Before I recorded Episode 12 of the podcast, I sent a draft script of the section concerning Rosanna Davison to her PR representative, as a courtesy, and to allow her to comment. Her representative didn’t reply before my deadline, but later sent me an email, saying:
Rosanna Davison, as pictured on her website
You need to take a look at this line:
“The meaning of the words you used were clear, you said that gluten was responsible for arthritis, autism and schizophrenia”
Please take a closer look at the Irish Independent and you will see that Rosanna did not say this. The line in the article that caused the controversy was not a direct quote from Rosanna.
This is something which has gone to great lengths to explain at this stage if you read her statement more closely
She also makes clear that she would never advise anyone to use diet alone to treat any ailments.
I noted that, while the line in the article concerned is not a direct quote – it’s not inside quotation marks – it purports to be the reported speech of Rosanna Davison, and that she wrote an article for the Independent under her own name some days later on the topic, and didn’t dispute that.
Even the email didn’t dispute that she had said it; it talks about how she would advise people to treat ailments, not the cause of those ailments. Neither Davison nor her representative show any awareness that she has no business advising anyone how to treat any ailment, since she has no medical qualifications.
I sent the following questions to Davison’s representative:
- Is it Rosanna’s position that [gluten causes autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and arthritis] is a position falsely attributed to her?
- Given the controversy it has caused, has Rosanna had any legal correspondence regarding correcting this falsely attributed position?
- Has Rosanna made a complaint to the press council of Ireland regarding the matter?
- Why did Rosanna, in the article written by her on the subject in the Independent on 27 August, make no effort to distance herself from the position attributed to her?
- You say “She also makes clear that she would never advise anyone to use diet alone to treat any ailments” In what way is she qualified to offer advice to anyone on the treatment of any ailments?
- Does Rosanna accept that the statement is entirely incorrect, and that there is no recognised scientific research that “shows gluten to be the bad guy responsible for a huge range of medical conditions from autism spectrum disorders to schizophrenia to arthritis”?
- Does Rosanna accept that the College of Naturopathic Medicine and the Institute of Functional Medicine do not offer any recognised qualifications?
- Does Rosanna [accept] that, on her website, including a large photograph of herself in a scholarly gown, referring to two institutions where she has studied which contain the word Medicine in their title, and her discussion of what advice she would give to people on the treatment of ailments would be likely to give naïve people the impression that she has a medical qualification when she does not?
I’m still waiting for an answer.
