{"id":39881,"date":"2022-06-26T10:16:32","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T10:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmjgh\/?p=39881"},"modified":"2022-06-26T10:17:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T10:17:11","slug":"for-good-global-health-words-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmjgh\/2022\/06\/26\/for-good-global-health-words-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"For good \u201cGlobal Health\u201d, words matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Words inspire us. They shape our culture. They have the power to divide us.<\/p>\n

When using alternative words to describe something it is not, we either promote or demote its importance. And thus, we inflate or deflate its actual power or value; sometimes intentionally, other times not.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, a group of leading scholars in the field recognised this in a powerful way with their recent piece<\/a> in BMJ Global Health.<\/p>\n

It is time we rethink how we use our words to address the problem of the century, as we hope to \u201cend the pandemic\u201d in 2022. And as the field conducts an introspective examination of our word choices, one theme we must purge is the militarisation of our vocabulary and the resultant unnecessary dramatization of our work.<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

Perhaps sparked by the Millennium Development Goals<\/a> and President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)<\/a> in the early 2000s, the world of Global Health has morphed into a contingent of government agencies, development institutions, universities, and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) responding to calls to combat neglected infectious diseases and eliminate health disparities around the world.<\/p>\n

Mobilising the resources to \u201cEnd AIDS<\/a>\u201d appears to require an army of all types of well-meaning foot soldiers. To reach lofty goals, campaign generals need to inspire \u201cfrontline\u201d health workers to serve in underserved areas and they solicit funding to incentivise research into infectious threats rarely seen in high-income countries. Organisations or institutions led from the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe, speak from headquarters about \u201cboots on the ground\u201d in low-income countries – or rather \u201cin country\u201d – deploying resources \u201cin the field,\u201d simultaneously highlighting the urgency of their work in service to the mission and the power chasm between frontline troop and recipient. The militarised language inspires private donors to rally behind the cause and it inculcates those who want to \u201cgo into [the field of] Global Health\u201d with a message: \u201cWork in low-income areas is your duty, potentially dangerous, and, thus, alluring. Fall in formation!\u201d<\/p>\n

NGO volunteers drop in, sometimes as part of short-term \u201cmissions,\u201d from \u201cWestern\u201d countries – or the \u201cglobal North\u201d – defined as a sort of homogenous block of wealthy states, to \u201cdeveloping countries,\u201d occasionally described as a homogenous block of poor states, despite having needs and context that vary from district to district. \u201cAfrica\u201d can be used to describe many things, rarely accurate in its description of a massive and diverse continent with a complicated history.<\/p>\n

The language of Global Health also sends a signal to the recipients of the corps\u2019 work. Foreign NGO workers are here to \u201chelp,\u201d bringing with them a relatively incredible amount of resources, commonly resulting in unequal and awkward dynamics between donor and recipient. When key decisions need to be made, deferring to the ones with the purse strings tends to be the default. This can then create a patchwork of initiatives created by NGOs accountable to their boards rather than the people they are \u201cserving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

Now we have an opportunity to replace our diction to meet the current, arguably most pressing, health challenge: vaccinating the world against COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cVaccine equity\u201d is the goal. The \u201cPeople\u2019s Vaccine<\/a>\u201d is the solution. Yet, after two years of a once-in-a-century pandemic, 11 novel vaccines, two different US presidents, six million global deaths, and multiple multilateral partnerships, the international community has not been compelled to act in a manner the situation demands. Efforts to divert attention from technology transfers focus instead on the \u201cvaccine hesitant,\u201d some of whom have arrived at their positions thanks to prior health system failures.<\/p>\n

We still have a chance to confront COVID-19 with an appropriately massive effort far before the Global Fund or PEPFAR arose to confront the HIV\/AIDS epidemic, which was over 20 years after the first cases of HIV were identified. But the sun is setting on our opportunity.<\/p>\n

To \u201cend the pandemic,\u201d we must recalibrate our word choices; because our current vocabulary has proven insufficient. Let us demilitarise our lingo and more forcefully speak of collectivism and partnership. Let us garner the political will and harness corporate self-interest by distilling the imperative down to simpler, more accurate, and more appropriately powerful terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not safe until we are all safe.\u201d We are all one herd; it is past time to act like it. We should control what we can and hold ourselves accountable. And that starts with the words we use.<\/p>\n

About the author:<\/strong> Travis Bias is a Family Medicine physician who has taught medicine in Kenya and Uganda for over one year. He has also taught courses in Comparative Global Health Systems and Global Health Diplomacy for George Washington University\u2019s Milken Institute School of Public Health. Travis is currently Chief Medical Officer of Clinician Solutions at 3M. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Competing Interests:<\/strong> I have read and understood the BMJ Group policy on declaration of interests and declare the following interests: I am a full-time employee of 3M.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Handling Editor:<\/strong> Neha Faruqui<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Words inspire us. They shape our culture. They have the power to divide us. When using alternative words to describe something it is not, we either promote or demote its importance. And thus, we inflate or deflate its actual power or value; sometimes intentionally, other times not. Fortunately, a group of leading scholars in […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":402,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-39881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-global-health"],"yoast_head":"\nFor good \u201cGlobal Health\u201d, words matter - BMJ Global Health blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This blog is a follow-on piece to a recently published BMJ Global Health piece on terminology in Global Health.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmjgh\/2022\/06\/26\/for-good-global-health-words-matter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For good \u201cGlobal Health\u201d, words matter - 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