There's a widespread view that when UK rejoins EU (as it surely will) the other member states will in some way want to "punish" UK. I see no evidence of this - in fact the opposite as they have bent over backwards to ease UK's self-inflicted problems as far as legally possible
A (strongly Anglophilic) colleague in the Commission told me of the intense and extremely complex work by their team on sorting out pharmaceutical/ NI protocol issue. Completely unappreciated by UK side
However, UK has a mountain to climb to regain trust - so far Brexit negotiators have either been disinterested/ disengaged or duplicitous/ deceitful, UK media has (mostly) been totally dishonest, and many UK commentators don't talk to anyone in Brussels #WestminsterBubble
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2/8 Last week @jburnmurdoch published an extraordinary analysis @FT showing 🇬🇧 unique among industrialised countries in not getting pandemic-related loss of workers from ill health back to work. This should have been headline news ft.com/content/c333a6…
For years, we’ve (rightly) been asking what other sectors can do for health - good housing, safe transport, healthy environments, crime prevention and much else make us healthier
But health can do lots for other sectors. Healthy people stay in workforce, are more productive, pay more taxes. Good mental health reduces demands on criminal justice system.
Public procurement widely misunderstood. It’s not just buying stuff. Can also promote innovation, development of small and medium-sized enterprises, sustainable green growth and social objectives like public health and greater inclusiveness.
Good procurement does need highly skilled people - shouldn’t be left to amateurs (or politicians & their friends!) and there are many specific issues to consider with medicines, technology, IT in health
The pandemic is NOT over. The 🇬🇧 may have given up but we on @IndependentSage haven't. Today we set out a 7 point plan @bmj_latest
🧵 1. Clear and consistent messaging concerning covid risk and risk mitigation, reinforced by public statements by those in positions of authority;
2. Increased efforts to promote vaccine uptake, among all age groups, with particular emphasis on groups whose uptake has been low, in particular ethnic minority communities, coupled with a clear long term plan to address waning immunity and immune escape by new variants;
3. Installing and/or upgrading ventilation/air filtration in all public buildings, with schools an urgent priority over the summer holidays;
4. Provision of free lateral flow tests to enable everyone to follow existing public health guidelines;
Great to be meeting in person with colleagues in our @Magnet4Europe project in Cork. Thanks to @HorizonEU for supporting this important project to improve mental health in the health workplace & to @JdaDrennan for hosting us
@LindaAiken_Penn showing shockingly high levels of burnout in European hospitals, but enormous variation even within countries. Also real problems with work environments but again it varies - bad conditions aren’t inevitable
Matt McHugh reports really worrying levels of concern by nurses/doctors in Europe about quality of care - and it matters when we face staff shortages
So many times I was asked “But Sweden …”
Now we have a detailed, and damning account of what went wrong. “drastic deviation from 280 years of respect for scientific facts” A reminder that a well prepared country with expertise +++ can go terribly wrong nature.com/articles/s4159…
And a reminder of what we on @IndependentSage said about 🇸🇪 in September 2020, in case anyone is suggesting it’s only obvious with hindsight - it was pretty obvious then
And let’s not forget that the Swedish approach attracted support elsewhere - as in this meeting organised by Sunak - revealed in excellent book Failures of State by @JCalvertST & @Arbuthnott