martinmckee.bsky.social
Prof of European Public Health LSHTM
Co-Director European Observatory on Health Systems & Policy
Member Independent SAGE
Past President BMA & European Public Health Association
Committed to 🇬🇧 rejoining 🇪🇺
#academicsky
533 posts
10,327 followers
530 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
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7/6 And thanks of course to @charlottemar.bsky.social
Peter Allebeck, & Tit Albreht
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6/6 📢 European public health institutions must denounce these actions and support researchers in resisting data erasure. The fight for scientific freedom is a global responsibility
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5/6 🚨 History warns us: censorship isn't about public protection but control. We can't let history repeat itself by allowing governments to dictate scientific discourse
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4/6 🛡️ We must protect the integrity of scientific knowledge. Suppression of research anywhere threatens knowledge everywhere. Solidarity with censored colleagues is crucial
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3/6 🌍 The Trump administration's actions are part of a terrifying global trend where ideology tries to silence science. This includes climate change denial and attacks on reproductive rights
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2/6 We at @eupha.bsky.social & Eur J Publ Health stand firm with them against political interference in scientific language. Retractions should only occur for fraud or errors, not political pressure
academic.oup.com/eurpub/advan...
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Actually there is an entire generation of Romanian public health professionals who saw him as a father. He inspired tremendous loyalty
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But, as I understand it, even now plan is for carrier strike force to deploy with 24 UK and 12 US F35s. And do we have enough escorts (having depended on USN in past)? (Thanks to 🇳🇴)
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I really hope someone in MoD has worked out which of our weapon systems need US input / approval to function. Like, for example, SBAS
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For more details
www.bmj.com/content/bmj/...
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2/2 His experience would be so valuable today. This is the obituary we wrote in @bmj.com
A true hero (and a reminder that resistance to tyranny is possible)
researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/48...
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And now, further comment from @lshtm.bsky.social
www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/n...
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9/9 But the problems are deep-seated, as @lucindahiam.bsky.social @dannydorling.bsky.social & I showed when we tracked the UK's relative decline throughout the entire reign of the late Queen
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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8/9 A reminder that money is important - the decline in deaths amenable to medical care accelerated noticeably when the Blair government increased NHS spending in 1999
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
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7/9 And now, with a new government focused on economic growth, it is being held back by high rates of ill health. Hardly surprising, but a huge task to fix damage caused by 14 years on disinvestment and austerity
www.bmj.com/content/378/...
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6/9 And so it was unsurprising that when COVID-19 came, UK would fare especially badly. As the @thelancetph.bsky.social paper shows, 4 UK nations, with Greece and Italy, were worst in terms of life expectancy loss. Italy was hit first, but UK didn't have that excuse.
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5/9 Worsening health had political consequences - as we showed with people living in places where health was declining (and felt left behind) most likely to vote for Brexit.
ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/...
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4/9 We found it almost impossible to get those in positions of authority to take it seriously. We encountered every imaginable excuse, but many blamed it on influenza, even tough we pointed out flaws in that argument. Anything but austerity.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38224198/
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3/9 Then, @lucindahiam.bsky.social @dannydorling.bsky.social & I published a series of papers showing how UK was lagging progressively behind the rest of Europe
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
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2/9 A group of us, led by Rachel Loopstra, first raised concerns almost a decade ago, showing how austerity was driving rising mortality among older people
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
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And there are excellent candidates for Council too
@copddoc.bsky.social
@respirologist.bsky.social
Barry Monk
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And I’ve been incredibly privileged to work with @drlkvaughan.bsky.social who is standing for Clinical Vice President. Together they would be a fantastic team that would actually represent members and fellows (for a change)
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It also shows a remarkable lack of understanding of the history of science in 20th century - see for example
academic.oup.com/ije/article-...
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And it’s ridiculous to say that science & politics are separate when the MAGA regime is requiring science to be rewritten taking out all the words they disapprove of, like equity and diversity.
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Also, actions that abandon participants in mid trial are a clear breach of the Declaration of Helsinki - that alone should be grounds for expulsion
www.bmj.com/content/388/...
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So they have “struggled to persuade leading scientists to publicly call out the attacks on science in the US”? Well, we’ve now written 5 pieces in the BMJ on different aspects of these attacks. Maybe they weren’t looking so hard? And yes, I have signed your letter