Last week I addressed the @PressClubAust, and I tried to describe the unimaginable scenes our teams are seeing in Gaza.🧵 Since 7 October five MSF colleagues have been killed:

Mohammed al Ahel, lab technician

Alaa Al Shawa, volunteer nurse

Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila

Dr Ahmad Al Sahar

Reem Abu Lebdeh, physiotherapist and @MSF_uk board member

Yesterday @MSF published a comprehensive report looking at silent killings Gaza - meaning individuals who have succumbed to health conditions that are entirely preventable.🧵 After reading through this report (linked at the bottom of this thread) and reflecting on the work of my colleagues in this enormously challenging context, I want to reiterate some of its crucial points.⬇️

Two weeks ago, I visited the occupied territories of Palestine, to meet our teams. I visited Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah; unfortunately, it was impossible for me to enter Gaza but I spoke to my colleagues there. I want to share some of my observations from that trip 👇 Nine weeks after the Hamas attack, Israel’s military response has trapped millions of Gazans in a total war zone. Thousands have been killed. The strict siege is depriving people from food, water and medicine.

For the past few weeks, I joined @MSF_SouthSudan to work in our hospital in IDP camp.
I met amazing colleagues, had happy & challenging moments, as well as experiences & emotions I’d like to share with you.
Not a short thread, but stick with me: This wasn't my first time in #SouthSudan. I was in Gogrial in 2013, operating in an inflatable tent.
This time, I joined 500+ South Sudanese colleagues & 25 staff from other countries in a hospital that provides care to 100,000+ people & is a referral center for complicated cases

So what has gone wrong in Brazil with regards to the #COVID19 response?

Continued from yesterday’s thread...

https://twitter.com/DrChristou/status/1382699794842419209?s=20

So far, there's been no national and centrally coordinated efficient response to this pandemic. Prevention measures like limiting non-essential movements/activities, wearing masks and promoting physical distancing and increased hygiene measures – are not implemented.

The failed #COVID19 response in Brazil has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.

Each week there’s a grim new record of deaths and infections - the hospitals are overflowing and yet there is still NO coordinated centralised response. Over the past year, Brazilian authorities have overseen the unmitigated spread of #COVID19. Their refusal to adapt evidence-based public health measures has sent far too many to an early grave.

Join us for the MSF paediatric days tomorrow and Friday

This is an event for field staff, policy makers and academia to exchange ideas, align efforts, inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field. Why discuss paediatrics today? Because:
- under 5 years old mortality remains worrying, with about 15,000 kids suffering premature death every day
- the proportion of neonatal mortality is growing
- neglected diseases and neglected social patterns continue to affect children

Nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the sprint to respond to this global health crisis has turned into a marathon.

Between June and August alone, @MSF ran COVID-19 related activities in 250 projects in 63 countries.

Here's an overview of what that was like: Despite our long history of managing health emergencies, this pandemic came with new challenges and tough choices.

Our focus is on people’s urgent needs. But who needs our help first? Where can we have the biggest impact?

These questions became even more complex with COVID-19.

Yesterday, I took part in an international online conference highlighting the challenges, solutions and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. #конференцияРАНХиГС

Thank you to @MINZDRAV_RF & @RANEPA for organizing Here is the main message I shared based on @MSF’s experience; our concerns are actually very simple and can be summarized in one word: solidarity.

#Moria camp in Greece has been burned to the ground.

This was not unexpected. This is not something we can say we didn’t see coming. And this is not something authorities can say wasn’t preventable. Migrants and asylum seekers have been deliberately trapped in inhumane living conditions for the past five years.

How would 5 years of freezing cold winters, no access to water or sanitation, and living in overcrowded conditions with no personal space make you feel?

The situation on the Greek Islands is only getting worse.

During my visit to Samos and Lesbos, I witnessed the human suffering that European policies are producing on vulnerable people.

The extent of this emergency is unacceptable.

My message to European leaders today: After hearing that more than a quarter of our child patients are inflicting themselves self-harm, that they are losing appetite, willingness to play, I wonder how you, European leaders, can continue to tolerate and perpetrate that.