Share this page!

Martin McKee Profile picture
Twitter logo
13 Dec, 9 tweets, 4 min read
1/7 I’ve been reflecting on work I’ve done over the past decade and attitudes to it. Maybe I’m being unfair but I sometimes sense a bit of hypocrisy from some people
🧵
2/7 People who condemn restrictions on freedom but took away the freedom of so many others to live, love, and work in the EU after #Brexit
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30819519/
3/7 People concerned about the mental health of people affected by pandemic countermeasures, but were silent when we showed the mental health harm caused by #austerity
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23541059/
4/7 People who want schools open for the sake of the children, whatever the risks, but supported policies that left our children with some of the worst health risks in Europe
bmj.com/content/342/bm…
5/7 People who complain about the economic damage caused by pandemic responses but support #Brexit, which will hit growth much worse
bbc.co.uk/news/business-….
6/7 ... who ignored the evidence we assembled in April 2020 that it's not health OR the economy but health AND the economy
nature.com/articles/s4159…
7/7 ... and who express sympathy for people harmed by necessary measures to reduce spread of COVID but dismissed our April 2020 call to protect them
bmj.com/content/369/bm…
PS also thinking about why we’re not talking more about food insecurity during pandemic. We showed reasons for concern

thelancet.com/journals/lanep…
But maybe that would mean talking about earlier growth of food banks

bmj.com/content/350/bm…
Or health effects of gig economy and precarious employment, but maybe that would mean fixing employment law

archpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Martin McKee

Martin McKee Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @martinmckee

Martin McKee Profile picture
9 Nov
A short thread on how I see the state we’re in. And I know I’ll be attacked so I will block any accounts that are hostile and anonymous or are abusive
Most MPs work very hard to become elected (see @IsabelHardman ‘s book Why we get the wrong politicians) and once they are elected, and many (maybe not all) could be paid much more in other jobs. They spend long hours away from families. It’s a pretty awful job
But the system is dysfunctional, giving PM far too much power of patronage on ministerial & other appointments (esp, as we now see, to deny peerages to ex speakers). We need to rebalance powers of legislature and executive (and safeguard judiciary). Now it is not fair on most MPs
Read 7 tweets
Martin McKee Profile picture
7 Oct
1/5 Europe must advocate for stronger, better governed multilateral institutions in wake of pandemic. Our analysis, led by @markjit w/ @ananth_aparna @ojwouters @BeutelsPhilippe & Yot Teerawattananonch @LancetRH_Europe
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
2/5 An effective global response to a pandemic requires investment in 2 major public goods:
Shared knowledge – on surveillance, research, evaluation
Population immunity – no-one is safe until everyone is
See also: euro.who.int/en/health-topi…
3/5 Multilateral collaboration:
Indivisible - all parties treated equally
Diffuse reciprocity – even if one party gains benefit in one transaction, these even out over time.
Dispute resolution should ensure compliance with what was agreed.
Read 5 tweets
Martin McKee Profile picture
13 Jul
I've been citing @SebastianEPayne all week in discussions with other journalists - England's new COVID policy is political, pure and simple. Let's not pretend there is a scientific basis
I know some (very) senior colleagues believe health and politics should be kept separate. I disagree strongly (for avoidance of doubt I don’t mean party politics - I’ve never been a member of a party)
My inspiration is Rudolf Virchow, perhaps the greatest pathologist of his era. Everyone in public health should read his account of typhus in Silesia

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
Read 8 tweets
Martin McKee Profile picture
13 Jun
Struggling to understand what is happening in Cornwall? So am I.
As Mr Johnson says, "the EU "misunderstand that the UK is a single country and a single territory" and the EU " just need to get that into their heads"
news.sky.com/story/brexit-b…
Except it isn't, and hasn't been for a long time, as Northern Ireland has been different from GB since it was created and the NI Protocol clearly placed NI & GB in separate markets, as was obvious to anyone who read it
davidallengreen.com/2021/06/the-go…
... which may not have included the UK Prime Minister
Read 7 tweets
Martin McKee Profile picture
30 May
My personal and academic background mean I have a particular interest in the intersection between Brexit and Good Friday Agreement so I listened to #Marr exchanges with Edwin Poots & @MarosSefcovic with some interest. Some reflections (thread)
From the beginning it was obvious that if UK left Customs Union/ Single Market there had to be a border in Irish Sea or on island of Ireland. Good Friday Agreement ruled out latter ... unless ...
... as many English Brexiteers explained to me, Ireland would "see sense" and rejoin UK (recall, this was 2016 and as I pointed out Ireland was celebrating 100 years since Easter Rising and EU was more popular than ever, but then what do I know?)
Read 10 tweets
Martin McKee Profile picture
17 Feb
Much talk on @BBCWorldatOne about "acceptable level of COVID deaths". Can someone explain how you maintain a level of anything when it changes exponentially and you are always dealing with data (on becoming infected) ~10 days out of date? Do we need Mk 1 crystal ball?
And please don't use comparison with tolerance of deaths on roads. They don't change exponentially. With COVID, if rates are not going down they are going up. And if they keep going up (R>1) they soon get very high
And even with road deaths, as Sweden shows, setting a zero goal pays dividends
roadsafetysweden.com/about-the-conf….
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @martinmckee has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @martinmckee!

Read all threads by @martinmckee

:(