Thread by @vishnuvy

Health Vs Politics: Should science or medical journals comment on political decisions affecting health? YES Because Politics affects everything including health. Let’s see some eg. of medical journals critical of establishment (1/n) @AnantBhan @TheLancet

Lancet Oncology on Trump adminstration (2/n) @TheLancetOncol

Science journal going hard at Trump (3/n) @ScienceMagazine

Nature journal taking it further and supporting a presidential candidate. Can anyone imagine it in India- even 10 years before? (4/n) @nature

JAMA discussing health policy of two presidential candidates- Have we ever seen any medical journal in India discussing the health policies of various parties during an election? (5/n) @JAMANetwork

Lancet on Brazilian Government.(6/n) @TheLancet

Lancet on Trump, who no one spared (7/n) @TheLancet

Finally NEJM editorial on Trump administration “Dying In a Leadership Vacuum” (8/n) @NEJM

Pls post here if anyone finds more examples. The point is one improves with criticism. There is no shame in accepting mistakes and taking course correction. Instead of hyper nationalistic jingoism, let’s all work together to improve our system

Hard to find medical journals critical of China- something I could find👇

This one is Interesting as it came for an Indian author in China- journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…

Another one on China from the same author link.springer.com/content/pdf/10…

An example of Lancet criticising a left leaning government. Venezuela is like Mamta Bannerje of Bengal- more left than the left that left became irrelevant

Lancet on the Lebanese Health Crisis and criticising “atrocious failure of the US and UK’s weak, evasive, and ultimately disastrous foreign policy towards the Middle East”

A piece critical of Cuba’s health system. One will find lot of articles praising Cuban health care. But since we are focusing on articles critical of establishment, putting this here tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.108…

JAMA piece criticising the Cuban Governments mandatory quarantine policy for people with HIV in 2003

“Politics of Medicine”- the other side of the argument- which I personally don’t agree with- ‘The major medical journals of the western world badly need their own glasnost and perestroika” academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/…

Lancet had a Health Policy Review on ‘Weaponisation of health care in Syria’ thelancet.com/action/showPdf…

BMJ usually plays safe with “Yes/No” debates. For example the Head to head on ‘Should we consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions?”. More interesting than the article are the correspondences on these pieces

A medical crisis in Syria- “Being caught with medical supplies or treating injured protesters is worse than being caught with weapons: one doctor told Amnesty” Since it’s an editorial on ‘some’ conflict zone in Middle East- no body here would have noticed

Lancet editorial critical of large aid agencies and humanitarian organisations. “We have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that when viewed through the distorted lens of politics, economics, religion, and history, some lives are judged more important than others”

Ebola used as a political tool in Congo? This editorial could also be written in a similar way on India- replace Ebola with COVID, add more elections, add more political parties and increase the complexity of the country

Lancet has published many editorials on India. Thanks to @sainimmm In 2004 editorial on “Political Neglect in India’s health”

2009 Special Report in Lancet on Sidelining of health issues in India’s general elections @sainimmm

And the most controversial piece by Lancet on Kashmir

There was a strong view point against mixing politics and medicine by @RogueRad TBH it was a great read! kevinmd.com/blog/2019/08/w…