Here are some figures to know: fossil fuel subsidies from Australian governments totalled $14.5 billion in 2023–24, an increase of 31 percent on the $11.1 billion recorded in 2022–23. Imagine if that money was spent on efforts to improve health rather than harming it.
The column this week also brings updates on COVID-19, the H5N1 strain of avian influenza and other global health matters, bias against women in research and healthcare, and recommendations from the United Kingdom to advance public health, reduce inequalities and boost economic productivity.
The quotable?
The costs of Australia’s fossil fuel subsidies, both financial and environmental, and the opportunities that their phase out could present, should be front and centre of Australian policy debate.”
Global health
Are health organisations and agencies strategising about how to respond to another round of President Donald Trump? If this scenario eventuates, what will be the implications for global health, public health and the world in general?
Writing in The Guardian, Senator Bernie Sanders describes this year’s US elections as “the most consequential in our lifetimes”, and stresses the need for coalition-building and action.
“We cannot simply turn away from the painful and complex realities that we face and bury our heads in the sand. We cannot stop reading the news or turn off the TV. The world is what it is. It is a mess. And the situation is not going to improve unless we do the hard work required,” he says.
His advice applies more widely too, it goes without saying.
The Guardian: We’re in a pivotal moment in American history. We cannot retreat
Fossil fuel crisis
The authors write: After a century of fossil fuels being burnt worldwide, Europe is facing unprecedented warming and escalating extreme climatic events, highlighted by record-breaking heat, droughts, and floods in 2022 and 2023. Without swift and drastic action, climate change will continue to accelerate further, accompanied by detrimental impacts on human health and wellbeing worldwide.
They describe how the interconnected health impacts tend to be unevenly distributed among populations due to differences in exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, often reflecting intersecting patterns of socioeconomic development, marginalisation, and historical and ongoing patterns of inequity. Populations most affected tend to be those least responsible and less likely to be recognised or prioritised.
They urge political and governance structures across Europe to engage with the health dimensions of climate change.
“Given that health framing could strengthen public and political support for climate action and the need for societies in Europe to adapt to the health impacts of climate change, fostering climate-health awareness across political actors and institutions is essential to further stimulate action.”
The International Institute for Sustainable Development report:
“At the COP 28 climate summit in Dubai, 198 governments agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. That means phasing out oil and gas, as well as coal. Yet most oil and gas producers plan to drill more, not less. Some countries are dependent on revenues from oil and gas, or politically entangled with the industry. An unmanaged transition could get ugly. So how do we deliver a fast, fair, and orderly phase-out?”
The Australia Institute report, Fossil fuel subsidies in Australia 2024:
“Australia’s subsidies to fossil fuel producers and major users from all governments totalled $14.5 billion in 2023–24, increase of 31% on the $11.1 billion recorded in 2022–23…The costs of Australia’s fossil fuel subsidies, both financial and environmental, and the opportunities that their phase out could present, should be front and centre of Australian policy debate.”
Other global health matters
Nature: Bird flu in US cows: where will it end? Scientists worry that the H5N1 strain of avian influenza will become endemic in cattle, which would aid its spread in people.
Nature: Neglecting sex and gender in research is a public-health risk
The authors argue that routinely taking sex and gender into account in research and using that knowledge to change healthcare could benefit billions of people.
Despite compelling indications that sex and gender matter, when it comes to many diseases that are leading causes of death, “many researchers and health practitioners still fail to adequately take sex and gender into account. They might also be influenced by conscious or unconscious bias,” the authors say.
Alongside initiatives from funders and publishers, awareness must be built — among students, researchers, clinicians, medical ethics committees, research governance bodies and community groups — of the ramifications of failing to consider sex and gender, and how to correct the problem. They also consider the potential of big data and artificial intelligence to address the problem.
BMJ: Role models help to progress gender parity, but we mustn’t forget the personal cost
“We often mistakenly apply a survivorship bias in our efforts to understand the trajectory of female medics’ careers, looking at those who survive long enough to be role models, when perhaps, if we want to find out what we can do to better tackle gender disparities, we should be considering those who leave the specialty.”
The Conversation: 154 million lives saved in 50 years: 5 charts on the global success of vaccines
New research led by the World Health Organization has found vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives in the past 50 years from 14 different diseases. Most of these have been children under five, and around two-thirds children under one year old.
Ahead of the UK general election, the UK Faculty of Public Health has released recommendations to advance public health, reduce inequalities and boost economic productivity.
The Faculty has identified four priorities:
- Promote policies and programs that improve the health and wellbeing of people and communities and tackle health inequalities.
- Tackle poverty to ensure everyone has the chance to live a long and healthy life.
- Protect the nation from infectious diseases and prepare for health threats and emergencies.
- Increase investment in public health and prevention as assets for society, and make health a priority for cross-government action.
As Professor Kevin Fenton, President of the Faculty says in the clip below: “Everyone deserves the chance to lead a long and healthy life; it is unacceptable for peoples’ life expectancy and health outcomes to be determined by their postcode, their ethnicity or their income.”
COVID-19
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: Systematic review and meta-analysis of Tuberculosis and COVID-19 Co-infection: Prevalence, fatality, and treatment considerations
The authors of this updated systematic review conclude that “TB-COVID co-infection is increasingly prevalent worldwide, with fatality rates gradually declining but remaining higher than COVID-19 alone. This underscores the urgency of continued research to understand and address the challenges posed by TB-COVID co-infection.”
JAMA: Mortality in Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19 vs Influenza in Fall-Winter 2023-2024
The United States study found that in fall-winter 2023-2024, the risk of death in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 was greater than the risk of death in patients hospitalised for seasonal influenza. The findings should be interpreted in the context of nearly twice as many hospitalisations for COVID-19 compared with seasonal influenza during 2023-2024.
Study limitations include that the Veterans Affairs population (older age and predominantly male) may not represent the general population and causes of death were not examined.
Other public health news
The Australian Human Rights Commission will lead a study to better understand and address the dangerous prevalence of racism at universities, after receiving $2.5 million in Commonwealth funding.
Healthcare reform
BMJ: The future of NHS primary care should focus on integration not fragmentation
“In some parts of England, there are proposals to divide NHS primary care services. NHS England’s strategy aims to separate patients with “same-day” acute care or with “simpler” medical issues from patients with more complex, long term needs. The aim is to allow general practitioners (GPs) to primarily focus on the latter group of patients. While this approach appears superficially to be a rational solution to manage escalating workload in general practice by diverting some patients to be managed elsewhere, it also raises substantial concerns about the potential unintended effects. This proposed division of work undermines a comprehensive and integrated care approach in primary care, and will hinder ongoing health management and preventive care of patients.”
Media matters
Perhaps the Walkley Foundation’s next step will be to end their partnership arrangements with Meta…
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance statement on McBride
The jail sentence of almost six years handed down to whistleblower David McBride represents a shameful day for the public’s right to know and shows the need for urgent reforms to protect whistleblowers from prosecution.
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance says the sentence in the ACT Supreme Court would have a chilling effect preventing future disclosures to journalists about matters that are in the public interest.
MEAA Media Director Michelle Rae said McBride had been jailed for sharing documents with journalists that revealed allegations that Australian soldiers were involved in illegal killings in Afghanistan.
“We respect the judge’s decision but it should never have come to this,” she said. “This reporting was clearly in the public interest but the punishment given today is far in excess of any perceived wrongdoing.
“The prosecution has never proven that the disclosures have had any detrimental impact on Australa’s national security or its security relationships with other countries.
“Without whistleblowers working with journalists, corruption and wrongdoing is allowed to flourish.
“With Australia having slipped to 39th on global press freedom rankings, governments at all levels must commit to protecting whistleblowers and journalists.
“A mature democracy does not shy away from scrutiny and the public has a right to know what its government does. It is time our political leaders truly embraced transparency and accountability.”
Some bright cheer
Opportunities
Events upcoming
