“Pandemic profits are so immense that billionaires could provide a $3,000 Covid stimulus payment to every man, woman & child in the US & still be richer than they were 9 months ago.”
📍Personal news📍I’m excited to be joining The BMJ as International Editor❗️
20 years after starting my editorial career
@bmj_latest
I am returning to help deliver its ambitious & vital global vision to improve the health and wellbeing (& equity) of people and the planet 🌐🔹🎯
@paimadhu
Let me wash that out for ya 📢
“There cannot be excellence without equity”
“There cannot be excellence without equity”
“There cannot be excellence without equity”
“There cannot be excellence without equity”
6 months to the day that I wrote our lead
@TheLancet
editorial on a mysterious new pneumonia-like outbreak drafting it in 3 hours instead of the usual 3 days. Colleagues gave input in 1 h instead of 24 h. 6 months for the world to change forever.
#writing
“The default health worker is a woman so it is right that we take time to recognize and applaud the work of women. It is my intention that we will care for you as you have cared for us.”
@DrTedros
,
@WHO
at the
#HeroinesofHealth
award gala
@paimadhu
On the myth of meritocracy
“underlying biases are causing current systems to bypass highly capable women & other minority groups. We are drawing heterosexual, white men from much further down the distribution of talent than for other social categories.”
Today we publish a piece calling 4 more balanced representation in
@TheLancet
Commissions. Transparency & publication of external 'audits' is part of our
#DiversityandInclusion
#LancetWomen
commitments. We promised to track progress & improve!
More than 50% women 🙌🏼 incredible effort & positive change by chief Editors of all 18 Lancet journals👇🏼 Let’s start a trend for other journals
@choo_ek
@reshmajagsi
@JulieSilverMD
We are delighted to announce that in January 2020, our editorial advisory boards now comprise 50.6% women overall (range 35% to 63%). Across 19 journals, 16 have more than 50% women members.
1 week to go
#LancetCanada
- our 1st-ever
@TheLancet
series on Canada's health system and global health leadership: its legacy, the future, and the responsibilities of Canada in an uncertain world. Hot off the printing press, this will land online Feb 23.
What distinguishes this new
#remdesivir
trial in
@TheLancet
is that it was:
1. Peer-reviewed & professionally edited
2. Done by scientists w/o financial or other links to the drug's manufacturer, Gilead
3. Was "well conducted w/ high protocol adherence & no loss to followup"..
NEW Research—First randomised trial of
#remdesivir
for hospitalised patients who are critically ill with
#COVID19
suggests antiviral drug is not associated with significant clinical benefits vs placebo: study of 237 adults from 10 hospitals in Wuhan (1/5)
The
#LancetWomen
theme issue is live Feb 7 at 23.30 UK time. All content will be freely available (with registration) at & the livestreams for London (Fri Feb 8) & NYC (Mon Feb 11) launch events are at our
#LancetWomen
landing page:
Thrilled & honoured to have been inducted as a fellow of Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, joining the company of extraordinary scholars & leaders in service of 🇨🇦 🌎
Dear journal editors, media, conference organisers, government or anyone else looking to diversify your networks - this List of women experts in
#globalhealth
is for you. Pls share and utilise us!
#CWIGH
#FCSM
#nomoremanels
How is it that America’s preeminent medical journal does an otherwise amazing thing like publish 11 new pieces on the devastation of gun violence & not once mention the role and horror of the NRA fuelling such a public health crisis??
#FirearmViolence
in the US is an unrelenting concern of major proportion. This issue of JAMA includes 11 scholarly Viewpoints that provide state-of-the-science information about a wide range of issues related to firearms and violence in the US.
🧵 Proud of Decolonising Health & Medicine project
@bmj_latest
and my team & co for the hard work + self-reflection that equity movements ask of us.
🌐 Open to all feedback but I won’t waver from the belief that you can’t be a journal or editor in international health without:
Time flies! 3⃣ yrs since inception &
#LancetWomen
work continues
In 2018, our editorial advisory boards = 30% women (range 6% - 45%)
0 had more women than men
1/2 had < 30% women
In 2019 we reached gender parity. Today, 53% of 712 board members for our 23 journals are women
2 years ago, we published a special theme issue,
#LancetWomen
, highlighting how gender bias has stalled women’s advancement in science, medicine, and🌎health. Today, we highlight key milestones and reinforce our commitment to
#genderequality
.
Lovely & inspiring as always to talk shop with
@paimadhu
who’s admired in 🇨🇦 🇬🇧 🌎 for his global health advocacy & making us editors better at allyship 🙏 ☀️
This is it. Clear, cogent thinking about a way out of this
#COVID
-19
#mustread
: "The lockdown only buys us time: to really defeat the virus we need mass testing now" via
@DeviSridhar
I am glad to see the
#UnitedKingdom
🇬🇧 increasing their testing capacity significantly. Testing is key to identify where the virus is coming from and to defeat it. Together, my friend
@MattHancock
!
#COVID19
Today we publish a new
#LancetWomen
collection of content, including an external assessment of
#author
#gender
in our Lancet journals Register for monthly updates in the lead up to our theme issue
An update on
@TheLancet
’s planned theme issue on women in science, medicine, and global health. Since the Mar 1 deadline we have been busy reading! We got an overwhelming response – nearly 300 submissions – about 3 times what we expected. THANK YOU
#LancetWomen
1 month to go: We are delighted to announce our
#LancetWomen
theme issue will publish on Friday February 8. Sign up for updates & read the collection so far
#womeninSTEM
#WomeninGH
Our female reviewers have gone from 22% to 28% in the last year - the right direction of travel, with more commitment to diversity to come.
#LancetWomen
#genderequity
Our words of appreciation in this week's issue
@TheLancet
:
I'd prefer we compared leadership styles rather than risk essentialism. But in this case it does seem women heads of state delivered better & more effective
#COVID19
leadership than men.
Female-led countries handled coronavirus better, says new study
The
#LancetWomen
monthly missive is here! If you're not yet on our list, visit to subscribe. And while you're there check out our new
@TheLancet
content this month + an introduction to our Advisory Group members.
@MarinaPurkiss
Imagine how free from accountability you feel to be comfortable knowing you are vulnerable to being compromised for borrowing the £800k…
I’ll keep on shouting about the centrality of gender to
#COVID
-19 until it becomes central to the global response 📣 —> Women 'put careers on hold' to home school during lockdown
#genderequity
#globaldev
A delight (& rare privilege) to have my work on how women’s expertise was invisibilised during covid19 featured on cover of this week’s
@bmj_latest
❗️
The team commissioned cover art from a women illustrator, the sensational Raphaelle Martin ❗️
We continue to have a fantastic response to our
#LancetWomen
theme issue. In today's issue we publish 3 new letters, the first batch in a bunch more to come. Thank you to all correspondents! See also
“The world order has utterly failed civilians, health professionals & humanitarian workers”
NEW Editorr’s Choice
@KamranAbbasi
@bmj_latest
The BMJ
“Change is inevitable. It’s how we get there that matters.”
My profile of
@AlikaMD
for
@TheLancet
Alika Lafontaine: Indigenous and Canadian change maker
NEW The BMJ publishes 3 commentaries that reflect on the landmark
@Economy4Health
@WHO
report and what it will take to reimagine economies to drive global equity & planetary health
1/ from
@mazzucatoM
summarises Council work
“He will reach out to Tony Fauci. He will declare his intent to be an active participant in
@WHO
& in the world. And I believe that in very short order, he’ll be in touch with governors & mayors around the country, listening to what they’ll need to pivot this response.”
#covid19
BREAKING: Biden's top health advisers say he’s already preparing an unprecedented, mid-pandemic transition of power that aims to reboot the federal government’s Covid-19 response.
When you consider gender equality in leadership, it opens you to seeing
📍the value of diversity in perspectives
📌 the importance of inclusion of ideas
📍the bias in our systems & status quo that limits progress on the health equity we seek.
So what are you waiting for
#WHA75
?
Why is
#genderequity
in publishing so key?
Publications ➕citations 🟰recognition, visibility & credit that compounds massively 📈
Of the 45 most prolific covid authors (each with >60 papers in the first 18 months alone) just 5 (11%) are women ❕
More 👇
Yes you read that correctly - India sent Canada 500K vaccine doses back in March when Canada asked. And now Canada is letting thousands++ of vaccine expire when Indians are in crisis and IN NEED. This is APPALLING. I am not OK with this, either.
Thousands of Astra-Zeneca doses are about to expire this weekend in Ontario, while thousands of Indians are dying each day, without access to vaccination. 500K more Indians would have been vaccinated had they not sent Canada those doses in our time of need. I am not OK with this.
Oh good god this thread is golden.
#manels
#mapers
#mantoring
. Welcome to gender bias in academia (and publishing). Thank you
@choo_ek
for letting us laugh so we don’t cry.
#ICYMI
The
@TheLancet
editors explain our rationale, plans and progress on gender & diversity in this new commentary. Pls RT, share and send your FEEDBACK / we want to hear from readers 👉🏼
#LancetWomen
Oh the paternalism and arrogance and dismissiveness of "there's only so many (safe) vaccine factories in the world" nonsense - breathtaking. Glad it's caught on tape.
#VaccinEquity
Unbelievable: Bill Gates says vaccine formulas shouldn’t be shared with developing world. Surprised with the muted response from otherwise very vocal
#globalhealth
Twitter. How can you call for vaccine equity and have no reaction to this?
Women & Girls:
-Bear the greatest burden of nearly every disease & disaster
-Represent the majority of health workers & caretakers
-Have the right to a seat at the decision-making table
Demand
#genderequality
in
#globalhealth
leadership at
#WLGH2020
.
Delighted to 🚀 NEW podcast & series in The BMJ:
📌what next for decolonising health & medicine?
❓whose perspectives are missing from the agenda?
📢how should institutions change?
👇why are colonial histories so key to present health inequities?
"Structural racism influences the data science workforce & the hierarchies within it, the datasets collected & who is represented within them & the research questions pursued and prioritised."
Challenging racism in the use of health data
BREAKING GOOD NEWS ALERT:
New Zealand has announced it no longer has any patients in hospital being treated for coronavirus.
It comes on the fifth straight day where no new cases have been reported.
This is what winning looks like.
🇳🇿
If you haven’t fulfilled your promises to COVAX, now’s the time.
If you haven’t delivered on promises of global health solidarity, now’s the time.
If you have yet to realise the pandemic is not over until everyone in the world is protected, now’s the time.
We’ve come a long way since December 14th, 2020, when the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines were being administered. Now, more than 63 million have been administered. To everyone who’s been a part of that, thank you. And if you haven’t gotten your shots yet, now’s the time.
Disappointing behaviour from PMAC which "strives to create a fairer & more equitable world"
And - "The BMJ was also removed from IOC and is no longer welcome at the conference"
Censorship of grassroots voices at
#GlobalHealth
conference raises concerns
Here we introduce 7 new articles examining Canada’s
#covid19
response & call for a national covid inquiry
"Canadians delivered on the pandemic response while its governments faltered" ✍️
This is heartbreaking and infuriating. Total failure of state leadership and foresight. Once again, the charity sector and goodwill of community members forced to step up to help. 💔 🇬🇧
Dreadful, incomprehensible scenes at Dover. These poor lorry drivers left stranded, probably unable to get home for Xmas, without basics like enough loos, washing facilities & food, & insult to injury added by the lack of translators to explain what’s happening. It’s indecent.
Rush of submissions from non-🇺🇦 HIC folks on 🇺🇦 situation. Yes there's relevant expertise outside the region. But as an editor I'm uncomfortable.
Like COVID &
#DecolonizeGH
etc, it's HIC writers with the time, resources & chutzpah to go outside their lane & speak for others.
📢🌐🇨🇦 The whole NEW
@bmj_latest
Series on Canada’s
#covid19
response is freely available here
Read & share articles by experts & let us know what you think - will Canada get its needed national covid inquiry?
#cdnhealth
#cdnpoli
#healthequity
“A renewed commitment + concrete steps are needed by non-Indigenous leaders & allies to support decolonising work so that it does not fall solely upon First Nations, Inuit + Métis peoples.”
Important new piece
@TheLancet
by
@RicharLisa
@drandrewb
"The scenes of suffering in India are hard to comprehend." And difficult to feel helpless as friends, colleagues, a nation are besieged. Here's our small contribution of solidarity and call to act.
India's COVID-19 emergency