What you should know about the Covid-19 vaccines?

 The Covid-19 Vaccine Guide. The Quest for Implementation of Safe and Effective Vaccinations

A book that explains all the details of one of the greatest achievements in medical research,

In the United States, in just over 11 months, two mRNA vaccines were developed and manufactured in parallel, tested in phase 1, 2, and the phase 3 large clinical trials, found to be safe and efficacious, and distributed initially in December 2020 to healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities, followed by those over 65 and with underlying medical conditions in January 2021. The story of that remarkable scientific and manufacturing accomplishment is described later in this chapter.

Why do these vaccines work? What is an immune correlate of protection? Vaccines are designed to induce a human immune response that prevents individual disease and may prevent or shorten individual infections. Much of the background for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines was initially based on the research on SARS-CoV infections, which in 2003 caused a global outbreak in 26 countries, the work on another novel coronavirus MERS, the long-term studies of other coronaviruses, and the work on other respiratory viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

In addition to individual protection, vaccines may also induce community or “herd” protection by decreasing transmission of the virus from one individual to another. We know that the two initial mRNA vaccines prevent illness with 94–95% efficacy in individuals. However, we do not yet know if they prevent infection or transmission.

Trends in health expenditure in Europe

Spending on health in Europe: entering a new era 

The narrative behind vaccine hesitancy

 VACCINE HESITANCY. Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science

The message:

The dominant framework that currently shapes scholarly and popular discourses on the problem of vaccine hesitancy employs a war metaphor to capture the intractability of the problem. The war metaphor also entrenches an “us” (science) versus “them” (publics) division that is not conducive to engagement and resolution. The “war on science” metaphor described a scientized (chapter 4) captured in three popular explanations for vaccine hesitancy: public misunderstanding of science (chapter 1), the influence of cognitive biases on the publics’ reasoning about vaccines (chapter 2), and antiexpertise and science denialism among the publics (chapter 3). All three narratives point to the publics as the problem (and even the enemy), with little attention to “us,” the courageous defenders of science. Yet, as I have shown, the scientizing force of “evidence-based everything” and the linear model of science-to-policy contribute to antagonizing science-publics relations

Take care... 

Why Spain publicly funded healthcare by regions was 5,6% of GDP and in Catalonia was 4,9% in 2019?

 Estadística de Gasto Sanitario Público

The impact of social differences in epidemiological vulnerability

 Equidad en Salud y COVID-19

El informe, que es un resumen del documento Equidad en Salud y COVID-19. Análisis y propuestas para abordar la vulnerabilidad epidemiológica vinculada a las desigualdades sociales, identifica tres tipos de vulnerabilidad, que están interrelacionados: vulnerabilidad clínica, vulnerabilidad social y vulnerabilidad epidemiológica.

• La vulnerabilidad clínica está influida por características individuales (edad, problemas de salud crónicos, etc.) que conlleva una peor evolución de COVID-19.
• La vulnerabilidad social se relaciona con la inseguridad y la indefensión que experimentan algunas comunidades y familias en sus condiciones de vida y con su capacidad para manejar recursos y para movilizar estrategias de afrontamiento. La pandemia ha puesto de manifiesto el peso de los determinantes sociales de la salud, es decir, de las circunstancias en que las personas nacen, crecen, viven, trabajan y envejecen, incluido el sistema de salud.
• La vulnerabilidad epidemiológica es el mayor riesgo por una mayor exposición a la infección, retraso en el diagnóstico e identificación de contactos o mayor dificultad para seguir las medidas de aislamiento o cuarentena.

El documento destaca como determinantes sociales que influyen en la vulnerabilidad epidemiológica en la COVID-19: Empleo, vivienda, situación económica, entornos residenciales, sistema sanitario y socio sanitario, en la provisión de cuidados y, finalmente, por el estigma y discriminación hacia algunas poblaciones por motivos de identidad de género, orientación sexual, origen, clase social, etnia, dependencia a drogas o comorbilidades.

Voluntary health insurance in Europe

 Private Health Insurance and the European Union

These are the topics of this new book:

Introduction: The European Union, the Insurance Industry and the Public-Private Mix in Healthcare

Insurance Directives and the Single Market: Towards a Trivialisation of Private Health Insurance?

Solvency II, the European Government of Insurance Industry and Private Health Insurance

The Uncertain and Differentiated Impact of EU Law on National (Private) Health Insurance Regulations

An Increasing Homogenisation of Private Health Insurers Under Solvency II?

Private Health Insurance in Belgium: Marketization Crowded Out?

Europeanized, Marketized but Still Governed by the State? Private Health Insurance in France

Ireland: The Ambiguous Role of the Health Insurance Market

The Dutch Way: Experimenting with Competition in the Healthcare System

In Between the Market and Public Health Insurance: A Place for Occupational Welfare in Europe?

I specially recommend chapter 9 on The Netherlands. Too often I hear misguided claims over the dutch system. This book will help.

Vaccine equity

 From Vaccine Nationalism to Vaccine Equity — Finding a Path Forward

From NEJM: 

Vaccinating the world is not only a moral obligation to protect our neighbors, it also serves our self-interest by protecting our security, health, and economy. These goals will not be accomplished by making the world wait for wealthy countries to be vaccinated first. By investing in multilateral partnerships with a sense of shared commitment and employing a global allocation strategy that increases supply and manufacturing, we can meet the urgent challenge of Covid-19, while creating sustainable infrastructures and health systems for the future. Getting the world vaccinated may well be the critical test of our time.

 Anna Billing

CRISPR and the future of medicine

 130th Annual Shattuck Lecture (2020) - CRISPR: Rewriting DNA and the Future of Medicine

Great! A must watch!

Video with Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D., and Eric J. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D.

How does a pandemic end?

 The end of epidemics

How do we choose to do the right thing?

The Power of Ethics. How to Make Good Choices in a Complicated World

The message

Ethical decision-making tethers us to our humanity. I see ethical decision-making as perhaps the greatest human connector. It binds us in a common optimistic project of benefiting and protecting society and humanity. Of crafting great stories for ourselves and others. Of continuing to probe what it means to be human in a technology-infused world.

But ethics on the edge require using our power and voices, seizing responsibility, taking action, and committing to truth. We all can actively choose ethics, rather than passively let ethics happen (or not). We all can prioritize humans over machines. We all can make decisions reflecting to future generations what we will tolerate for ourselves and demand of our legacy—rather than submitting to whatever trajectory that morally questionable leaders, innovators, and rogue actors define. We all can seek solutions and not just point out where others have fallen short.

The summary,

Four easily recallable steps, and the questions derived from these four words, will keep us focused: principles, information, stakeholders, and consequences.

Question #1: What are my guiding principles?

Who are you, as an individual or an organization? What do you stand for?

Question #2: Do I have the information I need to make this decision?

And what important information lies in the gap between the information you should know and the information you can know?

Question #3: Who or what stakeholders matter to my decision?

Who or what could influence, or be affected by, your decision?

Question #4: What are the potential consequences of my decision in the short, medium, and long term?

Have you considered the immediate and future impact of your decision at the time of the decision?

The book

and a video,

 

A better public health after COVID-19

 ¿ Será mejor la salud pública tras la COVID-19?

A must read op-ed.

La COVID-19 nos ha cuestionado sobre múltiples aspectos relacionados con la toma de decisiones en salud pública, desde la comunicación en salud hasta las bases jurídicas de las medidas de prevención, pasando por la monitorización de las conductas relacionadas con la infección o la aplicación de los modelos epidemiológicos.

 

 

Covid and social perspectives

 THE COVID-19 CRISIS. Social Perspectives

In Chapter 13

13 Post-pandemic Routes in the Context of Latin Countries: The Impact of COVID-19 in Italy and Spain by Anna Sendra, Jordi Farré, Alessandro Lovari and Linda Lombi

In terms of health and risk communication, the COVID crisis has emphasised the lack of specific training in crisis and emergency communication of many public sector organisations, including health institutions. This first social media pandemic has been a major challenge for health communicators; individuals often failed in effectively communicating data and numbers to counteract the infodemic and thus reduce the impact of false narratives. With the increasing diversification of social media platforms, ‘individuals’ health […] will be shaped by a multitude of social forces, each of which can mediate different kinds of health contagion processes’ (Zhang and Centola, 2019). Mitigating the spread of fake news seems to involve coordinated efforts between authorities, mass media and digital companies, but it also appears crucial to invest in education and digital literacy for developing a critical awareness of the use of digital technologies that could be useful for facing future health crises. In other words, the strengthening of comprehensive population-centred responses lies on finding answers concerning how the mechanisms of public concern will operate to engage in coherent protection rules or in what ways the forms of interaction will change

Outline of the book:

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 COVID Society: Introduction to the Book

Deborah Lupton and Karen Willis

2. Contextualising COVID-19: Sociocultural Perspectives on Contagion

Deborah Lupton

PART II: SPACE, THE BODY AND MOBILITIES

3. Moving Target, Moving Parts: The Multiple Mobilities of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nicola Burns, Luca Follis, Karolina Follis and Janine Morley

4. Physical Activity and Bodily Boundaries in Times of Pandemic

Holly Thorpe, Julie Brice and Marianne Clark

5. City Flows During Pandemics: Zooming in on Windows

Oimpia Mosteanu

6. The Politics of Touch-Based Help for Visually Impaired Persons During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Autoethnographic Account

Hidi Lourens

PART III: INTIMACIES, SOCIALITIES AND CONNECTIONS

7. #DatingWhileDistancing: Dating Apps as Digital Health Technologies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

David Myles, Stefanie Duguay and Christopher Dietzel

8. ‘Unhome’ Sweet Home: The Construction of New Normalities in Italy During COVID-19

Veronica Moretti and Antonio Maturo

9. Queer and Crip Temporalities During COVID-19: Sexual Practices, Risk and Responsibility

Ryan Thorneycroft and Lucy Nicholas

10. Isol-AID, Art and Wellbeing: Posthuman Community Amid COVID-19

Marissa Willcox, Anna Hickey-Moody and Anne M. Harris

PART IV: HEALTHCARE PRACTICES AND SYSTEMS

11. Strange Times in Ireland: Death and the Meaning of Loss Under COVID-19

Jo Murphy-Lawless

12. Between an Ethics of Care and Scientific Uncertainty: Dilemmas of General Practitioners in Marseille

Romain Lutaud, Jeremy K. Ward, Gaëtan Gentile and Pierre Verger

13 Post-pandemic Routes in the Context of Latin Countries: The Impact of COVID-19 in Italy and Spain

Anna Sendra, Jordi Farré, Alessandro Lovari and Linda Lombi

14. Risky Work: Providing Healthcare in the Age of COVID-19

Karen Willis and Natasha Smallwood

PART V: MARGINALISATION AND DISCRIMINATION

15. The Plight of the Parent-Citizen? Examples of Resisting (Self-)Responsibilisation and Stigmatisation by Dutch Muslim Parents and Organisations During the COVID-19 Crisis

Alex Schenkels, Sakina Loukili and Paul Mutsaers

16. Anti-Asian Racism, Xenophobia and Asian American Health During COVID-19

Aggie J. Yellow Horse

17. Ageism and Risk During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Peta S. Cook, Cassie Curryer, Susan Banks, Barbara Barbosa Neves, Maho Omori, Annetta H. Mallon and Jack Lam

The world (dis)order after COVID-19

 COVID-19 AND WORLD ORDER. THE FUTURE OF CONFLICT, COMPETITION, AND COOPERATION

A free book of interest:

Part I. Applied History and Future Scenarios

Chapter 1. Ends of Epidemics

Jeremy A. Greene and Dora Vargha

Chapter 2. The World after COVID: A Perspective from History

Margaret MacMillan

Chapter 3. Future Scenarios: "We are all failed states, now"

Philip Bobbitt

Part II. Global Public Health and Mitigation Strategies

Chapter 4. Make Pandemics Lose Their Power

Tom Inglesby

Chapter 5. Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Path Forward: A Global Public Health Policy Perspective

Lainie Rutkow

Chapter 6. Bioethics in a Post-COVID World: Time for Future-Facing Global Health Ethics

Jeffrey P. Kahn, Anna C. Mastroianni, and Sridhar Venkatapuram

Part III. Transnational Issues: Technology, Climate, and Food

Chapter 7. Global Climate and Energy Policy after the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Tug-of-War between Markets and Politics

Johannes Urpelainen

Chapter 8. No Food Security, No World Order

Jessica Fanzo

Chapter 9. Flat No Longer: Technology in the Post-COVID World

Christine Fox and Thayer Scott

Part IV. The Future of the Global Economy

Chapter 10. Models for a Post-COVID US Foreign Economic Policy

Benn Steil

Chapter 11. Prospects for the United States' Post-COVID-19 Policies: Strengthening the G20 Leaders Process

John Lipsky

Part V. Global Politics and Governance

Chapter 12. When the World Stumbled: COVID-19 and the Failure of the International System

Anne Applebaum

Chapter 13. Public Governance and Global Politics after COVID-19

Henry Farrell and Hahrie Han

Chapter 14. Take It Off-Site: World Order and International Institutions after COVID-19

Janice Gross Stein

Chapter 15. A "Good Enough" World Order: A Gardener's Manual

James B. Steinberg

Part VI. Grand Strategy and American Statecraft

Chapter 16. Maybe It Won't Be So Bad: A Modestly Optimistic Take on COVID and World Order

Hal Brands, Peter Feaver, and William Inboden

Chapter 17. COVID-19's Impact on Great-Power Competition

Thomas Wright

Chapter 18. Building a More Globalized Order

Kori Schake

Chapter 19. Could the Pandemic Reshape World Order, American Security, and National Defense?

Kathleen H. Hicks

Part VII. Sino-American Rivalry

Chapter 20. The United States, China, and the Great Values Game

Elizabeth Economy

Chapter 21. The US-China Relationship after Coronavirus: Clues from History

Graham Allison

Chapter 22. Building a New Technological Relationship and Rivalry: US-China Relations in the Aftermath of COVID

Eric Schmidt

Chapter 23. From COVID War to Cold War: The New Three-Body Problem

Niall Ferguson

Vaccine diplomacy

 PREVENTING THE NEXT PANDEMIC. Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science

Throughout modern history, vaccines have surpassed all other biotechnologies in terms of their impact on global public health. Because of vaccines, smallpox was eradicated, and polio has been driven to near global elimination, while measles deaths have declined more than 90%, and Haemophilus influenzae type b meningitis is now a disease of the past in the United States and elsewhere.

I define one part of vaccine diplomacy as a subset or specific aspect of global health diplomacy in which large-scale vaccine delivery is employed as a humanitarian intervention, often led by one or more of the UN agencies, most notably Gavi, UNICEF, and WHO, or potentially a nongovernmental development organization

 Do vaccines really deserve their own designation for a special type of diplomacy? Yes, I believe so, especially when we consider that between the past century and this one vaccines have saved hundreds of millions of lives [2]. In this sense, the technology of vaccines and their widespread delivery represent our most potent counterforce to war and political instability in modern times. Vaccines represent not only life-saving technologies and unparalleled instruments for reducing human suffering, but they also serve as potent vehicles for promoting international peace and prosperity. They are humankind’s single greatest invention.

The greater issue is that in each of these four cases—smallpox, polio, Ebola, and COVID-19—the global health community had to respond to a crisis and scramble to rapidly develop, test, license, and distribute these vaccines. Could we also implement an anticipatory system in which nations prioritize vaccine diplomacy and routinely employ it to improve international relations? The Global Health Security Agenda does not currently emphasize vaccine development, although new organizations like CEPI and start-up innovation funds from the Japanese and South Korean governments represent promising steps toward global vaccine diplomacy. I am an enthusiastic champion of their efforts. However, I also believe that an opportunity exists for a more comprehensive effort to tackle the world’s most prevalent poverty-related neglected diseases while simultaneously expanding international scientific cooperation as a core element.

The answer might be found somewhere in the G20...