Throughout the pandemic, much discussion about COVID-19 transmission focused on individual-level decisions, making it easy to blame the unvaccinated.
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Systemic social issues affect vaccine access and acceptability. Yet, the term ‘vaccine hesitancy’ overlooks this, reducing the multiple factors that affect vaccine uptake to individual-level choices.
Time is running out to expand an agreement to relax patent rules on COVID vaccines. Members of the World Trade Organization should broaden its scope to treatments and tests.
If we want people with complex care needs to prioritise their health, cutting patient fees, providing flexible hours and paying attention to their social circumstances would be a good start.
Children and youth in care often have complex health and social issues, but they often struggle to access comprehensive health care.
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Children and youth in care are more likely to have experienced trauma that can affect future health. A comprehensive, trauma-informed health strategy for these children and youth is long overdue.
Tooth decay can cause pain, embarrassment, missed school and more.
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Appalachia has one of the highest rates of oral health problems per person in the US.
Creating a safe space for patients to ask questions and provide fully informed consent could help increase clinical trial recruitment.
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Overcoming the access barriers and biases that underrepresented and underserved communities face could not only improve research participation but also improve care.
Clive Aspin, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
The omission of growing evidence that Māori, and Māori women in particular, have worse health outcomes after HIV infection could derail New Zealand’s elimination plans and exacerbate disparities.
Physical activity can be an important tool for recovery from the collective trauma experienced and exacerbated throughout the pandemic.
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During spring and summer, as more people consider exercising outdoors, a trauma- and violence-informed approach to physical activity can help ensure equity, inclusion, safety and access.
Who gets to flourish and who doesn’t?
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For people who struggle to meet their basic needs, it will take a lot more than simple psychological exercises to flourish. It will take systemic change.
On the surface, sober months like Dry January and Dry February are great. But we need to broaden the discussion around how privilege and policy impact one’s relationship with alcohol and other drugs.
Kigali, Rwanda: In Rwanda there are various positions and groups that are responsible for aspects of governance and decision-making.
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Governance structures that provide opportunities for people to contribute to decision-making would also enhance people’s abilities to control important factors in their life.
Differences in the social conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work can lead to health disparities.
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Vaccines and medical treatments can only go so far in an unequal society. Facing the ongoing history of racial discrimination and bias in the US would help end the pandemic.
When Black patients are treated by Black doctors, they have better health outcomes – but fewer than 6 in 100 American doctors are Black.
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Black American women have disproportionate HIV infection rates – in part because of systemic and structural racism in the health care system.
Dental decay is the most common non-communicable disease globally, but treating it is not part of our public health-care system.
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Dougal Sutherland, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Lockdowns can exacerbate existing mental illness, but people without a history of mental illness can also find themselves feeling low, unmotivated and lacking a sense of purpose.
Amid growing COVID-19 transmission, hospitalization and death rates, mask mandates are returning in some states.
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After the CDC changed course in late July, recommending universal masking indoors, Nevada became the first state to adopt a flexible masking policy that can quickly adjust to changing COVID-19 rates.
For many people, park and playground closures during COVID-19 meant having even fewer exercise options.
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Socio-economic factors are major barriers to physical activity. New research suggests this is one more reason why disadvantaged people were at increased risk for COVID-19.
With many vaccine-eligible people in the U.S. staying away, some vaccine sites have no lines.
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People who haven’t gotten vaccinated for COVID-19 often have complex reasons for their relunctance or may face other barriers. Lumping them all together undercuts the vaccination campaign.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University