Avoiding the blame game: Reframing conversations on racialised health inequalities
Conversations about the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 felt by racially minoritised communities in the UK have also highlighted the pervasive and longstanding health inequalities they experience. Reports on COVID-19 by Public Health England and Independent SAGE highlight increased risk of exposure...
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Gallery
What we have seen COVID Vaccine Centre Cinemas are places of collective joy, of a community of strangers coming together to enjoy the spectacle. It’s so sad when they shut. Quaintly old school message! Dogs hate lockdown as well Even...
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Gallery
What we have seen Poster in public toilet – there’s nothing that says “Christmas” like anti-terrorist vigilance! Nice to worry about something else for a change, I suppose. Government messages about COVID getting more and more confusing N22 Lockdown: Faith,...
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Beyond the academy: democratising user involvement in health & social care
This is a post about user involvement in the context of UK university research. All UK universities are currently finalising and submitting their impact case studies for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The REF is “the UK’s system for...
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Domestic violence, homelessness & safe housing in the wake of COVID
Shelter, homelessness and public health As coronavirus took hold earlier this year, states across the world began to lockdown. We were told at various points, across multiple geographies, to protect ourselves and others by staying at home and practising physical...
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Foreign aid during COVID: Whose suffering matters to Rishi Sunak?
A billion-pound cut from the UK’s international development budget in his new spending review, reducing aid down from 0.7% to 0.5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) because of the COVID pandemic is both short-sighted and ill-advised.
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The Worst of 2020 – The Year of COVID-19
The year 2020 has been pretty wild. After the Tory landslide victory in the 2019 general election, we knew that 2020 would be bad, but little did we know how bad. In January the first reports began to circulate of...
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Tiers of a clown…
This week I’ve been trying to make sense of the supposed Tory party backbench revolt on the new three-tier system introduced in England after lockdown two. Reports tell us that 55 Tory MPs voted against the government and a further...
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Gallery (with a substantial meal special)
What is a Substantial Meal? As lockdown 2 ends in England, many places will be moving into Tier 2 restrictions, where one can only purchase a drink if you also purchase a ‘substantial meal’. This has led the editors of...
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Antibiotics: Handle with Care
At around 7 o’clock on Friday last week, the third day of World Anti-Microbial Awareness Week, I went downstairs and put a tray of oil in the oven to heat up while I showered, ready for the chips I planned...
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Laurel and Hardy vs the anti-vaxxers and vaccines
“People who spread myths about the harms of vaccines have ‘blood on their hands’”. These words came from the Health Secretary Matt Hancock little more than 18 months ago in an article in which he said that he refused to...
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Sociology and COVID