This shift to personal responsibility for #COVID is straight out of the (poor) epidemic response playbook. The exact same thing happened during Zika.

Government told people not to get infected thru insecticide/long sleeves, improve vector control and not to get pregnant. 1/
What then happened was that govs were then able to place responsibility onto individuals to avoid having children born with #CZS - The approach was "we've given you all the guidance, if you choose to get pregnant and not protect yourself from infection, that's your decision" 2/
The problem with this was the multiple structural barriers which prevented many people from following this guidance... affordability of insecticide, poor sanitation which meant mosquito proliferation, poor access to contraception 3/
But it was a canny government approach as govs were then able to absolve themselves of the responsibility for providing such public health goods as they washed their hands of it leaving it to individuals. (knowing that they wouldnt be affected, as richer, men, with air con) 4/
I see many parallels here - #BoJo wants to be able to absolve himself of responsibility for future chaos, so putting it on the individual... Those same individuals that he didnt trust to not "game the system" when it came to supported ££ isolation measures 5/
If you dont get vaccinated, if you get infected, if you end up in hospital - this is your fault now. But, as we know, most marginalised in society are least likely to be vaccinated (structural access challenges) and those who depend on daily income most likely to be at risk. 6/
The difference with #Zika is the public good element, it wasnt transmitted by individual actions. Instead, the risk now is that the "individual" responsibility (or not) to be #covidsafe will have a knock on effect on others. 7/
Given how politicised this whole #COVID landscape has become, I worry it's going to spark not only mass cases (and some increased hospitalisation/long covid/death) but also greater polarisation of an already divided society.

This is exactly what we need government to mitigate
You can read all the research about individual responsibility angle during Zika in chapter 5 of my book:
global.oup.com/academic/produ…

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More from @clarewenham

25 Feb
I think #vaccinepassports or #vaccinecertificates are a bad idea, and governments really need to think carefully before proceeding. They are a Pandora's Box.

Ultimately health status should not be the determinant of one's rights. A🧵
Firstly, in a pandemic intensifying all societal inequalities, we shouldnt be introducing mechanisms to further compound these. Those who are unable to get vaccinated (for health reasons, pregnant women) will be immediately discriminated against.
In the short term, this will also include younger people, leading to intergenerational tension, and indeed children who currently are not being vaccinated, and this in turn may discriminate against parents (mothers) if unable to interact in public when looking after them
Read 14 tweets
5 Jan
Lockdown 3.0 will disproportionately affect #women, and #ukgov isnt doing enough to mitigate this unequal impact.

A thread on what we know from the last year *and before 🧵
According to @ONS women did 2/3rds additional childcare duties + spent more time on unpaid work + less time on paid work than men during lockdown1.0

ONS also show that women did more non-developmental care than men (i.e. cooking, washing, not playing)
shorturl.at/gjrCY Image
Whether due to gendered work sectors, or requests owing to additional childcare: women more likely to be furloughed than men according to @WomensBudgetGrp meaning 20% income reduction

wbg.org.uk/analysis/uk-po…
Read 15 tweets
3 Jan
🚨New Year, New Paper 🚨

Remember research before #COVID19 - findings from our 3 year study on access to #abortion during #zika in Brazil, El Salvador and Colombia in press now W/ @socscimed
1/
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
We found that whilst #zika spurred abortion demand amongst individual womxn and global debate on #reproductiverights - the heath emergency didn’t change national regulation or policy change for abortion access.
2/
This was on account of the narrow policy path dependency in #globalhealthsecurity focused on epidemiology which did not consider gendered needs or the broader social effects of epidemics, combined with deeply conservative context + recent political history
3/
Read 7 tweets
27 Aug 20
The thing that makes me the most frustrated about #COVID19 (and has for many months) is the failure to learn lessons from previous outbreaks, particularly about the downstream effects of #pandemic response policy. A thread 1/
This morning @BBCr4today @TheCrick discussed disruption to non-covid #clinicaltrials ; also have seen depressing delays to #cancer detection and treatment ; and changes to routine SRH, maternity, NCD, mental health services.

This is well documented impact during #Ebola 2/
Economic disaster at macro + micro levels follow outbreaks - look at economic impact SE Asia post #SARS and W-Africa post #Ebola ... and to look at individual narratives of household financial hardships & increases in poverty (w/associated disease, kids out of school to work) 3/
Read 9 tweets
13 Jun 20
As #Brazil becomes the new epicentre of #COVID19 these are my must reads to understand the political context in which the outbreak emerged and the impact of this (a thread)
This piece by @Deisy_Ventura early on in the outbreak captures a lot of the anticipated tensions within the SUS (unified health system); between Bolsonaro, science and populism (similar in many ways to US, UK etc) - which unfortunately have become real!

americas.chathamhouse.org/article/betwee…
Equally great background to #Bolsonaro role in driving the #COVID19 spread in #Brazil - and how much of this is down to politics over public health:

@Deisy_Ventura @gabilotta

theconversation.com/brazil-jair-bo…
Read 13 tweets
5 Mar 20
A thread of thoughts about why #COVID19 is so remarkable having studied #globalhealthsecurity and politics of health emergencies for several years - almost every element could and has been predicted #COVID #covid19UK (1/11) :
Academics have thought that a major outbreak would emerge in China, and this would be challenged by tensions over veracity of Chinese data (the memory of #SARS not easily forgotten) tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… (2/11)
The declaration of #PHEIC by @WHO is always constrained by politics - this time, delay, and #PHEIC absolutely not about Chinese response (hello member state politics) - read @adamkams tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… or @MarkRTurner gh.bmj.com/content/4/2/e0… (3/11)
Read 11 tweets

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