This blog is a part of # COVID19Africa Series. Click for French version. The first line of health care is not only the primary level of care, it also ensures coordination of care and of patient information. However, in the DRC, its role seems to be in tatters due to the Congolese government’s ill-coordinated and ineffectively […]
Month: May 2020
Disruption as an opportunity: giving rise to a global ethos for planetary health
Life as we know it has, for millions of people around the globe, been put on-hold because of the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic. Positive consequences so far recorded include unpolluted skies, cleaner waterways and thriving wildlife.1 Meanwhile, some richer nations have begun to question their socio-economic priorities. This is an opportunity to think carefully how we […]
BMJ’s COVID-19 Podcasts
Bringing you a curated selection of podcasts relating to COVID-19 across The BMJ, our specialist journals, and Best Practice.
Scroll through the list to find the latest podcasts and subscribe on your favourite platform, including:
iTunes
Google Podcasts
Spotify […]
Lives vs equity – analysing the dilemma in the COVID-19 response
By Neil Pickering An ethical tension that COVID-19 highlights is between saving lives and acting equitably. Bluntly, in the current circumstances, it may be that any weight given to equity will potentially cost lives. This need not always be the case, of course. The two can both be realised at one and the same time […]
The many meanings of “stay safe” in a pandemic: Sympathy, duty, and threat
By David Shaw. You’re out for a walk, your daily exercise since the pandemic began. You bump into someone you know (metaphorically speaking), exchange a few words about life under lockdown from the other side of the road, and then wish them well before setting off again. Chances are you wish them well with the […]
Being a Director of Medical Education in the time of COVID (Dr Catherine Matthews)
In March 2020 things changed, seismically, both at home and at work. As my 11 year old twins prepared for their first day of home school, I prepared to set off to a new kind of workplace. “What will you be doing at work today Mummy?’ ‘Well – it’s mostly about my ‘Director of […]
Torn between two countries: On being an International Medical Fellow during a global pandemic (by Dr Revathy Krishnamurthy MD and Dr Archya Dasgupta MD)
The global healthcare system is currently facing an unprecedented challenge in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, propelling medical workers into the frontlines. The personal lives and professional careers of medical students, residents, fellows, and staff have been altered in many ways and to different degrees, each gearing to assume elevated roles and responsibilities. The International […]
An urgent call to address tobacco-related health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations in the COVID-19 pandemic
Andy S.L. Tan, Priscilla K. Gazarian, Elaine Hanby, Sabreen Darwish, Bethany C. Farnham, Jennifer Potter, Suha Ballout Tobacco-related health disparities are defined as “differences in the patterns, prevention, and treatment of tobacco use; the risk, incidence, morbidity, mortality, and burden of tobacco-related illness that exist among specific population groups in the United States; and related […]
The two faces of the tobacco industry during the COVID-19 pandemic
Mateusz Zatoński, Anna B. Gilmore, Thomas R. Hird Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, the world’s major tobacco companies have geared their CSR efforts to present themselves as allies of public health in the fight against the virus. For example, in Georgia on 23-26 March […]
Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control & the COVID19 Pandemic
Stella Aguinaga Bialous & Becky Freeman Article 5.3 implementation guidelines of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) remind all parties to protect public health against the “commercial or other vested interests” of the tobacco industry. The guidelines recognize a “fundamental and irreconcilable” conflict of interest between tobacco industry ambitions and public health policy […]