linked to poorer health outcomes, increased hospitalisation rates, and a reduced ability for people to actively participate in their own care.
AI threatens to run rogue through the current workforce as we know it. If we do not know what the workforce needs will be, the best strategy is to retreat to an historical educational baseline. I refer to the dynamic duo of philosophy and rhetoric.
Philosophy teaches students how to think about thinking. Rhetoric teaches how to form an argument and, more importantly, how to spot a bad one. Combined they provide skills for critical thinking.
Most of our non-infectious chronic diseases are abetted by commercially motivated toxic propaganda, so sophisticated as to hoodwink the best of us.
To paraphrase Bertrand Russell, modern education was conceived more in terms of indoctrination by most schools than in terms of enlightenment. My own belief is that education must be subversive if it is to be meaningful. It should instil a desire to question and doubt. Without this the mere instruction to memorise information is empty. The attempt to enforce conventional mediocrity on the young is criminal.
The doctor-patient relationship needs to be replaced by a medical coach-person partnership. Often this will extend into addressing the underlying early allostatic load and ACE issues and navigating the propaganda swamping the environment.
I look forward to AI doing all the heavy lifting when it comes to the science of medicine, thereby allowing practitioners to return to the art of medicine by improving the patient journey and addressing the intricate human context of the tasks at hand.
The early part of the 20th century had medical science search for the quick fix. A set and forget. This has never worked in chronic illness.
The American journalist HL Mencken had this to say about quick fixes: “Every complex problem has a solution which is simple, direct, plausible – and wrong.”
I foresee a future when doctors and patients alike, cease their fixation on “magic bullet cures” and focus more on the reality of lifestyle changes and lifelong self-care with a rejection of those parts of the material commercial world that make and keep us sick.
Associate Professor Kees Nydam was at various times an emergency physician and ED director in Wollongong, Campbeltown and Bundaberg. He continues to work as a senior specialist in addiction medicine and to teach medical students attending the University of Queensland, Rural Clinical School. He is also a poet and songwriter.
Here is the link:
https://www.medicalrepublic.com.au/ai-and-a-new-renaissance-in-medicine/119920
This is certainly a vision of medical practice, supported by AI, that could be both safer and richer than what we have now!
I wonder how long till it arrives?
David.
Concord is one of my local hospitals – so this is not good news!
Updated September 24, 2025 — 7.48pmfirst published at 6.35pm
A 92-year-old whose cancer diagnosis was delayed and a 13-year-old whose fracture was not identified for a year are among the patients affected by a backlog of more than 50,000 radiology scans at a Sydney hospital, a leaked government investigation has found.
In a sensitive report distributed to doctors at Concord Hospital this week, the NSW ombudsman found Sydney Local Health District was warned about issues with staffing and workload in the hospital’s radiology department years before the backlog threatened patient safety, but failed to respond to avert the crisis.
The NSW ombudsman found Sydney Local Health District failed to avert the crisis.Credit: James Brickwood, Chris Fowler
“The SLHD had ample warning, from as early as 2019, that a reporting backlog in radiology was accumulating, would worsen if not addressed and strategic intervention was required to manage the situation,” the report concluded. “Rather than proactively working in collaboration with the radiology department to address the issues, effective changes only took place after multiple resignations and external intervention.”
The scathing ombudsman’s report is another dramatic turn of events at Concord, where Health Minister Ryan Park was forced to intervene in July 2023 after the hospital’s medical staff won a vote of no confidence in health district chief executive Teresa Anderson, who left the job the following May.
It also highlights the challenges faced by a depleted healthcare workforce across the NSW health system dealing with an increased number and complexity of cases. Earlier this year at Westmead Hospital, for example, at least 21 patients had to wait up to 363 days for a cancer diagnosis due to the massive demand for endoscopies.
At the peak of the Concord backlog in the second half of 2023, the number of unreported radiology studies totalled 50,178 – 40 per cent of the total number of images reviewed by the department that year.
The vast majority of these were X-rays, leaving patients waiting an average of 131 days for results.
In one case, two incidents of delayed fracture diagnoses in a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old child were escalated to management in September 2022. In response, a new system was recommended to ensure chest and paediatric X-rays were prioritised and reported daily, but this was not implemented until May 2024. A new triage system took longer, coming into effect in August that year.
The health district argued in its submissions to the ombudsman it found only 14 “adverse incidents” affecting patients out of the 50,178 unreported scans, but the ombudsman noted the health district did not have a process for systematically identifying and addressing those risks until 2023 – “well into the backlog”.
Related Article
Exclusive
The Sydney hospital on its last warning
“Whilst the number of actual adverse incidents due to the backlog was relatively low, and certain actions, such as prioritising more complex imaging over X-rays, were put in place by the radiology department early on … the conduct of the Sydney Local Health District in responding to and managing the increasing backlog of radiology studies at Concord Hospital radiology was unreasonable,” the ombudsman said.
The ombudsman said multiple factors had driven the backlog, including increases in emergency presentations, an increase in the number of scans performed due to improvements in technology, and increased clinical workload for radiologists that took them away from reporting work.
These contributed to a 9 per cent increase in images assessed at Concord between 2012 and 2023, but the report noted the number of radiologists employed in the department decreased from 2019 to 2023.
This led the hospital’s director of medical services to warn management that most radiologists were “doing more than twice the workload that was recommended in the Australian literature”.
Related Article
Exclusive
‘It was hell’: Former Sydney hospital doctor speaks out
Instead of taking steps to recruit more radiologists, an executive took the extraordinary step of instigating an internal audit of the department due to allegations radiologists “were not working their required hours” – a claim the investigation found could not be substantiated.
A cultural review announced in July 2023, after the Herald revealed the backlog of 50,000 scans, found this audit of their working hours had resulted in “a number of the state’s most experienced and highly regarded radiologists leaving the public health system”.
While the health district said at the time it was actively recruiting for two full-time radiologists, the ombudsman noted the recruitment and retention rates on offer were lower than the state average.
The backlog had been reduced to 217 studies older than four weeks by September last year.
A health district spokesperson said they were unable to comment on individual patients due to privacy considerations, but open disclosure was provided to all affected patients and their families.
“Radiology images are often reviewed by clinicians as soon as they become available, even where a formal report has not yet been produced, to inform safe and timely treatment and care,” the spokesperson said.
Here is the link:
I wonder what is the root cause of the problems here – other than money - and if the separation from the Commonwealth system still has some unresolved problems?
I am sure locals can let us know!
David.
This appeared a day of so ago.
PM to set out plans for compulsory ‘Brit card’ but faces opposition from civil liberty groups over privacy concerns
Fri 26 Sep 2025 17.53 AEST
Digital ID cards present “an enormous opportunity” for the UK, Keir Starmer has said, as the government braces for a civil liberties row over the proposals.
The prime minister will set out the measures on Friday morning at a conference on how progressive politicians can tackle the problems facing the UK, including addressing voter concerns around immigration.
The proposals for a “Brit card” would require legislation and are already facing opposition from civil liberty groups concerned about privacy.
Addressing those concerns, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said the government had “no intention of pursuing a dystopian mess”.
Speaking on Friday, Starmer said: “I know working people are worried about the level of illegal migration into this country. A secure border and controlled migration are reasonable demands, and this government is listening and delivering.
“Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure.
“And it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly – rather than hunting around for an old utility bill.”
The prime minister, writing in the Telegraph, said Labour had shied away previously from addressing concerns over immigration and that it was now “essential” to tackle “every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration”.
He argued that it was possible to be concerned about immigration while rejecting Reform UK’s “toxic” approach.
“There is no doubt that for years leftwing parties, including my own, did shy away from people’s concerns around illegal immigration,” he wrote.
Civil liberties groups reacted with concern over the proposals. Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, said digital IDs would turn the UK into a “checkpoint society that is wholly unBritish”.
“Digital IDs would do absolutely nothing to deter small boats but would make Britain less free, creating a domestic mass surveillance infrastructure that will likely sprawl from citizenship to benefits, tax, health, possibly even internet data and more,” Carlo said.
“Incredibly sensitive information about each and every one of us would be hoarded by the state and vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
“Starmer has no mandate to force the population to carry digital IDs and millions of us will simply not do it. The cost to the public purse will likely run into the billions, much like Blair’s failed scheme, but the cost to our freedoms would be even more serious. He is making an enormous mistake and should drop the plans sooner rather than later.”
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK called the plans a “cynical ploy” designed to “fool” voters into thinking something is being done about immigration, while the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, dismissed the plans as a “gimmick that will do nothing to stop the boats”.
The Guardian revealed in June that Downing Street was exploring proposals for a digital ID card to crack down on illegal migration, rogue landlords and exploitative work.
The idea came from a Labour Together paper given to the No 10 policy unit proposing a Brit Card, which it claimed could help avoid another Windrush scandal.
The thinktank also said it would help reduce vast numbers of visa overstayers, saying half of those whose asylum claims were turned down over the past 14 years were probably still in the UK.
It proposed a free, secure digital ID, stored on a person’s smartphone using a planned gov.uk Wallet app, rebranded as the Brit Card app. That could then be verified by employers, immigration, banks and landlords using free software.
Under the possible plans, the technology is expected to be built on the government’s existing “One Login” infrastructure, which allows citizens to access about 50 government services, from applying for a job as a teacher to using a lasting power of attorney.
Here is the link:
If the UK goes ahead and there is not too much of an outcry, expect Albo to be the next cab off the rank!
They know they want to do it!
David.
The good news upfront – 2 x 500 mg Panadol tabs every 4-6 hours for a few days is totally safe in adults with no known liver disease! The same dose is also safe in pregnancy.
This appeared a day or so ago:
Peter Loftus, Alyssa Lukpat and Sara Ashley O’Brien
The stakes are high – a direct assault on the brand by the US president could open up the company to legal challenges. Picture: Elizabeth Coetzee/WSJ
27 September, 2025
The chief executive of the company that makes Tylenol got a text message earlier this month that contained nothing but a single link to a Substack post.
In the post, a promoter of Covid-19 misinformation was connecting autism with acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol.
The text was from the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. At that moment, it was clear to CEO Kirk Perry that his efforts to convince Kennedy that there was no science behind such claims had failed.
On Monday, Perry faced a full-blown crisis. In an extraordinary public announcement that contradicted widespread medical consensus and even his own top health advisers, President Donald Trump warned that acetaminophen is a potential cause of autism, and urged expecting mothers to “tough it out” without the drug if they could.
“Taking Tylenol is not good,” the President told the world as Kennedy, the Health and Human Services secretary, looked on.
That claim has sent the medical establishment into panic mode. And it’s thrown Kenvue, the company that makes Tylenol, into crisis – just 70 days into Perry’s tenure as CEO.
Tylenol set the gold standard for corporate crisis management in 1982 after people died from taking its pain medication that had been tampered with and laced with cyanide. In a case now studied by business students and companies everywhere, the brand won back public trust with a quick recall, a redesign of its bottles to be tamper-resistant, and lots of coupons.
The stakes this time may be even higher. A direct assault on the brand by the president of the US could open up the company to legal challenges. That is one reason that Kenvue’s stock hit an all-time low this past week. Perry and his team are also grappling with the possibility that millions of pregnant women around the world will avoid Tylenol when they have fevers, infections or other symptoms.
Leaving those ailments untreated could increase birth defects and could itself contribute to a rise in autism, according to leading medical organisations and regulators in other countries.
Donald Trump speaks about autism at the White House during the week. Picture: AFP
Perry has been talking with his friend, pastor Brian Tome of Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, regularly over the past few days. Tome has reminded Perry of Bible verses that can be encouraging in hard times, and that Jesus said that his followers should “take up his cross daily, and follow me”.
“He doesn’t like what he’s going through,” Tome says of Perry. “He certainly wishes it was different, but I’m not seeing any bitterness in him and I think that’s because of his faith.”
Raised in Detroit by young parents who were assembly workers for Ford, Perry was the first in his family to graduate from college. He attended the University of Cincinnati after working at Wendy’s for about a year and a half to save up the tuition.
He met his wife, Jacki, at a Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Ohio when he was 18. They married in his senior year of college and have four children.
He has frequently said he leaned on religion when his then six-year-old daughter was being treated for kidney cancer. When a doctor told him and his wife that their daughter’s emergency colon surgery was successful, he dropped to the floor and wept. He said he realised God wasn’t making his daughter suffer, but God was with them when bad things happened.
Perry, 59, retired earlier this year after a career in marketing that included stints at Google and Procter & Gamble. His last job had been as CEO of market-research firm Circana. He was excited to coach high-school football, do mission work with his wife and hunt elk with friends. Then Kenvue called.
“Quite possibly the shortest retirement ever,” he wrote on LinkedIn this northern summer. Kenvue became independent two years ago when Johnson & Johnson split off its consumer-health unit. In addition to Tylenol, the Summit, New Jersey, company includes other famous brands such as Band-Aid, Johnson’s Baby Shampoo and the Neutrogena and Aveeno lines of shampoos and creams. J&J said the name Kenvue signified knowledge and sight.
Mother of autistic children slams Trump's autism comments
From the start, Kenvue fought attacks linking Tylenol to autism, but it didn’t get much attention. Some 500 lawsuits had been filed against Kenvue and other makers of acetaminophen products in federal courts, alleging that use of the drug during pregnancy caused autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.
The lawsuits were based on a series of studies suggesting an association between acetaminophen and autism, though other studies had found no association.
An expert witness for plaintiffs was Dr Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. A federal judge in New York concluded that Baccarelli’s opinions about causation weren’t admissible in the litigation.
Kenvue argued in court that there was no credible evidence of a causal link. The judge sided with Kenvue in December 2023 and the cases were dismissed, though plaintiffs are appealing and some lawsuits have been filed in state courts.
Tylenol continued to sell well, though Kenvue’s beauty division was floundering. In July, the board ousted its CEO, a J&J veteran who had led the company since the spinoff, and brought in Perry while it searched for a permanent replacement.
Perry thought his challenge would be to turn around the beauty brands. On his first call with analysts to discuss quarterly results on August 7, he said he needed to streamline the product portfolio because the company made too many items that were generating only a small fraction of its sales.
Tylenol packages are seen in a pharmacy in Houston, Texas. About 500 lawsuits had been filed against its maker Kenvue and other makers of acetaminophen products in federal courts, alleging that use of the drug during pregnancy caused autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children. Picture: AFP
The company embarked on a review of strategic alternatives that some analysts say may include selling some assets – or even the entire company. The review is still under way.
A week later, there was an early sign of the trouble to come. A journal called BMC Environmental Research on August 14 published the results of an analysis by researchers from Harvard’s public-health school and other institutions.
They analysed past studies on the topic and said a majority of the studies found an association between acetaminophen and neurodevelopmental disorders including autism, though they stopped short of saying there was definitive evidence of causation.
The study was co-authored by Baccarelli, the Harvard dean whose expert testimony had been thrown out in court.
Baccarelli discussed his findings in recent weeks with Kennedy and Dr Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, Baccarelli said in a statement provided by Harvard. Those phone calls took place in early September, a university spokeswoman added.
Kennedy’s autism views are based on “his ideology”, not science
“We've created an association that is false: The lack of vaccines and the lack of Tylenol is somehow associated with...
Kennedy reached out to Kenvue to set up a meeting with Perry. They arranged to meet the week of September 8. Days before the meeting took place, The Wall Street Journal reported that Kennedy was also working on a report that would say pregnant women’s use of Tylenol was potentially linked to autism.
In the meeting with Kennedy, Perry and Kenvue’s chief scientific officer, Caroline Tillett, made their case that there was no clear evidence linking autism and acetaminophen, and that there weren’t good alternatives to acetaminophen during pregnancy.
Kennedy agreed that there weren’t safe alternatives, according to people familiar with the matter. He discussed doing additional research, and asked that the executives set up follow-up meetings with Dr Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Bhattacharya.
Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Dr Mehmet Oz speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House during the week along with Mr Trump. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
Perry and Tillett came away from the meeting thinking it had gone well, and that Kennedy’s request to set up additional meetings with Oz and Bhattacharya was a good sign that they could work with the administration.
But days later, Kennedy texted Perry the link to a Substack written by Sayer Ji, the founder of an alternative-health information platform called GreenMedInfo who has spoken at events alongside prominent members of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement. Ji has contended that vaccinations, prenatal ultrasounds and “stressors” from cesarean sections are among other factors that can increase autism risk.
Perhaps the meeting hadn’t been as much of a success as they’d thought. The Kenvue board of directors held a regularly scheduled meeting the week of Sept. 15. Perry and his management team briefed the board on Kennedy’s impending autism report, but there wasn’t much discussion, according to a person familiar with the matter. Certainly nothing that painted it as anything other than routine business.
00:05 / 00:53
Trump tying Tylenol to autism 'not based in fact': autism expert
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday (September 22) linked autism to childhood vaccines and also to the use of...
Trump started to tee up his autism announcement a few days later, announcing on Friday, Sept. 19, that he was planning to hold a press conference. That Sunday, in a packed football stadium for the memorial service for assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Trump promised a Monday announcement about “an answer to autism”.
The company issued a statement, worded more strongly than its prior public comments. Science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen doesn’t cause autism, it said.
“We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.”
Kenvue on Monday cancelled its meetings with Oz and Bhattacharya.
Just before 5pm local time on Monday, at the start of his press conference televised from the White House’s Roosevelt Room, President Trump tripped up pronouncing acetaminophen as he said it was associated with a “very increased” risk of autism.
The President switched to referring to it as Tylenol for the rest of the news conference. “So taking Tylenol is not good, all right, I’ll say it. It’s not good,” he said, as Kennedy stood by.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House during the week as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr listens. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
The President acknowledged that he was diverging from the health leaders he chose to guide him: “Bobby wants to be very careful with what he says, ” Trump said, referring to Kennedy. “But I’m not so careful with what I say.”
The Wall Street Journal
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has advised women paracetamol is safe to take during pregnancy despite Donald Trump linking the medication to increased autism rates.
Mark Butler has asked for advice on Donald Trump's link of the use of Panadol during pregnancy with autism.
5:36 AM September 24, 2025
One of Australia’s foremost researchers into neuroscience and the developing brain has urged medical bodies not to dismiss out of hand concerns around paracetamol use in pregnancy despite no causative link between the drug and autism being established.
The Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health’s division head for early brain science department and head of the neuroepidemiology research group, Anne-Louise Ponsonby, said the Trump administration had opened up an important conversation about the interplay between people’s significant exposure to environmental toxins in modern societies and its complex interplay with genetics.
Although Australia’s health regulator has advised women paracetamol is safe to take during pregnancy, Professor Ponsonby said the consistent findings across a string of high-quality studies that reported an association between paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism rates in children should not be dismissed completely.
“I think it’s a good idea to look at all types of manufactured chemicals and to review how much they’re needed for pregnant women,” Professor Ponsonby said. “The data is not causal evidence, but there are some positive links between Panadol and autism, and they do deserve further investigation.”
The US Department of Health issued a fact sheet on Tuesday pointing to a number of large-scale cohort studies that reported associations between in-utero exposure to paracetamol and later diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder, the incidence of which has risen markedly in the past two decades worldwide. It also acknowledged conflicting family-based studies which dismissed any association but pointed to Harvard and Mt Sinai university criticisms of these studies.
A Harvard study published in August this year reported that eight studies analysed paracetamol use in pregnancy and the development of autism, with five reporting positive associations. Evaluating those studies, the study said: “ultimately, there was strong evidence of a relationship between prenatal acetaminophen use and increased risk of ASD in children”.
Australia’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, said it had no current safety investigations for paracetamol and autism, or paracetamol and neurodevelopment disorders more broadly. Acetaminophen is known as paracetamol in Australia and many other countries.
“Paracetamol remains Pregnancy Category A in Australia, meaning that it is considered safe for use in pregnancy,” the TGA said.
Pregnancy Category A applies to drugs which have been taken by a large number of pregnant women and women of child-bearing age without any proven increase in the frequency of malformations or other direct or indirect harmful effects on the foetus having been observed.
The TGA’s present advice is that paracetamol can be used during pregnancy if clinically needed but should be used at the lowest effective dose for the shortest possible time. It classifies any risk to babies from paracetamol use by mothers during pregnancy as “remote” but urges women to discuss the use of the medication with their doctor.
Australia’s Health Minister Mark Butler had asked the TGA to provide advice on the use of paracetamol after Mr Trump flagged his announcement on the drug.
Professor Ponsonby said that while not causative, the association between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and paracetamol across several studies might reflect that the development of autism involved a complex interplay of environment and genetics and rising incidence of the condition could not be solely explained by more frequent diagnosis.
“Multiple genes and multiple environment factors contribute to autism as it is a multifactorial disease,” Professor Ponsonby said. “At least part of the rise in incidence is thought to reflect a real increase in cases – driven in part by modern environment.
“Several key areas of evidence deserve attention: the interplay of genetic and environmental factors; consistent associations between ASD and air pollution, and links to toxic chemicals like bisphenol-A, PFAS and pesticides.”
Professor Ponsonby said these kinds of findings highlighted the need for deep molecular studies to identify causation. She said it might not be the drug itself but the underlying reason for using the drug that may be significant.
The Australian Academy of Sciences described evidence of any possible link between paracetamol and autism as weak.
“There is no causal evidence that paracetamol causes autism,” the AAHMS said in a paper on the issue. “Large, high-quality population studies do not find a causal relationship between paracetamol use and autism.”
The academy stressed that letting a high fever continue during pregnancy presented a much greater risk than using the medicine.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says acetaminophen is safe to use in pregnancy, though it recommends that pregnant women consult with their doctors before using it, as with all medicines.
“In more than two decades of research on the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy, not a single reputable study has successfully concluded that (its use) in any trimester of pregnancy causes neurodevelopmental disorders in children,” the American O & G college said.
The parent company of Tylenol’s maker also backed the product’s safety.
“We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism,” said a spokeswoman for Kenvue, the parent company of Tylenol’s maker. “We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.”
The National Institutes of Health in the US is leading a report on the causes of autism that was expected to be a review of existing scientific literature and be released on September 29, according to people familiar with the matter. It is unclear whether the full report will still be released, or when.
Mr Trump said autism rates have increased from one in 20,000 to one in 12 among boys in some populations. He also said there was “no autism” among the Amish, who he said don’t take medications.
Mr Kennedy also warned against Tylenol use for young children. “Prudent medicine suggests caution,” he said.
Here is a link:
You really have to wonder about all this: ! Taking too much Panadol is dangerous and if you take too much it can cause liver failure and death. (Risk is only if an adult takes 20+ tablets all at the same time!) Taking 2 tables every 3-4 hours for a day or two for pain or fever is totally safe!
To say again, like most approved drugs, taken as directed (2 x 500mg tabs every 4-6 hours) Panadol is totally safe and good for fever and mild pain.
All the rest is a beat up – although people with known liver disease should ask their doctor for their recommendations as to dose! to be sure....
David.
This appeared earlier today…
Updated Sep 28, 2025 – 1.30pm, first published at 7.41am
1.19PM
David Mills
Poland has closed part of its airspace due to “unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security”, according to a post on the FlightRadar24 website.
The closed airspace is near the cities of Lublin and Rzeszow, in the country’s south-east, near the border with Ukraine. The closure is in effect until 4am UTC (2pm AEST).
Earlier this month, Poland shot down 20 Russian drones it said had violated its airspace. Last week, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned any “flying objects” violating Polish territory would be shot down, and there was “no room for debate”.
Russian drones and aircraft have also recently been spotted in Romanian and Estonian airspace.
With Reuters
Here is the link:
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/need-to-know-afr-sunday-september-28-20250928-p5myeq
Here is more:
A Russian ambassador has warned that shooting down Moscow's aircraft would trigger war as NATO grapples with how to respond to airspace violations.
September 27, 2025 - 4:21AM
Russia is prepared to go to war if NATO acts on threats to shoot down Moscow’s fighter jets, an ambassador has said.
An escalating pattern of Russian incursions across Europe’s eastern borders has led to calls within NATO for stronger action, including from US President Donald Trump who said “yes, I do” when asked if he believed countries should shoot down Russian planes breaching their territory.
After high-profile Russian violations over Poland and Estonia, NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte this week said the alliance wouldn’t rule out shooting down Russian aircraft that violate their airspace.
Mr Rutte said the Western military alliance stands ready to take decisive action when faced with threats to member nations.
“You can be assured we will do what is necessary to defend our cities, our people, our infrastructure,” the alliance chief said. “It doesn’t mean that we will always immediately shoot down a plane.”
In response, Alexey Meshkov, the Russian ambassador to France, has said that shooting down Russian aircraft “would be war”.
“You know, there are many NATO planes that violate Russian airspace, deliberately or not, but it happens quite often. They are not shot down afterwards”.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte says the alliance will ‘do what is necessary’ to defend member nations but won’t always ’immediately shoot down a plane’. Picture: John Thys / AFP
More planes fly close to NATO airspace
Five Russian fighter jets were caught flying perilously close to NATO airspace on Friday, reports The Sun.
The NATO Allied Air Command said it intercepted three MiG-31s, one Su-30 and one Su-35 fighter jets flying in a formation off the coast of Latvia.
Two Hungarian Gripen fighter jets were scrambled to lead an escort mission as part of NATO Baltic Air Policing mission.
After visual identification and escort, the Russian formation turned away, and the Gripens returned to base, it was reported.
Eastern nations want a more forceful response
NATO members appear increasingly divided over how forcefully to respond to Russian incursions. Some eastern European nations have called for a tougher stance while others warn against escalation that could drag the alliance into direct conflict with Moscow.
However, behind the public disagreements, NATO officials insist the alliance’s position remains clear and consistent.
“It’s a bit of an artificial debate. No changes are foreseen to these rules,” one NATO diplomat told the AFP on condition of anonymity.
The most vocal calls for action have come from NATO’s eastern flank countries, who feel most directly threatened by Russian aggression.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Warsaw would “react toughly” to any violations, while his top diplomat Radoslaw Sikorski told Moscow not to “whine” if its jets are taken out.
Lithuania’s defence minister Dovile Sakaliene pointed to precedent, saying NATO-member Turkey “set an example 10 years ago” when it shot down a Russian jet that entered its airspace from Syria. That incident caused a major diplomatic crisis between Ankara and Moscow, before Turkey apologised and the two sides patched up the dispute.
Calls for restraint
However, not all NATO members are convinced that aggressive responses are the right approach.
German defence minister Boris Pistorius cautioned allies not to fall into the “escalation trap” as fears rise that the war in Ukraine could spill over.
“Slapdash demands to shoot something out of the sky or do some great show of strength help less than anything else right now,” he said.
NATO fighter jets scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft that violated Polish and Estonian airspace in recent incidents, with some drones shot down over Poland. Picture: Thibaud Moritz / AFP
French President Emmanuel Macron struck a more ambiguous note, saying NATO should take its response “up a notch” while insisting that “we aren’t going to open fire” in the face of Russian tests.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also appeared to contradict his boss, saying there wasn’t any talk of “shooting down Russian jets unless they’re attacking”.
“I think what you have seen is NATO responding to those intrusions the way we respond to them all the time,” he said.
NATO’s rules of engagement
Despite the public debate, NATO’s stance on rules of engagement remains straightforward: if the alliance believes an aircraft poses a threat, it is ready to shoot.
Recent incidents over Poland, Estonia and possibly Denmark in recent days suggest nuanced approach is already being taken.
When some 20 Russian drones crossed into Poland, NATO scrambled jets and shot down those seen as posing a menace – marking the first time NATO had taken out Russian aircraft since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Recent Russian airspace violations have occurred over Poland and Estonia, highlighting tensions along NATO’s eastern flank as the alliance grapples with how to respond. Picture: Wojtek Radwanski / AFP
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says Warsaw will ’react toughly’ to airspace violations, with his foreign minister telling Moscow not to ’whine’ if jets are taken out. Picture: AFP
Days later, when three armed Russian fighters violated Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland for some 12 minutes, NATO jets only “escorted the aircraft without escalation”, Rutte said.
“No immediate threat was assessed,” he explained.
The situation is complicated by the fact that individual member states can have different rules of engagement when confronting Russian aircraft. NATO officials say Poland or other countries could act unilaterally if they choose, but given their reliance on allies for much of their air defences, they may lack the means.
Estonia, for example, doesn’t have its own fighter jets.
NATO members have appeared divided over how forcefully to respond to provocations from Putin’s forces, but officials insist the alliance’s rules of engagement remain clear. Picture: Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP
Boosting Eastern defences
Rather than overhauling its approach to incursions, NATO is focused on bolstering its eastern defences.
After the drone incidents in Poland, the alliance announced a new mission called Eastern Sentry, with several countries rushing jets to the region.
However, NATO diplomats acknowledge the alliance still lacks sufficient capabilities, particularly the sort of low-cost weaponry that Ukraine uses to shoot down Russian drones.
The European Union has meanwhile announced plans to create a “drone wall” to help better track potential incursions, though few details have been released so far.
-With AFP and The Sun
Here is the link:
All I can say is that this needs to be calmed down and fairly soon! A shooting war we do not need!
David.
Here are the results of the recent poll.
Yes 4 (80%)
No 1 (20%)
I Have No Idea 0 (0%)
Total No. Of Votes 5
A very clear vote with virtually no-one voting
Any insights on the poll are welcome, as a comment, as usual! Remember both Telstra and Optus are basically just retailers these days, with the NBN doing the tech lifting!
Very poor voter turnout – question must have been useless. Result to be ignored I reckon!
0 of 5 who answered the poll admitted to not being sure about the answer to the question!
Again, many, many thanks to all those very, very few who voted!
David.
We heard much too much about this last week!
September 19, 2025 — 8.01pm
Any chance of Optus’ new boss, Stephen Rue, moving Australia’s second-biggest telco in the right direction has been fatally derailed.
A surprise press conference late on Friday afternoon hinted at trouble. A 5.30pm all-hands-on-deck chat with the press usually means little else – and that’s exactly what was in store.
A solemn-faced Rue delivered the news – a technical failure, 600 Triple Zero calls failing to connect, three people dead.
Rue’s tenure as chief executive is almost certainly headed for a swift end.
Optus showed its former chief executive, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, the door after the telco endured a data breach that exposed sensitive details of 9.8 million customers in 2022, and a nationwide outage in 2023 that scuttled almost 2100 Triple Zero calls, under her watch that led to a $12 million fine. The stakes are much higher for Rue.
Related Article
Updated
Three people dead after Optus Triple Zero outage
One can only imagine what Rue’s paymaster in Singapore (Optus is owned by Singtel) would be thinking about the latest fiasco to plague their Australian outfit.
Rue was appointed chief executive by Singtel to clean up the joint after a horror 18 months or so at Optus, and to his credit he hit the ground running when he started in November. Management lines were streamlined, plans were in place to bring costs under control, and the mea culpas for problems inherited were dutifully delivered.
But on Friday, Rue was staring down a problem that at the very least raises serious questions about whether Optus has learnt anything from the “technical” problems of the past two years.
The outage in 2023 and the latest blunder, with its deadly consequences, all took place during network upgrades. These upgrades – where a telco such as Telstra, Optus or TPG, selectively shuts down systems to improve their network and then brings them back online – are routine.
Related Article
Exclusive
Optus’ year from hell raises questions for parent company Singtel
They happen regularly and mostly with minimal problems. Optus has now had two botched upgrades, with the latest one preventing Triple Zero calls in three states and territories that led to three deaths – two in South Australia and one in Western Australia.
Optus has promised a thorough, forensic investigation, which should reveal what exactly went wrong. A band of network engineers, possibly contractors, and project managers would have some serious questions to answer. And it still remains to be verified that the deaths were directly related to an inability to make Triple Zero calls.
But that will all be cold comfort to the families of the deceased, and do nothing for Optus’ reputation, already tarnished by its previous mistakes.
Apart from Rue, this technical error will also be a test for Optus’ new chairman, John Arthur, who replaced Paul O’Sullivan, in August. After a turbulent couple of years, Singtel was banking on Rue and Arthur to get down with the task of reasserting Optus as a credible alternative to Telstra.
It may be back to square one for Optus on that front.
Here is the link:
You have to wonder when they will get their act together!
David.
This appeared last week!
From incomes and retirement to stress levels, the decades-long study provides snapshot of how we live our lives
Patrick Commins Economics editor
Fri 19 Sep 2025 01.00 AEST
Every year, thousands of Australians answer a series of questions as part of the long-running Hilda survey.
This questionnaire – more expansively known as the household, income and labour dynamics in Australia survey – has been tracking the same households since 2001.
As families have expanded over the two decades, it has grown to include about 16,000 people a year in 9,000 households, offering a unique longitudinal study of Australian life in the 21st century.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
The questions cover a broad range of topics, from health and wellbeing, to attitudes and values, to employment and income.
This week, the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, which manages the survey, released its annual statistical report.
Here are five things we learned.
Covid and household incomes
The report shows how a middle-income household earned more than $100,000 a year after tax for the first time in 2021, as the jobs market boomed and generous government Covid payments boosted household budgets.
But soaring prices and higher average tax rates sent median household disposable incomes backwards between 2021 and 2023 – although they remained higher than before the crisis.
The report also confirms how our real (or accounting for higher prices) incomes stagnated at about $95,000 through much of the 2010s – a period marked by low growth and low inflation after a decade of strong growth in household incomes in the 2000s.
More stressed
Despite incomes staying relatively high in 2023, there was plenty of evidence that many Australians were increasingly struggling to deal with the high cost of living, not least rising rents and the prices of other necessities.
One in eight people reported two or more indicators of financial stress in 2023 – the second-highest rate in nearly 20 years.
Stress indicators include not being able to pay utilities or mortgage or rent on time, skipping meals, being unable to heat the home, or having asked for financial help from friends, family or welfare organisations.
Hardest hit were single-parent households, where nearly one in three reported two or more financial indicators of stress in 2023, according to the Hilda survey.
That was the height of the cost of living pressures, so subsequent surveys will hopefully show less stressed households in 2024 and beyond.
We’re paying more for childcare
The average family is spending $171 a week on childcare, or nearly $100 more than two decades ago – and that’s after factoring in inflation.
Over a shorter timeframe, the picture looks more benign: we’re not spending more than a decade ago.
To better measure the financial burden of childcare, the Hilda survey shows families dedicated a median 6.3% of disposable household income to childcare in the latest figures, versus 4.5% in the early 2000s – a 40% increase.
What does it mean to be poor? The Australian government isn't sure – video
The report also shows that between 2005 and 2023, families increased their weekly use of paid care for the non-school age children by 7.7 hours, or about an extra day a week, from 18.5 hours to 26.2 hours.
Our reliance on grandparents for child-minding duties increased only slightly over the same period, from 10.5 hours a week, to 11.8 hours.
We want fewer children
Australia’s total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime, dropped to a record low of 1.5 in 2023 – down from 2.02 in 2008.
(A fertility rate of 2.1 is generally quoted as the number required to keep a population stable through natural growth.)
And there’s little evidence in the Hilda survey that fertility is about to pick back up.
Women on average said they wanted 2.35 kids in 2005, but by 2023 that number had dropped to 2.09.
Over the same timeframe, men’s “desired” number of children dropped from 2.22, to 1.99 – the first time it has reached below 2.
Inga Lass, a senior research fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, said two children has remained the most popular number of children over the past 20 years (even if statistically we are having fewer on average).
“But we’ve seen an increase in the numbers of people who said they wanted one child, or none at all,” Lass said.
So why do we want fewer kids?
“Potential parents are growing more concerned about their financial security and the costs of raising a child, and that pragmatism is outweighing the emotional side of the decision,” Lass said.
We’re retiring older
In 2003, 70% of women and 49% of men aged 60-64 were retired.
But by 2023, these figures had dropped to 40% and 27%, respectively, the survey showed.
Kyle Peyton, a co-author of the statistical report, said the shifts likely reflected a mix of economic and policy decisions.
“Back in 2003, the age pension eligibility was 62.5 years of age for women and 65 for men. By 2023, that had been increased to 67. That shift alone means many older Australians have needed to stay in the workforce longer, especially those who can’t afford to retire before becoming eligible for the pension,” Peyton said.
“At the same time, improvements in health at older ages mean that more people are physically able to keep working later in life.”
E https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/the-911-attack-was-a-clash-of-civilisations-two-decades-on-and-the-reality-is-ours-is-losing/news-story/dc0eb611984be202af319fae183239cdxplore more on these topics
This annual survey is a very useful tracker of a legion of social trends. Well worth careful study!
David.
This appeared a little while ago…
Antoine Gara
Sep 21, 2025 – 1.27pm
New York | The US Defence Department is demanding journalists pledge not to publish unauthorised information as a condition of their continued access to the Pentagon.
In a memo sent to news organisations on Friday (Saturday AEST), journalists were asked to agree that information related to the Pentagon “must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorising official before it is released, even if it is unclassified”, the memo said.
Peter Hegseth: “The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon – the people do. The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules – or go home.” AP
Reporters refusing to sign the form will lose physical access to the headquarters of the department, which President Donald Trump is seeking to rename the Department of War.
The National Press Club said in a statement that independent reporting on the military was “essential to democracy”.
“It is what allows citizens to hold leaders accountable and ensures that decisions of war and peace are made in the light of day. This pledge undermines that principle, and the National Press Club calls on the Pentagon to rescind it immediately.”
The New York Times said in a statement that: “Asking independent journalists to submit to these kinds of restrictions is at stark odds with the constitutional protections of a free press in a democracy, and a continued attempt to throttle the public’s right to understand what their government is doing.”
The Pentagon. Reporters refusing to sign the form will lose physical access to the headquarters of the defence department. AP
Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, described the Pentagon memo as “an ill-advised affront to free speech and freedom of the press”.
“This goes beyond attempting to suppress criticism – Mr Hegseth’s goal appears to be eliminating a critical check on government corruption, unlawful practices, and the misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
The Trump administration argues that the changes are meant to protect national security. “The guidelines in the memo provided to credentialled resident media at the Pentagon reaffirms the standards that are already in line with every other military base in the country,” said chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
“These are basic, commonsense guidelines to protect sensitive information as well as the protection of national security and the safety of all who work at the Pentagon.”
Defence secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: “The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon – the people do. The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules – or go home.”
The new guidance follows a series of measures that take aim at the media and Trump’s critics, amid concerns about a wider crackdown on free speech and dissent in the US.
Trump on Tuesday filed a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, seeking $US15 billion ($22.7 billion) in damages from the media organisation he accused of being a “mouthpiece” for the Democratic Party.
The suit, which was dismissed by a Federal court judge for being too long and lacking a plainly stated complaint, is the fourth big lawsuit Trump has filed against a major US news organisation since March 2024. The judge gave Trump 28 days to refile the latest suit.
Both ABC News and CBS News settled separate lawsuits by paying $US15 million to Trump’s future presidential library and another $US1 million to cover legal fees. In July, Trump sued The Wall Street Journal for $US10 billion after it published an article about a lewd birthday card he allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein. Trump has denied writing the card.
In April, Trump banned Associated Press reporters and photographers from the White House press pool and news conferences in the Oval Office after it refused to use “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico” in its reporting. In June, a DC Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld the Trump administration’s ban on the AP after a Federal court had earlier struck down the ban.
The administration was also accused of applying pressure to have Jimmy Kimmel’s television show cancelled over the late night host’s comments about assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel’s show was “indefinitely” suspended by ABC’s parent company Disney after Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, called the comedian’s comments “the sickest conduct possible” and made what many interpreted as a threat.
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said.
This seems way over the top to me. What do you think?
So much for “freedom of the press”
David.
