7 days in healthcare (February 14-20, 2022)

SUMMARY

In biomedicine, we have to highlight the studies that are confirming a modest association between an increased incidence of mental illness after COVID.

As far as Global Health is concerned, mention should be made of the book by Ed Miliband, a British parliamentarian, former leader of the Labor Party and minister with Gordon Brown, which amounts to a manifesto on public health in the wider sense, which, at the moment, is already beginning to be a literary genre, among which the books by Gordon Brown, Minouche Shafik, Fareed Zakaria and, soon, Bill Gates stand out.

Regarding international health policy, verifying that the calculation of excess mortality is the best way to assess mortality from COVID. The problem is that this may be valid for Europe and the Americas, but not for Asia and Africa, where the low mortality figures are hardly credible. Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister, asks the G20 for a global financial solution to tackle the pandemic, similar to what was done in the 1960s with smallpox. The Economist highlights Africa’s low capacity for vaccine production, in contrast to its large population.

Regarding the national health policy, the first thing to mention is the drop in the incidence of COVID, which last Friday reached 919 per 100,000 inhabitants, which is compatible with the fact that mortality skyrockets in the sixth wave and there is a delay in receiving the new antivirals. The government approves the Science Law project, with controversial elements among researchers. The massive retirement of professionals (including doctors) is probably the most far-reaching problem of the SNS. The SEOM (Spanish Society of Medical Oncology) denounces the lack of equity in access to drugs and markers.

In business news, we must mention the FENIN declaration in favor of the manufacture of medical technology in Spain, to avoid dependency in the event of pandemics; also that the fifth vaccine approved in Europe (NOVAVAX) receives authorization to be manufactured in Galicia (Porriño); Rovi extends its alliance with Moderna for the manufacture of vaccines for ten years.

BIOMEDICINE

Risk of mental illness after covid: published reports show a persistent but modest association between COVID and increased incidence of psychiatric disorders (https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o326)
A woman is cured of HIV using a treatment (umbilical cell transplant). There are almost 38 million people in the world living with HIV (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/health/hiv-cure-cord-blood.html)

GLOBAL HEALTH

United Nations sanctions as hardship for humanitarian aid (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00307-5/fulltext?rss=yes)
A manifesto on public health: Go Big: 20 bold solutions to fix our world, by Ed Miliband, addresses issues such as climate change, safe biotechnology, threats to democracies, population ageing, falling fertility, etc. (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00273-2/fulltext)

INTERNATIONAL HEALTH POLICY

Biden extends the national emergency due to the pandemic, which was declared in March 2020 (https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/19/world/covid-19-tests-cases-vaccine)
Excess mortality, the best way to assess COVID mortality. The problem is that there is only reliable data collection in Europe and the Americas, but not in Africa or Asia. According to that, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Portugal have the highest excess deaths according to their population (https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker)
Covid in Europe: challenges in addressing vaccine skepticism (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00150-7/fulltext)
A tool to predict the severity of individual covid cases is analyzed (https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o354)
NHS leaders warn of premature relaxation of measures (https://www.ft.com/content/25467fcf-c73f-461a-b64d-51585914b14e)
In Canada, truckers’ protests against compulsory vaccination, in force in that country, are creating problems for the Trudeau government (https://www.economist.com/leaders/justin-trudeaus-crackdown-on-protests-could -make-things-worse/21807707)
Gordon Brown says that the G20 finance ministers must take a joint approach to the pandemic, similar to what was done in the 1960s with smallpox (https://www.ft.com/content/36903dc7-4064- 4daf-8a50-c56254c14abc)
César Nombela’s article on the fallacy of death figures in COVID, the low mortality figures in Africa and China are hard to believe (https://www.abc.es/sociedad/abci-cesar-nombela-mortalidad-covid -202202140137_news.html)
Threats of greater intervention in Hong Kong, given the growth in cases (https://www.ft.com/content/ced5ff02-6999-44e6-b9c9-611c17ebf6bc)
To build a vaccine industry, Africa must have the private sector. Africa has 17% of the population but only 1% of the vaccine production capacity (https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/02/19/to-build-a-vaccine-industry-africa -must-embrace-the-private-sector)
Japan, willing to relax border control measures. after two years of seclusion (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/17/japan-to-ease-covid-border-controls-after-two-years)