Pandemic Preparedness, Recovery, and the Vital Role of Social Science
As has become abundantly clear over the last few years, pandemics are social as well as biomedical. Their effects ripple through societies and communities, the result of – and further affecting – societal processes. Consequently, the social sciences have much...
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Public Health and the problem with class
Medicine, as a profession, does not recruit equitably from the UK’s population. This matters because working-class young people do not have equal chances of becoming doctors. But it also matters how public health interventions are designed and delivered. All too...
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The Fall of NHS Dentistry: A service in crisis.
There is a crisis in NHS Dentistry. A survey of NHS dental practices last year found that 91% of NHS practices were not accepting new adult patients, rising to 98% in ‘the South West, North West and Yorkshire and the...
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Purity and danger in pandemic public health
A socio-historical take on fear messaging Public health strategies to encourage compliance and behaviour change during the pandemic have been criticised for applying behavioural theories like “nudge theory” to induce fear. The Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B)...
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Understanding Health Inequalities in Scotland – Getting Beyond Death and Despair in (Quantified) Data
Two high profile reports on health inequalities in Scotland were launched last month. The first, Leave No One Behind(a Health Foundation report), aimed to provide a multi-dimensional, up-to-date analysis of health inequalities in Scotland. The second, Closing the Gap (from...
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Heatwaves are social murder
Heat kills. We have known this for some time. Whenever a heatwave occurs, an increase in excess deaths occurs. The European heatwaves of 2003 witnessed an excess of 75,000 deaths, with 15,000 of those occurring in France alone. The World...
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The unaffordable cost of living
Rishi-eat-out-to-help-out Sunak has been busy recently trying to address the snowballing cost of living crisis faced by millions of UK citizens. He announced new policies to help those who will find the ‘struggle is too hard and the risks too...
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Finding the publics to involve in public health research
Public involvement in research is essential. However, when that research addresses public health issues, how best to do this is not straightforward. Naïve processes of engagement risk tokenism, erosion of good faith, and frustration for all collaborators. The aims of...
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An unpatriotic agitation? Public health versus the right to health
Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, medical ethics has incorporated a duty to protect human rights, while the right to health and access to health care have been successively articulated and elaborated. One recent elaboration of the...
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Criminalising nitrous oxide users is no laughing matter if it distracts from more serious drug problems
In England and Wales, it is not illegal to possess nitrous oxide – but that could soon change. The UK’s home secretary, Priti Patel, has asked her scientific advisers to review the evidence on the harm associated with its use....
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Time and again? Temporality & public health
One thing that has struck me during the days and months since 23rd March 2020 has been how time has simultaneously slowed down and sped up. Or, more specifically, the passage of time has both sped up and slowed down....
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Around a million children in the UK are living in destitution