Politicians must justify for mishandling COVID-19 pandemic, argues senior editor
Politicians around the world must be held to account for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic, argues a senior editor at
The BMJ today.
Executive Editor, Dr Kamran Abbasi, argues that at the very least, COVID-19 might be classified as social murder that requires redress.
Today social murder may describe a lack of political attention to the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age that exacerbates the pandemic.
When politicians and experts say that they are willing to allow tens of thousands of premature deaths, for the sake of population immunity or in the hope of propping up the economy, is that not premeditated and reckless indifference to human life, he asks?
4 February 2021By AFP
1 min 33Approximate reading time Politicians around the world must be held accountable for the “social murder” inflicted on populations by their mishandling of the pandemic, the executive editor of the BMJ medical journal said Thursday. With more than two million deaths from Covid-19 so far the majority in richer, developed nations in Europe and the Americas Kamran Abbasi argued that world leaders had ensured needless death and suffering through a string of policy missteps. “Politicians must be held to account by legal and electoral means, indeed by any national and international constitutional means necessary,” the British Medical Journal’s top editor said.
Treat pandemics as a matter of national security , experts urge UK After losing more than 100,000 people so far the public will want to know, in the future, is the system fit for purpose?
4 February 2021 • 5:37pm
Credit: Heathcliff O Malley
Governments must treat health system resilience as a “matter of national security”, with annual assessments of pandemic preparedness.
The G20 Health and Development Partnership (HDP), a coalition of businesses, charities and academics, called for the creation of a body similar to the Office for Budget Responsibility that would be independent from government and have the power to scrutinise health security.
Speaking to the
HOUSTON
At the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, approximately 80 military medical personnel from across the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force, will deploy to Texas as part of a Department of Defense COVID-19 response operation. U.S. Army North (ARNORTH), the Joint Force Land Component Command (JFLCC) of U.S Northern Command, will oversee the military COVID-19 response in support of federal efforts and the state.
âThis is the fourth time Department of Defense medical assets have deployed to support our home state,â said Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson, ARNORTH and JFLCC commander. âWhile COVID-19 continues to challenge communities here and across the U.S., we remain steadfast in our support of our local, state and federal partners.â