Dominic Cummings using his child's autism as an excuse

[Almahart]

So it looks as if the next excuse to be wheeled out is that Dominic Cumming's child is autistic.

My child is autistic. I know many families with autistic children.

This is what I have heard of happening for these families during Coronavirus:

• no school (yes I know schools should be taking vulnerable children. But many are not)
• no respite
• no transport to school even if they are open
• regular activities cancelled
• the fear that provision provided by local authorities through Education Health and Care Plans and suspended under the Coronavirus Act will slowly disappear

I know of many single parents alone with their child who are seriously struggling and who did not break the rules during lockdown.

To use autism as an excuse is beyond low. It is revolting and has made me even angrier than I was before

Note in her article where she spins a reason for why he did not get referred to icu. Marvelled are how he did not have a relevant symptom. Said all Ailey and innocently. That smacks of a pre prepared defence to accusations of pretending to have had COVID.

because he couldn't be arsed to look after his own son. Loser.

Still seems the most likely explanation.

The best bit in her article was when she sought to preach to dual COVID parents and single parents as to how to get through it

That's the bit where she suggests the child should be encouraged to take the infectious person's temperature. I really do hope that was as made-up as the rest: surely with a virus this infectious and potentially dangerous, that would amount to criminal child neglect?

I would like to know where this information arose from. Dominic Cummings has not spoken of this, so how can he be using it as an excuse? As far as I'm concerned, rumours that his son is on the autistic spectrum are exactly that, pure speculation. Also the Deputy Health Minister wrote this on the 24th March before Cumminngs went to Durham, so there is some leeway in the rules.
At the government’s daily press conference on 24 March, England’s deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries spoke of the “exceptional circumstance” of an adult unable to care for a young child during the pandemic.
“A small child clearly is a vulnerable individual, so in this case, although we are encouraging everybody to stay in their own households – that’s the unit with the same risk of exposure – clearly if you have adults who are unable to look after a small child, that is an exceptional circumstance,” Dr Harries said.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/coronavirus-symptoms-parents-children-childcare-dominic-cummings-a9529481.html

good point Freekitties

If you are involved in setting the rules you have to keep to them yourself. No excuses, no exceptions.

“A small child clearly is a vulnerable individual, so in this case, although we are encouraging everybody to stay in their own households – that’s the unit with the same risk of exposure – clearly if you have adults who are unable to look after a small child, that is an exceptional circumstance,” Dr Harries said.

Which clearly does not cover the case of one adult (according to her own published account) well enough to do arts and crafts with the child and another adult well enough to drive from London to Durham.

-Oh m'lud, I broke the law because it might have been possible, at some later date, that my circumstances would have changed enough to provide mitigating circumstances, but no, I had no particular reason to believe this was more likely to happen to me than to anybody else and actually...no, it never did happen.

They weren't unable to look after their child - it's all bullshit. Either that or Mary's article about their experience was a fantasy. She was well enough to sit and watch dear Dom breathing 'Please stop staring at my chest, sweetheart'.

I am not a fan of Cummings but what other reason could there have been for this move of location other than the care of his child

To get out of London as London hospitals were bursting at the seams but NE ones were not at that time?
He knew his wife was showing symptoms. If anyone in household infected then whole household isolates, where they are not race to second home in countryside. Should have stayed put.

He just wanted to go and see his family. His mother's birthday was coming up. And rules are for the little people. Simple as that.

Just to chime in, there is no tangible evidence that his son is actually autistic, it was just a rumour that came from the LBC morning broadcast and originated on twitter from an account that is known for RTing left bashing nonsense, the tweet was actually deleted after the account realised he didn’t even hear it on the LBC morning broadcast so there is still actually no evidence available in the public domain that his son is autistic.

He and his wife and the various family members haven't really got their stories very straight, have they?

It shows how utterly clueless they are. When you're in a hole, you stop digging.

They've layered lies upon lies upon inconsistent lies. When you're a liar, one thing you need is a good memory,

@Trish432 the OP has been asked this several times and has failed to produce any evidence to back her allegation, but MNHQ seem happy enough to let her unsubstantiated post remain.
You could question their impartiality on this.

I never said there was evidence. I said it seems like this might be the next phase and later that there had been rumours on Twitter.

There has been talk of extenuating medical circumstances, this may or may not be it.

Perhaps Dominic Cummings will clarify this in his statement.

but MNHQ seem happy enough to let her unsubstantiated post remain.
You could question their impartiality on this

The comment was reported on LBC and Twitter (from a now deleted accout). Its reasonable to debate if Cummings' machine was the source as this is exactly the mechanism his machine has used previously (he has even written about this usage of social media on his blog and elsewhere, although some holes have appeared since I was following him regularly.

Tbh i didnt care about him travelling to durham, i totally get why theres uproar but couldnt find it in myself to get worked up about it UNTIL his son having autism was used as an excuse now im really pissed off and think him and Boris need to go.

If it is indeed true that #DominicCummings son has autism then I would like to know (as a parent of an autistic child myself) why it took a legal team to challenge the government on how their lockdown policy was unlawful and discriminatory to those with additional needs.

Well he didn’t need any changes to the rules as they didn’t apply to him.

Well he's issuing a public statement and taking questions later today, so get armed.

His son being autistic is neither here nor there.

Last footage I've seen of him was him putting a child's bicycle into his boot. My non autistic 4 yo child couldn't ride a bike.

And why the fuck does it fucking matter? The man is without morals. He's a pig.

He HASN'T said his son has autism and the medical needs referred to haven't been attributed to his son by anyone other than the pearl clutches on here.
No one has office said his son has autism.

What we saw yesterday was a pack of dogs at his door taking photos of his son and then a gathering of people playing messages and videos full blast at his home where his 4 year old is. If anyone harassed my child like that I'd flee to the other side of the country but they haven't. People endorsing this treatment of a small child in his home need their heads knocked together

I think his brother lives 2 streets away from his house In London

It's his wife's brother and no one has confirmed the kid is autistic - one person on Twitter last night said it's well known he's absolutely not.

Leaving aside any personal views in respect of Dominic Cummings actions on Brexit, I think it’s helpful to look at the situation dispassionately and humanely.

Let’s imagine you and your partner become so ill with corona virus that you are incapable of looking after your young child or baby. You would be culpable of failing to put in place a safeguarding arrangement for their care and you would be too ill to do anything about it. It would be too late.

And what about the varying needs of the individual child allowed for in the Guidelines? Children with Autism are not all the same in their behaviours. As a mother and teacher I’m aware of children with autism who would be a danger to themselves and others unless constantly watched and a carefully managed plan and routine is in place. This is apart from the acute distress that can result if there are changes to routine. Ill parents would be unable to safeguard their child and maintain the plan. And it cannot be assumed that any particular relative or friend is capable of meeting the child’s needs.

And now let’s imagine a top surgeon saving patients or someone else charged with responsibilities for managing this crisis. How would we view them seeking care for their child with autism? The idea that we are all of equal value in our contribution towards fighting this pandemic suggested by the one rule for all isn’t true.

Rigid thinking on what we think the rules are can and has resulted in significant and unintended harmful consequences, for example in hospital staff refusing to allow the parents of a child to to be at his bedside when he was dying. Some hospitals have been interpreted the intention of the rules intelligently and compassionate
ly provided PPE so that children and parents are not treated in an inhumane way.

There are laws and guidelines. Laws must be followed. Guidelines interpret the law but they cannot account for every individual circumstance. The Guidelines in this case make it clear that families with children have discretion to safeguard the needs of their child,

There is a strange disjunct operating. What do we make of the press pack hounding the man with no social distancing, a poor signal to the public, which is repeatedly shown on the news with no comment? Disregarding the guidance on social distancing is rife in many areas and by most joggers and cyclists. This makes it stressful to go out and will confine the elderly and vulnerable to their homes for the foreseeable future. According to Dominic Cummings he has not broken the law or the guidelines, his actions were designed to safeguard his vulnerable child and there is currently no evidence that has or that he has carelessly endangered anyone else.

According to Dominic Cummings, he's not broken the law. According to other people he most certainly has. How does visiting another town on his wife's birthday protect a vulnerable child, when the advice was to stay at home, not go out, self-isolate?

How are a couple supposedly so ill capable of driving 250 miles? I have been taken ill at work in the past, and struggled to drive the ten miles home.

Let’s imagine you and your partner become so ill with corona virus that you are incapable of looking after your young child or baby. You would be culpable of failing to put in place a safeguarding arrangement for their care and you would be too ill to do anything about it. It would be too late.

The plan could be ‘If we’re really ill we’ll get x who is virus free to travel to us’ rather than ‘we’ll drive halfway across the country with coronavirus just in case we get ill’.

@Mirinska he travelled precisely because he was incubating Coronavirus, with his wife who already was suffering from it. He WILL therefore have endangered the people they encountered on the journey (they must have stopped off en route).

There were multiple other ways of safeguarding their child that didn’t require this reckless behaviour.

You can’t compare journalists (who are doing their jobs and not suffering from the virus) with this man (who is apparently Boris’s unelected puppeteer)‘s actions.