tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/swansea-university-2638/articlesSwansea University2024-03-11T15:54:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2249912024-03-11T15:54:23Z2024-03-11T15:54:23ZAs the pandemic turns four, here’s what we need to do for a healthier future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580827/original/file-20240310-18-cn2r0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C1%2C994%2C657&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-10th-april-2021-national-1955091298">John Gomez/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anniversaries are usually festive occasions, marked by celebration and joy. But there’ll be no popping of corks for this one. </p>
<p>March 11 2024 marks four years since the World Health Organization (WHO) <a href="https://www.who.int/europe/emergencies/situations/covid-19">declared COVID-19</a> a pandemic. </p>
<p>Although <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-is-officially-no-longer-a-global-health-emergency-heres-what-that-means-and-what-weve-learned-along-the-way-205080">no longer</a> officially a public <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/covid-19-public-health-emergency-of-international-concern-(pheic)-global-research-and-innovation-forum">health emergency</a> of international concern, the pandemic is <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rampant-covid-poses-new-challenges-in-the-fifth-year-of-the-pandemic/">still with us</a>, and the <a href="https://www.bu.edu/articles/2024/is-covid-19-still-a-pandemic/">virus is still</a> causing serious harm. </p>
<p>Here are three priorities – three Cs – for a healthier future.</p>
<h2>Clear guidance</h2>
<p>Over the past four years, one of the biggest challenges people faced when trying to follow COVID rules was understanding them. </p>
<p>From a behavioural science perspective, one of the major themes of the last four years has been whether guidance was clear enough or whether people were receiving too many different and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59920485">confusing</a> messages – something colleagues and I called <a href="https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/02/19/the-public-arent-complacent-they-are-confused-how-the-uk-government-has-created-alert-fatigue/">“alert fatigue”</a>.</p>
<p>With colleagues, I conducted an <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2023.0129">evidence review</a> of communication during COVID and found that the lack of clarity, as well as a lack of trust in those setting rules, were key barriers to adherence to measures like social distancing. </p>
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<p>In future, whether it’s another COVID wave, or another virus or public health emergency, clear communication by trustworthy messengers is going to be key.</p>
<h2>Combat complacency</h2>
<p>As Maria van Kerkove, COVID technical lead for WHO, puts it there is no <a href="https://x.com/mvankerkhove/status/1741384947892441165?s=20">acceptable level of death</a> from COVID. <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-barely-gets-a-mention-these-days-heres-why-thats-a-dangerous-situation-220867">COVID complacency</a> is setting in as we have moved out of the emergency phase of the pandemic. But is still much work to be done. </p>
<p>First, we still need to understand this virus better. Four years is not a long time to understand the longer-term effects of COVID. For example, evidence on how the virus affects the <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-075387">brain</a> and <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2311330">cognitive functioning</a> is in its infancy. </p>
<p>The extent, severity and possible treatment of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00846-2">long COVID</a> is another priority that must not be forgotten – not least because it is still causing a lot of long-term <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tens-of-thousands-out-of-work-due-to-long-covid-sndcrpsjx">sickness and absence</a>.</p>
<h2>Culture change</h2>
<p>During the pandemic’s first few years, there was a question over how many of our new habits, from elbow bumping (remember that?) to remote working, were <a href="https://theconversation.com/two-years-into-the-pandemic-which-of-our-newly-formed-habits-are-here-to-stay-178204">here to stay</a>. </p>
<p>Turns out old habits die hard – and in most cases that’s not a bad thing – after all <a href="https://theconversation.com/handshakes-and-hugs-are-good-for-you-its-vital-they-make-a-comeback-after-the-pandemic-158174">handshaking and hugging</a> can be good for our health.</p>
<p>But there is some pandemic behaviour we could have kept, under certain conditions. I’m pretty sure most people don’t wear masks when they have respiratory symptoms, even though some health authorities, such as the <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/covid-19/how-to-avoid-catching-and-spreading-covid-19/">NHS</a>, recommend it. </p>
<p>Masks could still be thought of like <a href="https://theconversation.com/living-with-covid-how-treating-masks-like-umbrellas-could-help-us-weather-future-pandemic-threats-187377">umbrellas</a>: we keep one handy for when we need it, for example, when visiting vulnerable people, especially during times when there’s a spike in COVID.</p>
<p>If masks hadn’t been so politicised as a symbol of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/29/face-masks-us-politics-coronavirus">conformity and oppression</a> so early in the pandemic, then we might arguably have seen people in more countries adopting the behaviour in parts of east Asia, where people <a href="https://theworld.org/stories/2023-03-07/three-years-pandemic-mask-usage-varies-country-country">continue to wear masks or face coverings</a> when they are sick to avoid spreading it to others. </p>
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<p>Although the pandemic led to the growth of remote or hybrid working, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.748053/full">presenteeism</a> – going to work when sick – is still a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.854976/full">major issue</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-68006813">Encouraging parents</a> to send children to school when they are unwell is unlikely to help public health, or attendance for that matter. For instance, although one child might recover quickly from a given virus, other children who might catch it from them might be ill for days.</p>
<p>Similarly, a culture of presenteeism that pressures workers to come in when ill is likely to backfire later on, helping <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7138-x">infectious disease</a> spread in workplaces. </p>
<p>At the most fundamental level, we need to do more to create a culture of equality. Some groups, especially the most <a href="https://www.local.gov.uk/health-inequalities-deprivation-and-poverty-and-covid-19">economically deprived</a>, fared much worse than others during the pandemic. Health inequalities <a href="https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-supporcovid-19/what-the-bma-is-doing/the-impact-of-the-pandemic-on-population-health-and-health-inequalities#:%7E:text=Underlying%20many%20health%20inequalities%20is,affected%20certain%20at%2Drisk%20groups.">have widened</a> as a result. With ongoing pandemic impacts, for example, long COVID rates, also <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37164035/">disproportionately affecting those from disadvantaged groups</a>, health inequalities are likely to persist without significant action to address them. </p>
<p>Vaccine inequity is still a problem <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p8">globally</a>. At a national level, in some wealthier countries like the UK, those from more deprived backgrounds are going to be less able to afford <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-jab-market-of-private-covid-vaccines-is-a-good-thing-for-public-health-but-not-for-health-inequality-222721">private vaccines</a>.</p>
<p>We may be out of the emergency phase of COVID, but the pandemic is not yet over. As we reflect on the past four years, working to provide clearer public health communication, avoiding COVID complacency and reducing health inequalities are all things that can help prepare for any future waves or, indeed, pandemics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Nicholas Williams has received funding from Senedd Cymru, Public Health Wales and the Wales Covid Evidence Centre for research on COVID-19, and has consulted for the World Health Organization. However, this article reflects the views of the author only, in his academic capacity at Swansea University, and no funding or organizational bodies were involved in the writing or content of this article.</span></em></p>On the fourth anniversary of the pandemic, a public health researcher offers four principles for a healthier future.Simon Nicholas Williams, Lecturer in Psychology, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2211552024-03-07T13:03:45Z2024-03-07T13:03:45ZWhy schools need to take sun safety more seriously – expert explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577546/original/file-20240223-16-azytla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C0%2C4195%2C2788&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The World Health Organization recommends formal school programmes as the key to preventing skin cancer.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-boy-having-sunscreen-applied-339150182">Paul Higley/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the UK’s rainy climate, there is a one in six <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ski2.61">risk</a> of developing skin cancer. Children, especially, should take extra care as severe sunburn as a youngster more than <a href="https://www.skincancer.org/risk-factors/sunburn/">doubles</a> the chance of developing skin cancer later on. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ced/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ced/llad458/7507665">new research</a> my colleagues and I conducted shows that less than half of primary schools in Wales have a formal sun safety policy.</p>
<p>With skin cancer rates continuing to rise by <a href="https://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/medical_specialties/dermatology/">8% annually</a> in England and Wales, it’s a problem that’s not going away and the disease now accounts for half of all cancers. In 2020 alone, the cost of treating skin cancer in England was <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23554510/">estimated</a> to be more than £180 million.</p>
<p>There is hope, though. It is estimated that around <a href="https://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/skin-cancer-facts">90% of skin cancers</a> are due to ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure from the sun. This means they can be prevented through safer behaviour. </p>
<p>In the UK, though, many people still <a href="https://academic.oup.com/her/article/20/5/579/611761">underestimate</a> the link between sunburn and skin cancer. Research paints a worrying picture, revealing disparities in sun protection awareness and behaviour across different groups. Notably, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/her/article/20/5/579/611761">men</a>, people living in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26875569/">low-income neighbourhoods</a>, those belonging to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/her/article/20/5/579/611761">lower socioeconomic groups</a> and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28125871/">people of colour</a> are often found to be less informed about sun safety and are more likely to put themselves at risk. </p>
<p>With childhood a crucial time for learning healthy behaviour, teaching all children from a young age about sun protection could be one way to reduce future skin cancer rates. And the <a href="https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/42678/9241590629_v1.pdf?sequence=1">World Health Organization</a> recommends formal school programmes as the key to prevention. </p>
<p>Overall, school-based interventions have been <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743521000438">shown</a> to positively influence sun safe knowledge and behaviour. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyt105">schools in Australia</a> with written policies show better sun protection practices than those without.</p>
<p>But in UK schools, the situation varies. The UK government’s Department for Education has issued <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education/physical-health-and-mental-wellbeing-primary-and-secondary#by-the-end-of-primary-school">statutory guidance</a> for England that children should leave primary school knowing about sun safety and how to reduce the risk of getting skin cancer. </p>
<p>In Scotland and Northern Ireland, it is not a legal requirement to teach sun safety in schools. And in Wales, while sun safety is recommended as part of the Welsh Network of Healthy Schools scheme, again there is no mandatory requirement to have a sun safety policy or to teach skin cancer prevention. Nor are there central UK resources provided to help schools in this area. </p>
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<img alt="The red, peeling sunburnt back and shoulders of a young girl." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578006/original/file-20240226-21-2xd3jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578006/original/file-20240226-21-2xd3jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578006/original/file-20240226-21-2xd3jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578006/original/file-20240226-21-2xd3jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578006/original/file-20240226-21-2xd3jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578006/original/file-20240226-21-2xd3jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578006/original/file-20240226-21-2xd3jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Being severely sunburnt as a youngster more than doubles the chance of developing future skin cancer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dangerous-sunburn-shoulders-young-girl-601094933">Alonafoto/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>My colleagues and I wanted to know how many schools have a sun safety policy, a formal document that sets out a school’s position with respect to the education and provision of sun safety. We also wanted to understand whether the existence of a policy varied by area or school characteristic, and what support schools need. </p>
<p>In 2022, we sent a survey to all 1,241 primary schools in Wales. In total, 471 schools responded. </p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>We found that only 39% of responding schools had a formal sun safety policy. And of these, not all enforced them. Schools that had more children receiving free school meals and with lower attendance rates were less likely to have a sun safety policy.</p>
<p>We asked schools that did not have a policy to tell us the reasons why not. Thirty-five per cent of schools were “not aware of the need”, while 27% of schools had “not got around to it just yet”. Thirty schools (13%) said that a sun safety policy was not a priority at this time. Clearly, there is work to be done on raising awareness among schools and school leaders on the role they can play in this area.</p>
<p>Of course, schools are busy places. So, when asked to indicate what would encourage them to create a sun safety policy, 73% of schools said assistance with development, while 56% said resources to aid the teaching of sun safety. </p>
<p>Previously both Cancer Research UK and the Wales-based Tenovus Cancer Care charities have offered support and guidelines for schools but this support is no longer easily available. The England-based charity <a href="https://www.skcin.org/ourWork/sunSafeSchools.htm">Sckin</a> has a comprehensive and free sun-safe schools accreditation scheme. Some schools told us they based their policies on resources supplied by the local authority, but this was not consistent across Wales.</p>
<p>UV levels will soon rise in the UK and now is the time for schools to start thinking about sun protection. Having a formal sun safety school policy sets out the position of the school when it comes to sun safety. When enforced and communicated properly, this makes it clear to everyone (governors, teachers, carers and pupils) their individual responsibilities when it comes to staying safe. </p>
<p>But with fewer than half of schools in Wales having formal policies, and not all enforced, awareness of the importance of this issue and the potential role of schools is lacking. </p>
<p>It is therefore time for sun safety policies to become mandatory for primary schools across the UK. This could help to improve knowledge and behaviour for all age groups. But adequate support and guidance must be also given to schools to help them educate children about sun safety and protect them while they are at school.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Peconi received funding for the Sunproofed Study from Health and Care Research Wales through a Health Research Grant Award. She is also a volunteer with the charity Skin Care Cymru, a charity working to raise the profile of skin health in Wales. </span></em></p>Being severely sunburnt as a child more than doubles the chance of developing future skin cancer but less than half of primary schools questioned in new research have a sun safety policy.Julie Peconi, Senior Research Officer in Health Data Science, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243922024-03-01T13:54:55Z2024-03-01T13:54:55ZThe world’s business and finance sectors can do much more to reverse deforestation – here’s the data to prove it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578638/original/file-20240228-18-y5cg7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rainforest jungle in Borneo, Malaysia, is destroyed to make way for oil palm plantations</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/deforestation-aerial-photo-rainforest-jungle-borneo-1098811376">Rich Carey/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big corporations could drive a worldwide shift towards more <a href="https://forest500.org/sites/default/files/forest_500_financial_institution_selection_methodology_2022.pdf">sustainable supply chains</a> that limit damage caused by deforestation. But progress is being slowed down by weak or non-existent commitments to ensure that supply chains for commodities such as soy, palm oil and beef have not contributed to tropical deforestation, according to analysis recently published by the environmental organisation <a href="https://globalcanopy.org/about-us/">Global Canopy</a>.</p>
<p>Based on ten years of <a href="https://forest500.org/publications/2024-a-decade-of-deforestation-data/">data</a>, the <a href="https://forest500.org/">Forest 500</a> report assessed 350 companies, from high-street supermarkets and food producers that might use soy or beef in their supply chains to firms using tropical timber to build furniture. It also looked at 150 financial institutions that provide <a href="https://forest500.org/publications/2023-watershed-year-action-deforestation/">US$6.1 trillion</a> (£4.8 trillion) of investment to these companies each year. </p>
<p>Nearly one-third of the assessed companies still haven’t committed to avoiding deforestation when trading in commodities such as beef and leather, palm oil, soy, timber and paper pulp. </p>
<p>But progress varies depending on the product. While a majority (76%) of companies assessed for palm oil have a deforestation commitment, 65% of those assessed for beef do not. Conversion to beef pasture is driving a surge in deforestation in Brazil’s Cerrado savannah where, last year, deforestation increased <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68272643">by 43%</a>. </p>
<p>New laws, such as the <a href="https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/forests/deforestation/regulation-deforestation-free-products_en">EU Deforestation Regulation</a> and <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/forest-act">US Forest Act</a>, aim to prevent trade in products that contribute to illegal deforestation. But these <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/the-cerrado-crisis-brazils-deforestation-frontline/">may not protect habitats such as the Cerrado savannah</a>, for example, which <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68272643">falls out of scope of the new EU regulation</a> because the trees aren’t tall enough to count as forest.</p>
<p>Unless deforestation regulations are strengthened to stop trade in products that have caused the loss of any type of vital natural habitat, companies will not stop trading in products such as beef that are sourced from forests like the Cerrado savannah. </p>
<p>In the UK, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/supermarket-essentials-will-no-longer-be-linked-to-illegal-deforestation">proposed regulations</a> will stop trade in products associated with illegal deforestation, but not those defined as legal under local law. Regulation has a part to play in halting deforestation, but only if it includes all conversion of natural habitats, both legal and illegal, and includes regulation of the finance sector.</p>
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<img alt="Short green trees and brown grass burning with flames and smoke" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578632/original/file-20240228-26-ubavq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Cerrado forest vegetation in Brazil is being burnt to make way for livestock farming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/burning-cerrado-vegetation-typical-biome-central-2033322188">Sergio Willian fotos/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>International collaborations such as the <a href="https://forestclimateleaders.org/#about">Forest and Climate Leaders Partnership</a> seek to address government and public sector ambition. But steps to reduce deforestation from within the <a href="https://accountability-framework.org/">private sector</a> are just as crucial, because global trade in forest commodities drives loss. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/what-are-drivers-deforestation">greatest drivers</a> of tropical forest loss are conversion to cropland and pasture, building of infrastructure such as mines and roads, and logging for timber. <a href="https://theconversation.com/forests-are-vital-to-protect-the-climate-yet-the-world-is-falling-far-behind-its-targets-216703">Climate change and wildfires</a> add further pressures, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8622">degrading forests</a>. </p>
<p>Trade in products such as coco, coffee, palm oil, soybeans, beef and leather, timber and wood pulp all expose companies to deforestation risk. The raw trade value of these products – defined as “freight on board” by <a href="https://comtradeplus.un.org/">UN Comm Trade</a> – in 2022 alone was more than US$32 billion.</p>
<p>It’s hard to move away from deforestation to make valuable products when the practices are supported by <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/06/15/trillions-wasted-on-subsidies-could-help-address-climate-change">huge subsidies</a>. Those to the soy, palm oil and beef industries support <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/06/15/trillions-wasted-on-subsidies-could-help-address-climate-change">14% of annual global forest loss</a>. The annual funding for forests is <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/landscapes/forests/pathways-report-summary">less than 1%</a> that which funds environmentally harmful subsidies, so progress in reducing deforestation is undermined by an enormous financial gap. This needs to be closed in order to start financially incentivising forest protection. </p>
<p>Human rights issues and deforestation go hand-in-hand because many Indigenous peoples and local communities are <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-10/WWF-Forest-Pathways-Report-2023.pdf">denied land rights to their forests</a>. It is vital that companies ensure their supply chains do not exacerbate land rights denial – but here the new report highlights a global blind spot. </p>
<p>Only 1% of Forest 500 companies had a policy for all of the human rights issues relating to at least one of the highest-risk commodities they were assessed for. And most of the companies assessed (91%) did not have a published commitment to ensuring that all rights-based conflicts are resolved before they finalise new developments or acquisitions in their supply chains.</p>
<h2>Global forest goals</h2>
<p>2023 was a landmark year for the planet’s forests. For the first time, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cop26-world-leaders-summit-on-action-on-forests-and-land-use-2-november-2021/world-leaders-summit-on-action-on-forests-and-land-use">global goal</a> to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 was formally adopted <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma2023_L17_adv.pdf">by the UN</a>. </p>
<p>Yet despite everything forests do for <a href="https://theconversation.com/forests-are-vital-to-protect-the-climate-yet-the-world-is-falling-far-behind-its-targets-216703">nature, people and the climate</a>, forest loss continues almost unabated. In 2022, an area of forest <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?9899941/Forest-Pathways-Report-2023">the size of Denmark</a> was lost. The new report shows there is still a huge gap between ambition and action. </p>
<p>There is no legally binding international framework convention on forests, so most forest commitments are voluntary. <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/markets/deforestation_conversion_free/">Advice to companies</a> on how to accelerate and scale up deforestation and conversion-free supply chains is widespread, but the <a href="https://forest500.org/analysis/insights/major-companies-and-financial-institutions-are-persistently-ignoring-their-role-in-driving-deforestation/">Forest 500 assessment</a> concludes that the private sector isn’t taking voluntary action fast enough.</p>
<p>Only 3% of Forest 500 companies are fully and publicly reporting deforestation in their supply chains, and <a href="https://forest500.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Forest500_Annual-Report-2024_Final.pdf">63% fail to publish adequate evidence</a> of the implementation of their deforestation commitments. This makes it difficult for consumers to be sure that the products they buy are not contributing to any form of forest loss.</p>
<p>As the report concludes, new regulations to address deforestation must be ambitious and cover both legal and illegal deforestation. They must also address the conversion of natural ecosystems for forest commodities that result in environmental destruction, and any associated human rights abuses. </p>
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 30,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Gagen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recently published report sheds light on how 350 big companies and 150 financial institutions are falling behind with goals to halt and reverse deforestation.Mary Gagen, Professor of Physical Geography, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2241432024-02-22T11:51:34Z2024-02-22T11:51:34ZMonitoramento de tartarugas tropicais abaixo da linha d'água revela seus hábitos alimentares<p>As tartarugas-de-pente estão <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T8005A12881238.en">criticamente ameaçadas de extinção</a>, são encontradas em todos os oceanos e são as mais tropicais das tartarugas marinhas. Há muito tempo, considera-se que as tartarugas-de-pente adultas têm uma associação próxima com mares rasos (menos de 15 metros de profundidade), onde os recifes de coral prosperam.</p>
<p>Mas <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adl2838">uma nova pesquisa</a> que meus colegas e eu realizamos revela que as tartarugas-de-pente se alimentam em locais de recifes muito mais profundos do que se pensava anteriormente. </p>
<p>As tartarugas-de-pente jovens ficam à deriva nas correntes durante a fase pelágica (em águas abertas) de seu desenvolvimento, antes de se mudarem para habitats bentônicos (no fundo do mar). As tartarugas-de-pente geralmente são vistas se alimentando em recifes de coral, onde sua dieta é predominantemente de <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/meps245249">esponjas</a>. Elas também se alimentam de uma variedade de algas, coralimorfos (anêmonas semelhantes a corais), tunicados e <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/wiojms/article/view/66534">outros animais e plantas</a>. </p>
<p>Para estudar mais detalhadamente seus hábitos alimentares, minha equipe da Universidade de Swansea usou equipamentos ligados a satélites de alta precisão do Sistema de Posicionamento Global (GPS) para rastrear 22 fêmeas adultas de tartarugas-de-pente desde seu local de nidificação, em Diego Garcia, no Arquipélago de Chagos, no Oceano Índico, até seus locais de alimentação. </p>
<p>Três dos equipamentos incluíam um transdutor de pressão que foi programado para registrar a profundidade a cada cinco minutos e retransmitir a medição para o sistema de satélite sempre que a tartaruga emergisse. Isso nos forneceu informações sobre o paradeiro das tartarugas e a profundidade em que elas estavam mergulhando para se alimentar enquanto nadavam.</p>
<p>Previmos que as tartarugas-de-pente rastreadas em nosso estudo provavelmente migrariam para recifes de coral rasos ao redor dos sete atóis do arquipélago de Chagos. Muitos estudos mostraram a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep18289">natureza intocada desses recifes</a>, e observamos anteriormente que as tartarugas-de-pente frequentemente se alimentam nos habitats dos recifes. </p>
<p>Mas, surpreendentemente, todas as tartarugas migraram para bancos profundos e remotos e recifes submersos no arquipélago, permanecendo nesses locais profundos por mais de 6 mil dias combinados de rastreamento. Observando as cartas náuticas das localizações das tartarugas, pudemos ver que o habitat de alimentação estava localizado a mais de 30 metros de profundidade. </p>
<p>Mais de 183 mil medições de profundidade transmitidas pelos equipamentos em três tartarugas mostraram que as profundidades médias estavam entre 35 e 40 metros. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adl2838">A maioria dos mergulhos atingiu profundidades entre 30 e 60 metros</a>. Isso é muito mais profundo do que esperávamos.</p>
<h2>Essencial para a conservação</h2>
<p>Os recifes de coral localizados em profundidades entre 30 e 150 metros abaixo das ondas são conhecidos como ecossistemas mesofóticos (ou de baixa luminosidade). Agora, saber que esses habitats são tão cruciais para as tartarugas marinhas criticamente ameaçadas de extinção sugere que a vida marinha nas profundezas do fundo do mar é muito mais rica - com alimentos mais nutritivos para as tartarugas comerem - do que se pensava anteriormente. </p>
<p>Esperávamos encontrar uma abundância de esponjas coloridas e outros itens de presas invertebradas, como corais moles, que constituem uma grande parte da dieta das tartarugas-de-pente. Nossa descoberta aumenta as evidências crescentes de que os bancos submersos nessas profundidades mesofóticas podem abrigar uma comunidade diversificada de vida, incluindo <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/wiojms/article/view/209266">esponjas</a> e <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.03.018">ervas marinhas</a>, que são alimentos essenciais para as tartarugas verdes, que também se reproduzem e se alimentam no Oceano Índico ocidental. </p>
<p>Os ecossistemas mesofóticos cobrem uma vasta área e, portanto, devem ser uma parte importante das considerações de conservação. Estimamos que os bancos submersos (em profundidades de 30 a 60 metros) no oeste do Oceano Índico se estendem por mais de 55 mil km², cerca de três vezes o tamanho de um pequeno país como o País de Gales.</p>
<p>O entendimento científico dos ecossistemas mesofóticos é muito pobre, em parte porque eles são difíceis de explorar. Em geral, eles são remotos e distantes da terra, e as profundidades geralmente estão além do limite do mergulho científico de rotina. </p>
<p>Há um enorme espaço para pesquisas mais fascinantes para investigar a ecologia desses habitats marinhos incompreendidos. Estudos recentes sugerem que <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177374">rica biodiversidade</a> e <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-03568-1">peixes abundantes</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-010-0593-6">corais e esponjas</a> vivem em profundidades superiores a 30 metros. </p>
<h2>Refúgios nos recifes</h2>
<p>Com as pressões das mudanças climáticas e o aquecimento dos mares, os recifes mesofóticos podem ser um refúgio para corais e esponjas que normalmente vivem em recifes de coral rasos. Por exemplo, a cobertura de corais em recifes mesofóticos do Caribe (30 a 40 metros de profundidade) permaneceu constante durante furacões, eventos de branqueamento e doenças em 2017 a 2019, quando a cobertura de corais diminuiu em profundidades de águas rasas e médias. Isso demonstra a importância desses recifes mesofóticos como um <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-021-02087-w">refúgio reprodutivo para corais</a>.</p>
<p>As descobertas de nosso estudo destacam que os bancos submersos e as profundidades mesofóticas são importantes áreas de alimentação para animais marinhos criticamente ameaçados de extinção, como tartarugas, e podem suportar uma rica variedade de vida marinha. Embora os recifes mesofóticos usados por tartarugas-de-pente em nosso estudo estejam dentro de uma das maiores áreas marinhas protegidas do mundo, com <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-020-03776-w">proteção contra a pesca industrial</a>, há negociações em andamento para o futuro gerenciamento da conservação dessa região. </p>
<p>Esses bancos submersos no Arquipélago de Chagos, e provavelmente em outros lugares do mundo, devem ser áreas importantes com foco na conservação. A resiliência dos ecossistemas marinhos e de tudo o que vive neles pode depender da saúde desses habitats mais profundos e inexplorados, especialmente em face das mudanças climáticas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224143/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Esteban recebe financiamento da Bertarelli Foundation como parte do Bertarelli Programme in Marine Science (bolsas números BPMS-2017-4 e 820633).</span></em></p>Os habitats oceânicos mais profundos (30 a 150 metros) são um importante local de alimentação para as tartarugas-de-pente, em risco de extinçãoNicole Esteban, Associate Professor of Marine Biology, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2239192024-02-21T19:01:08Z2024-02-21T19:01:08ZTracking tropical turtles deep down to the seabed reveals their feeding habits<p>Hawksbill turtles are <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T8005A12881238.en">critically endangered</a>, they are found in every ocean and are the most tropical of sea turtles. Adult hawksbills have long been considered to have a close association with shallow (less than 15 metres depth) seas where coral reefs thrive.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adl2838">new research</a> my colleagues and I conducted reveals for the first time that hawksbill turtles feed at reef sites much deeper than previously thought. </p>
<p>Young hawksbills drift in currents during their pelagic (open water) phase of their development before they move to benthic (sea bed) habitats. Hawksbills are usually seen foraging in coral reefs where their diet is predominantly <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/meps245249">sponges</a>. They also feed on a variety of algae, corallimorphs (coral-like anemones), tunicates and <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/wiojms/article/view/66534">more</a>. </p>
<p>To study their feeding habits in more detail, my team at Swansea University used high-accuracy global positioning system (GPS) satellite tags to track 22 adult female hawksbills from their nesting site on Diego Garcia in the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean to their foraging grounds. </p>
<p>Three of the tags included a pressure transducer that was programmed to record depth every five minutes and relay the measurement to the satellite system every time the turtle surfaced. This gave us information about the whereabouts of the turtles and how deep they were diving to feed as they swam.</p>
<p>We predicted that hawksbills tracked in our study would probably migrate to shallow coral reefs around the seven atolls of the Chagos archipelago. Many studies have shown the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep18289">pristine nature of these reefs</a> and we have previously observed hawksbills frequently foraging in reef habitats there. </p>
<p>But, surprisingly, all turtles migrated to deep, remote banks and submerged reefs in the archipelago, remaining at these deep sites for more than 6,000 combined days of tracking. By looking at nautical charts for the turtle locations, we could see that the foraging habitat was located at more than 30 metres depth. </p>
<p>More than 183,000 depth measurements relayed from the tags on three turtles showed that average depths were between 35 metres and 40 metres. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adl2838">Most dives reached depths between 30 metres and 60 metres</a>. That’s much deeper than we expected.</p>
<h2>Crucial for conservation</h2>
<p>The coral reefs located at depths of between 30 metres and 150 metres below the waves are known as mesophotic (or low light) ecosystems. Now, knowing that these habitats are so crucial for critically endangered sea turtles suggests that the marine life deep down on the seabed is much richer – with more nutritious food for turtles to eat – than previously thought. </p>
<p>We’d expect to find an abundance of colourful sponges and other invertebrate prey items such as soft corals that make up a big portion of the hawksbills’ diet. Our finding adds to the growing evidence that submerged banks at these mesophotic depths might be home to a diverse community of life, including <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/wiojms/article/view/209266">sponges</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.03.018">seagrass</a> that are key foods for green turtles that also breed and forage in the western Indian Ocean. </p>
<p>Mesophotic ecosystems cover a vast area so they should be a significant part of conservation considerations. We estimated that submerged banks (at depths of 30 to 60 metres) in the western Indian Ocean extend across over 55,000 km² - around three times the size of a small country such as Wales.</p>
<p>Scientific understanding of mesophotic ecosystems is very poor, partly because they are difficult to explore. They are usually remote and far from land, plus the depths are often beyond the limit of routine scientific scuba diving. </p>
<p>There’s huge scope for more fascinating research to investigate the ecology of these misunderstood marine habitats. Recent studies have suggested <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177374">rich biodiversity</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-03568-1">abundant fish</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-010-0593-6">corals and sponges</a> live at depths over 30 metres. </p>
<h2>Reef refuges</h2>
<p>With the pressures of climate change and warming seas, mesophotic reefs could be a refuge for corals and sponges that normally live in shallow coral reefs. For example, coral cover in Caribbean mesophotic reefs (30 to 40 metres depth) remained constant during hurricanes, bleaching and disease events in 2017 to 2019 when coral cover declined in shallow- and mid-water depths. That demonstrates the importance of these mesophotic reefs as a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-021-02087-w">reproductive refuge for corals</a>.</p>
<p>Our study findings highlight that submerged banks and mesophotic depths are important foraging grounds for critically endangered marine animals such as turtles and may support a rich array of marine life. While the mesophotic reefs used by foraging hawksbills in our study lie within one of the world’s largest marine protected areas, with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-020-03776-w">protection from industrial fishing</a>, there are ongoing negotiations for future conservation management of this region. </p>
<p>These submerged banks in the Chagos archipelago, and probably others around the world, should be key areas for conservation focus. The resilience of marine ecosystems, and all that lives within them, may rely on the health of these deeper, uncharted habitats, especially in the face of climate change.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 30,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Esteban receives funding from the Bertarelli Foundation as part of the Bertarelli Programme in Marine Science (grant numbers BPMS-2017-4 and 820633).</span></em></p>Deeper ocean habitats (30-150 metres) are a key feeding ground for critically endangered hawksbill turtles.Nicole Esteban, Associate Professor of Marine Biology, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2227212024-02-15T16:22:43Z2024-02-15T16:22:43ZThe ‘jab market’ of private COVID vaccines is a good thing for public health – but not for health inequality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575667/original/file-20240214-30-oeqnf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C14%2C4955%2C1714&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/covid19-vaccine-jab-doctor-gloves-holds-1886745634">Viacheslav Lopatin/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID vaccines will <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/02/pharmacies-in-england-and-scotland-to-offer-private-covid-jabs-for-45">go on sale privately</a> in England and Scotland from April 1 for all those aged 12 and over. In the US, they have been available to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/vaccination-provider-support.html#:%7E:text=CDC%20COVID%2D19%20Vaccination%20Program%20Provider%20Requirements%20and%20Support&text=The%20US%20government%20is%20no,purchase%20in%20the%20commercial%20marketplace.">buy commercially since 2023</a>, with the private sector already accounting for a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/moderna-sees-up-8-bln-2023-covid-vaccine-sales-private-market-hopes-2023-08-03/">substantial proportion of vaccine sales</a>. It is likely that a growing number of countries will follow suit. </p>
<p>Is offering jabs privately a good thing for public health? Yes. But, would it be better and fairer if they were free for all who want them? Yes.</p>
<h2>What are the benefitS?</h2>
<p>Making COVID vaccines available to more people, even if it means some people will have to pay for them, is a good thing. That’s because the more people that are able to keep up to date with COVID boosters, the higher the level of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38111727/">immunity across the population</a>. </p>
<p>High <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38111727/">booster coverage can help protect</a> against surging cases or potential new variants, and help lower levels of COVID-related sickness across the population. </p>
<p>In turn, this could help reduce COVID-related absenteeism – the UK is currently experiencing a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/05/its-national-sickie-day-ill-health-uk-econony-ons">rise in long-term sickness amongst its workforce</a> and, since the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/dec/29/nhs-england-storm-of-pressure-flu-covid-cases-surge">NHS is currently under massive strain</a>, it could ease pressure on the UK’s crumbling health services. Crucially, though, increased booster coverage could help reduce rates of long COVID – the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-repeat-covid-infections-increase-the-risk-of-severe-disease-or-long-covid/">risk of which rises with multiple re-infections </a>. </p>
<p>It’s important that those at highest risk of serious COVID outcomes – those with clinical conditions and those aged over 65 – <a href="https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/08/08/covid-autumn-booster-vaccine-2023-everything-you-need-to-know/">continue to be prioritized for free vaccines</a>. </p>
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<p>But COVID is certainly not harmless in those under 65. For example, long COVID is found in all ages with <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00846-2">the highest percentage of diagnoses in those aged 36-50</a>. It is a shame that more people in 2023 weren’t able to reduce their risk of long COVID or sickness by not being able to access a booster vaccine at all.</p>
<h2>But will people buy them?</h2>
<p>Along with colleagues, last year I <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/92nqy">conducted research</a> on attitudes to private COVID boosters in Wales. We asked those ineligible for free vaccines – at the time, those aged under 50 and without qualifying clinical conditions – whether they would be willing to pay for a COVID vaccine. We found very mixed views. However, a large multi-country <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2026382118">study</a> suggested that a significant proportion of people asked would be willing to pay for a vaccine if it was available privately – although this study was conducted much earlier in the pandemic, and attitudes could have since changed.</p>
<p>Convenience, or ease of access, is one of the key factors shaping vaccination uptake, as outlined in the World Health Organization’s <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.who.int/teams/immunization-vaccines-and-biologicals/essential-programme-on-immunization/demand&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1707335377630579&usg=AOvVaw2VVy0IFYQoEvOGO6v4YBDT">Behavioural and Social Drivers of Vaccination</a> model. If the private market for the flu jab is anything to go by, then ease of access might give COVID uptake rates a boost. For example, <a href="https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6963-14-35">one study</a> found that around a third of patients might not have gotten a flu jab had it not been for them being able to conveniently pay for it in a pharmacy.</p>
<p>However, uptake of the new 2023-24 COVID booster in the US has been low, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/whats-new/vaccine-equity.html">with only about 14% of adults taking it</a>, even though many can access it freely through their private health insurance, or for those without health insurance, via the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/bridge/index.html">Bridge Access program</a>.</p>
<p>Ultimately it <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-boosters-to-be-sold-on-the-high-street-heres-what-effect-this-may-have-on-uptake-211848#:%7E:text=COVID%20boosters%20will%20be%20available,for%20over%2D65s%20this%20autumn.">remains to be seen</a> how much demand there will be for private COVID vaccines. </p>
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<h2>Private vaccines could worsen health inequalities</h2>
<p>Although private jabs would give the general public the choice of having a COVID booster because <a href="https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/08/08/covid-autumn-booster-vaccine-2023-everything-you-need-to-know/">only certain groups</a> are able to have them at the moment, it would be better if the vaccines were free, or at least affordable, for all who want them. At a price of £45 per jab, those on low income are much less likely to be able to afford them. As such, the private sale of COVID vaccines will only serve to perpetuate <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37666533/">health inequalities</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, those from more deprived communities and on low incomes are at <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(22)00223-7/fulltext">higher risk of more serious COVID outcomes</a>. They are also more likely to be negatively impacted by <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj.p2962">winter pressures and health service crises</a>. </p>
<p>In spring 2024, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-spring-2024-and-future-vaccination-programmes-jcvi-advice-4-december-2023/jcvi-statement-on-covid-19-vaccination-in-spring-2024-and-considerations-on-future-covid-19-vaccination-4-december-2023">suggested</a> that the 2024 autumn booster campaign will be smaller than previous campaigns. This is a regressive step for public health. If anything, the eligibility for free vaccines should be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/08/uk-mps-press-for-wider-covid-vaccine-access-amid-concern-over-new-variant">more, not less, inclusive</a>. </p>
<h2>People should be free to choose to get vaccinated</h2>
<p>Choice has been a contentious term during the pandemic. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9162982/">Vaccine passports and mandatory vaccination</a> for health and social care workers were strongly opposed by some on the grounds that they took away people’s choice to not get vaccinated. Surely the same arguments made against requiring people to get vaccinated should also apply to excluding people from getting vaccinated?</p>
<p><a href="https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/organizational-behavior/the-com-b-model-for-behavior-change">Behavioural science theory</a>, and much <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01345-2">research during the pandemic</a>, showed how actions taken to protect our health relies as much on our capabilities and opportunities as our motivations. As such, it is important that those who might otherwise be motivated to get a COVID booster are not prevented from doing so by being unable to afford them. </p>
<p>How to make vaccines more available and affordable to all who want and need them is a matter of equity, and is something that should be addressed sooner rather than later – especially as innovations continue in other vaccinations, from RSV and flu to cancer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Nicholas Williams has received funding from Senedd Cymru, Public Health Wales and the Wales Covid Evidence Centre for research on COVID-19, and has consulted for the World Health Organization. However, this article reflects the views of the author only, in his academic capacity at Swansea University, and no funding or organizational bodies were involved in the writing or content of this article.</span></em></p>COVID vaccines will go on sale privately in England and Scotland from April 1 for all those aged 12 and over. In the US, they have been available to buy commercially since 2023, with the private sector…Simon Nicholas Williams, Lecturer in Psychology, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2227972024-02-08T13:21:29Z2024-02-08T13:21:29ZSix Nations future on terrestrial TV uncertain – what are the implications for rugby and its fans?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574016/original/file-20240207-20-835kh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C0%2C4252%2C2813&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Six Nations Championship is classified as a 'category B' tournament by the UK government. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rome-italy-0502-olympic-stadium-guinness-2258290119">Marco Iacobucci Epp/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Six Nations Championship always serves plenty to excite stadium and television audiences. But the high-octane drama risks being overshadowed by off-field events that could also threaten the principles of public service broadcasting.</p>
<p>As a televisual event, rugby is thriving. <a href="https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2024/02/01/rugby-world-cup-2023-most-viewed-rugby-event-ever-with-1-33bn-viewing-hours/">Viewing figures</a> for the Rugby World Cup in 2023 were 19% higher than the 2019 tournament, and 30% higher than in 2015. Free-to-air Six Nations games <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1441433/tv-viewers-six-nations-uk/">regularly draw</a> between 3 and 4.5 million viewers in the UK. Globally, an estimated <a href="https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/m6n/news/get-set-for-championships-biggest-year-yet">121 million</a> people tuned in to the 2023 tournament. </p>
<p>So, it’s surprising that the Six Nations is classified by the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport as a <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00802/SN00802.pdf">“category B”</a> tournament. This means it can be sold to anyone, providing that free-to-air broadcasters are given access to highlights or delayed coverage. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, for “category A” events like the FA Cup final and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, full live coverage must be offered by free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters. Recently, a bid to move the Six Nations into category A was <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2024-01-23/bid-to-make-six-nations-free-to-air-rejected-by-uk-government">rejected</a> by the UK government.</p>
<p>The BBC and ITV have had the rights for the Six Nations since 2003, but that could change. Rugby’s governing bodies need more money, and free-to-air channels are feeling the financial pinch. On top of that, more and more people are opting for streaming services in general. So, when the current broadcasting deal ends in 2025, the Six Nations could very well end up behind a paywall. </p>
<h2>Financial woes</h2>
<p>Money – or the lack of it – is the important factor here and Welsh rugby especially is experiencing the effects more than most. It faces a <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/raft-wales-internationals-face-huge-28239366">stark future</a> both on and off the field, with players leaving Wales for more money and salary caps being introduced for those who stay. </p>
<p>While there’s a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-68152933">consensus in the Senedd</a> (Welsh parliament) for the Six Nations to remain free-to-air, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) has warned it would <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-68168728">“struggle to survive”</a> without a competitive bidding scenario involving Sky, Amazon Prime and others. </p>
<p>Some Scottish politicians concur with the Senedd, adding a further constitutional dimension. The <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/news/24093322.six-nations-paywall-threat-sparks-calls-broadcast-powers-scotland/">SNP’s Gavin Newlands</a> recently reiterated calls for broadcasting to be devolved so that the Six Nations remains free-to-air. </p>
<p>There are precedents for rugby moving to a subscription service too. The 2023 Autumn Internationals were only accessible on Amazon Prime, and between 1997 and 2002, England’s home games were shown exclusively on Sky Sports. </p>
<p>But that raises concerns about affordability, especially for those fans already finding attending matches too expensive. For stay-at-home supporters, even the “home comfort” option of watching on TV might become too costly.</p>
<p>According to former BBC executive and now WRU executive director of rugby, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-68168728">Nigel Walker</a>, this “tension and competition at the market” is essential for rugby’s survival. The Irish Rugby Union has also previously warned about the <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/irfu-tackles-minister-over-six-nations-on-free-to-air-tv-s3ssx5lcp">“substantial financial damage”</a> to rugby if the Six Nations was classified as free-to-air.</p>
<h2>Lessons from cricket</h2>
<p>Free market proponents point, for example, to how Sky’s long-lasting commitment to cricket has led to <a href="https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcasting/the-tech-being-used-by-sky-sports-at-the-ashes/5183118.article">innovation and technical advances</a> such as multiple cameras and data-rich, TV-friendly statistical analysis. It results in a quality of coverage that the BBC or ITV might struggle to match with more meagre budgets. </p>
<p>But test cricket offers a cautionary tale. It found a surge of new fans during Channel 4’s captivating coverage of the epic 2005 Ashes, with the final day of the fourth test drawing <a href="https://www.isportconnect.com/the-house-view-why-cricket-needs-free-to-air-tv-to-make-the-most-of-the-ashes/#:%7E:text=The%20last%20time%20the%20England,Fourth%20Test%20at%208.4%20million.">8.4 million viewers</a>. When Sky secured the rights a year later, this fresh audience vanished. </p>
<p>The 2023 Ashes saw <a href="https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/12907082/the-ashes-2023-sky-sports-breaks-records-in-edgbaston-opener-with-highest-viewing-figures-for-a-test-match">peak viewing figures</a> of just 2.12 million. Having hauled in millions of new enthusiasts, <a href="https://theconversation.com/england-win-mens-cricket-world-cup-in-a-last-ball-thriller-now-will-the-country-see-more-matches-on-free-tv-120302">cricket</a> failed to keep them watching.</p>
<p>If rugby does succumb to the paywall, there are serious implications. Perhaps as an inevitable consequence of a captive audience, subscription prices might increase as “market forces” prevail. </p>
<p>And if televised rugby lit a fire in the belly of an emerging generation of players, there’s a chance a paywall could just as easily extinguish it. This is especially relevant in Wales, where <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1445179/six-nations-popularity-countries/">51% of the population</a> stated that they had an interest in the tournament, versus only 26% in England.</p>
<p>For Wales, where rugby players are often revered as heroes, the cultural implications are also considerable. The players are role models who help cement a common sense of nationhood and cultural identity. Will their power to inspire future generations fade if fans can’t afford to watch them? Possibly not, but making rugby less accessible may stifle the enthusiasm of emerging talent.</p>
<p>And there is a further conundrum regarding the very nature of public service broadcasting. According to legislation, one <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/section/264/2011-06-15">principle</a> of broadcasting in the public interest is that it should “satisfy a wide range of different sporting and other leisure interests”. </p>
<p>For many, public service broadcasting principles might seem a dispensable fragment of an increasingly complex jigsaw, but they should not be dismissed lightly. The protective standards and quality they provide, and the inclusivity they ensure, were not necessarily conceived with rugby in mind. But losing them to the pursuit of bigger paydays would be a significant blow to the cultural and social fabric that sport weaves within society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222797/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When Six Nations’ broadcasting deal with the BBC and ITV ends in 2025, there are fears the tournament could move to a subscription service.Richard Thomas, Professor of Journalism, Swansea UniversityIwan Williams, Senior Lecturer in Media, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2224082024-02-07T12:03:02Z2024-02-07T12:03:02ZUsing AI to monitor the internet for terror content is inescapable – but also fraught with pitfalls<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573450/original/file-20240205-17-4tssh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C0%2C3693%2C2460&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/technology-security-concept-personal-authentication-system-709257292">metamorworks/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every minute, millions of social media posts, photos and videos flood the internet. <a href="https://www.socialpilot.co/blog/social-media-statistics">On average</a>, Facebook users share 694,000 stories, X (formerly Twitter) users post 360,000 posts, Snapchat users send 2.7 million snaps and YouTube users upload more than 500 hours of video. </p>
<p>This vast ocean of online material needs to be constantly monitored for harmful or illegal content, like promoting terrorism and violence. </p>
<p>The sheer volume of content means that it’s not possible for people to inspect and check all of it manually, which is why automated tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), are essential. But such tools also have their limitations. </p>
<p>The concerted effort in recent years to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1057610X.2023.2222901">develop tools</a> for the identification and removal of online terrorist content has, in part, been fuelled by the emergence of new laws and regulations. This includes the EU’s terrorist content online <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX%3A32021R0784">regulation</a>, which requires hosting service providers to remove terrorist content from their platform within one hour of receiving a removal order from a competent national authority.</p>
<h2>Behaviour and content-based tools</h2>
<p>In broad terms, there are two types of tools used to root out terrorist content. The first looks at certain account and message behaviour. This includes how old the account is, the use of trending or unrelated hashtags and abnormal posting volume. </p>
<p>In many ways, this is similar to spam detection, in that it does not pay attention to content, and is <a href="https://www.resolvenet.org/research/remove-impede-disrupt-redirect-understanding-combating-pro-islamic-state-use-file-sharing">valuable for detecting</a> the rapid dissemination of large volumes of content, which are often bot-driven. </p>
<p>The second type of tool is content-based. It focuses on linguistic characteristics, word use, images and web addresses. Automated content-based tools take <a href="https://tate.techagainstterrorism.org/news/tcoaireport">one of two approaches</a>. </p>
<p><strong>1. Matching</strong></p>
<p>The first approach is based on comparing new images or videos to an existing database of images and videos that have previously been identified as terrorist in nature. One challenge here is that terror groups are known to try and evade such methods by producing subtle variants of the same piece of content. </p>
<p>After the Christchurch terror attack in New Zealand in 2019, for example, hundreds of visually distinct versions of the livestream video of the atrocity <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2019/03/technical-update-on-new-zealand/">were in circulation</a>. </p>
<p>So, to combat this, matching-based tools generally use <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2019/08/open-source-photo-video-matching/">perceptual hashing</a> rather than cryptographic hashing. Hashes are a bit like digital fingerprints, and cryptographic hashing acts like a secure, unique identity tag. Even changing a single pixel in an image drastically alters its fingerprint, preventing false matches. </p>
<p>Perceptual hashing, on the other hand, focuses on similarity. It overlooks minor changes like pixel colour adjustments, but identifies images with the same core content. This makes perceptual hashing more resilient to tiny alterations to a piece of content. But it also means that the hashes are not entirely random, and so could potentially be used to try and <a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/black-box-attacks-on-perceptual-image-hashes-with-gans-cc1be11f277">recreate</a> the original image.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A close up of a mobile phone screen displaying several social media apps." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573540/original/file-20240205-25-jovm4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573540/original/file-20240205-25-jovm4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573540/original/file-20240205-25-jovm4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573540/original/file-20240205-25-jovm4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573540/original/file-20240205-25-jovm4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573540/original/file-20240205-25-jovm4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573540/original/file-20240205-25-jovm4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Millions of posts, images and videos are uploaded to social media platforms every minute.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/moscow-russia-29072023-new-elon-musks-2339442245">Viktollio/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>2. Classification</strong></p>
<p>The second approach relies on classifying content. It <a href="https://www.cambridgeconsultants.com/insights/whitepaper/ofcom-use-ai-online-content-moderation">uses</a> machine learning and other forms of AI, such as natural language processing. To achieve this, the AI needs a lot of examples like texts labelled as terrorist content or not by human content moderators. By analysing these examples, the AI learns which features distinguish different types of content, allowing it to categorise new content on its own. </p>
<p>Once trained, the algorithms are then able to predict whether a new item of content belongs to one of the specified categories. These items may then be removed or flagged for human review. </p>
<p>This approach also <a href="https://tate.techagainstterrorism.org/news/tcoaireport">faces challenges</a>, however. Collecting and preparing a large dataset of terrorist content to train the algorithms is time-consuming and <a href="https://oro.open.ac.uk/69799/">resource-intensive</a>. </p>
<p>The training data may also become dated quickly, as terrorists make use of new terms and discuss new world events and current affairs. Algorithms also have difficulty understanding context, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951719897945">subtlety and irony</a>. They also <a href="https://cdt.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Mixed-Messages-Paper.pdf">lack</a> cultural sensitivity, including variations in dialect and language use across different groups. </p>
<p>These limitations can have important offline effects. There have been documented failures to remove hate speech in countries such as <a href="https://restofworld.org/2021/why-facebook-keeps-failing-in-ethiopia/">Ethiopia</a> and <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/the-thread/facebooks-content-moderation-language-barrier/">Romania</a>, while free speech activists in countries such as <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/revealed-seven-years-later-how-facebook-shuts-down-free-speech-egypt">Egypt</a>, <a href="https://syrianobserver.com/news/58430/facebook-deletes-accounts-of-assad-opponents.html">Syria</a> and <a href="https://www.accessnow.org/transparency-required-is-facebooks-effort-to-clean-up-operation-carthage-damaging-free-expression-in-tunisia/">Tunisia</a> have reported having their content removed.</p>
<h2>We still need human moderators</h2>
<p>So, in spite of advances in AI, human input remains essential. It is important for maintaining databases and datasets, assessing content flagged for review and operating appeals processes for when decisions are challenged. </p>
<p>But this is demanding and draining work, and there have been <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/facebook-content-moderators-ireland">damning reports</a> regarding the working conditions of moderators, with many tech companies such as Meta <a href="https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/who-moderates-social-media-giants-call-end-outsourcing">outsourcing</a> this work to third-party vendors. </p>
<p>To address this, we <a href="https://tate.techagainstterrorism.org/news/tcoaireport">recommend</a> the development of a set of minimum standards for those employing content moderators, including mental health provision. There is also potential to develop AI tools to safeguard the wellbeing of moderators. This would work, for example, by blurring out areas of images so that moderators can reach a decision without viewing disturbing content directly. </p>
<p>But at the same time, few, if any, platforms have the resources needed to develop automated content moderation tools and employ a sufficient number of human reviewers with the required expertise. </p>
<p>Many platforms have turned to off-the-shelf products. It is estimated that the content moderation solutions market will be <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/content-moderation-solutions-market-to-cross-us-32-bn-by-2031-tmr-report-301514155.html">worth $32bn by 2031</a>. </p>
<p>But caution is needed here. Third-party providers are not currently subject to the same level of oversight as tech platforms themselves. They may rely disproportionately on automated tools, with insufficient human input and a lack of transparency regarding the datasets used to train their algorithms.</p>
<p>So, collaborative initiatives between governments and the private sector are essential. For example, the EU-funded <a href="https://tate.techagainstterrorism.org/">Tech Against Terrorism Europe</a> project has developed valuable resources for tech companies. There are also examples of automated content moderation tools being made openly available like Meta’s <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2022/12/meta-launches-new-content-moderation-tool/">Hasher-Matcher-Actioner</a>, which companies can use to build their own database of hashed terrorist content. </p>
<p>International organisations, governments and tech platforms must prioritise the development of such collaborative resources. Without this, effectively addressing online terror content will remain elusive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222408/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Macdonald receives funding from the EU Internal Security Fund for the project Tech Against Terrorism Europe (ISF-2021-AG-TCO-101080101). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashley A. Mattheis receives funding from the EU Internal Security Fund for the project Tech Against Terrorism Europe (ISF-2021-AG-TCO-101080101).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Wells receives funding from the Council of Europe to conduct an analysis of emerging patterns of misuse of technology by terrorist actors (ongoing)</span></em></p>The complex task of tackling online terror needs human eyes as well as artificial intelligence.Stuart Macdonald, Professor of Law, Swansea UniversityAshley A. Mattheis, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Law and Government, Dublin City UniversityDavid Wells, Honorary Research Associate at the Cyber Threats Research Centre, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2226002024-02-02T19:11:30Z2024-02-02T19:11:30ZPulmões criados em laboratório ajudam a entender como a poluição do ar afeta nossa saúde<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572953/original/file-20240129-15-d2jfov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3790%2C2589&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pesquisadores estão recriando tecidos das camadas mais profundas dos pulmões para estudar como diferentes poluentes afetam nossa capacidade de respirar
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/black-ink-on-white-background-form-1774078307">Oleg Krugliak / shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mesmo em um mundo cada vez mais alimentado por energia renovável e tecnologias limpas, a poluição do ar representa um risco real à saúde humana. Apenas no Reino Unido, estima-se que ela seja responsável por <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-pollution-applying-all-our-health/air-pollution-applying-all-our-health">28 mil a 36 mil mortes todos os anos</a> e pode aumentar muito o risco de desenvolver diversas doenças pulmonares e cardíacas, como asma ou câncer.</p>
<p>O ar poluído forma uma mistura complexa que muda dependendo da origem da poluição e do clima local no momento. As pessoas nas cidades correm mais risco, pois vivem mais perto da maioria dos carros, fábricas e outras fontes de emissões.</p>
<p>Embora existam muitos tipos diferentes de poluentes no ar que respiramos, dois em particular são prejudiciais à nossa saúde: o gás dióxido de nitrogênio (NO₂) e o material particulado (especificamente, MP₂,₅), formado por partículas flutuantes, microscópicas, sólidas ou líquidas com menos de 2,5 micrômetros de diâmetro (para referência, um fio de cabelo humano tem cerca de 70 micrômetros de diâmetro).</p>
<p>Em 2017, um <a href="https://airqualitynews.com/2019/10/11/london-commits-to-who-guidelines-for-pm2-5-by-2030/#:%7E:text=guidelines%20for%20PM2.-,5%20by%202030,(WHO)%20guidelines%20by%202030.">relatório</a> constatou que todas as áreas de Londres excederam os níveis recomendados pela Organização Mundial da Saúde para MP₂,₅, sendo que muitas áreas tinham mais do que o dobro dos níveis recomendados. Cenários como esse permitiram que os pesquisadores investigassem os perigos de respirar um ar realmente poluído. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="imagem de uma rua engarrafada com carros e ônibus em Londres" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Carros são uma importante fonte de poluição do ar em Londres em outras grandes cidades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sampajano_Anizza / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Um <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00350-8/fulltext">estudo</a> constatou que, em todo o mundo, 86% das pessoas que vivem em áreas urbanas estão expostas a MP₂,₅ em níveis superiores até mesmo às diretrizes mais brandas da Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS) de 2005, resultando em 1,8 milhão de mortes em excesso em 2019. <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00255-2/fulltext">Outro estudo</a> constatou que o NO₂ foi responsável por 1,85 milhão de casos de asma infantil em todo o mundo em 2019.</p>
<p>Esses números são provenientes de estudos sobre grandes populações, que pegam dados de saúde pública e os comparam com dados de poluição para procurar correlações entre poluição e doença. São estudos conhecidos como epidemiológicos. Mas embora possam fornecer uma grande percepção dos riscos associados à exposição à poluição do ar, eles têm suas limitações.</p>
<p>Por exemplo, o NO₂ e o PM₂,₅ são emitidos pelas mesmas fontes, portanto, é de se esperar que quando os níveis de um dos poluentes estão altos, os níveis do outro também estejam altos. Portanto, sem cálculos muito complicados, às vezes é difícil usar dados epidemiológicos para determinar os efeitos na saúde de um poluente em comparação com outro.</p>
<p>Por esse motivo, a pesquisa precisa ser realizada em um ambiente mais controlado. Isso pode ser obtido em laboratório usando estratégias invasivas de testes em animais ou implementando sistemas baseados em células humanas que representam o órgão em uma <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084952122003676">placa</a>.</p>
<h2>Pulmões de laboratório</h2>
<p>Em nosso laboratório na Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Swansea, Reino Unido, estamos tentando reproduzir a camada de células conhecida como epitélio alveolar, que reveste a parte mais profunda dos pulmões, onde o oxigênio entra na corrente sanguínea e o dióxido de carbono sai ao inspirarmos e expirarmos. Isso significa que essa também é uma área importante que a poluição do ar pode atingir e danificar. Portanto, queremos entender como a poluição afeta essa parte específica e muito delicada do corpo.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="ilustração da pesquisa descrita no artigo científico citado no texto" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Células do pulmão podem ser cultivadas em laboratório e expostas a diferentes poluentes de maneira similar à como os humanos respiram.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joshua Bateman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>O epitélio alveolar é composto por vários tipos diferentes de células, cada uma com uma função específica. Algumas permitem o movimento de gases para dentro e para fora do sangue, outras produzem surfactante (um fluido biológico que mantém a estrutura da parte inferior do pulmão à medida que a pessoa inspira e expira) e outras ajudam a remover micróbios e partículas inaladas. </p>
<p>Ao misturar todas essas células em proporções específicas, podemos produzir camadas únicas de tecido que se parecem muito com o epitélio alveolar de seres humanos saudáveis. Então, depois de cultivar esses modelos alveolares anatomicamente relevantes, podemos expô-los a vários poluentes para investigar o efeito que eles podem ter. </p>
<p>Usamos partículas de poeira urbana ou de ambientes internos “padronizadas”, o que nos permite comparar os resultados com os de outros laboratórios que também podem estar usando essas partículas (embora às vezes também sejam usadas partículas realistas retiradas diretamente do ar ao nosso redor). Em seguida, nós as colocamos em uma nuvem de aerossol que deposita as partículas nas células de uma forma que imita a inalação de partículas na vida real. </p>
<p>Também criamos uma câmara de NO₂ de última geração na qual podemos colocar as células. Isso nos permite ver o que acontece com as células quando cultivadas em diferentes concentrações de NO₂.</p>
<p>Ao investigarmos os efeitos do NO₂ e do MP₂,₅ separadamente, podemos preencher as lacunas deixadas pelos estudos epidemiológicos para descobrir o quanto cada poluente é perigoso individualmente, e se a exposição a ambos ao mesmo tempo é pior do que a exposição separada.</p>
<p>Inicialmente, estamos descobrindo que o NO₂ e o material particulado podem <a href="https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article/67/Supplement_1/i46/7159401">trabalhar em conjunto</a> para danificar células importantes na parte inferior do pulmão. Esperamos que nossos resultados melhorem nosso conhecimento sobre como a poluição do ar pode danificar tipos importantes de células no pulmão humano, contribuindo para o surgimento ou a exacerbação de doenças. Essas descobertas contribuiriam para a avaliação da saúde humana da exposição à poluição do ar, ajudando a desenvolver diretrizes futuras e relevantes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222600/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Bateman recebe financiamento da COLT Foundation e da UKHSA</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Clift recebe financiamento da UKHSA, União Europeia (H2020) e UKRI (NERC e MRC) para avaliar os efeitos na saúde de poluentes do ar. Ele também recebe financiamento da UKHSA e da COLT Foundation neste campode pesquisas. Ele é afiliado ao Comitê do Governo do Reino Unido para os Efeitos de Poluentes do Ar (UK Government Committee on the Effects of Air Pollutants) e tem um contrato de honorários com a UKHSA </span></em></p>Pesquisadores estão recriando tecidos das camadas mais profundas dos pulmões para estudar como diferentes poluentes afetam nossa capacidade de respirarJoshua Bateman, Postdoctoral Research Officer, Inhalation Toxicology, Swansea UniversityMartin Clift, Professor, Biomedical Sciences, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220782024-02-01T17:20:54Z2024-02-01T17:20:54ZAir pollution: we recreated the deepest sections of your lung in a laboratory to understand how polluted air can affect your health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571943/original/file-20240129-15-d2jfov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3790%2C2595&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/black-ink-on-white-background-form-1774078307">Oleg Krugliak / shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even today, in a world increasingly powered by renewable energy and clean technologies, air pollution poses a real risk to human health. In the UK alone, it is estimated to be responsible for <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-pollution-applying-all-our-health/air-pollution-applying-all-our-health">28,000 to 36,000 deaths every year</a>, and can vastly increase the risk of developing many lung and heart-related diseases, such as asthma or lung cancer.</p>
<p>Polluted air forms a complex mixture that changes depending on where the pollution is coming from, and what the local weather is doing at the time. People in towns and cities are more at risk since they live closer to most cars, factories and other sources of emissions.</p>
<p>Although there are many different types of pollutants within the air we breathe, two in particular are detrimental to our health: the gas nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and particulate matter (specifically, PM₂.₅), formed of floating, microscopic solid or liquid particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter (for reference, a human hair is about 70 micrometres in diameter).</p>
<p>In 2017, a <a href="https://airqualitynews.com/2019/10/11/london-commits-to-who-guidelines-for-pm2-5-by-2030/#:%7E:text=guidelines%20for%20PM2.-,5%20by%202030,(WHO)%20guidelines%20by%202030.">report</a> found that all areas of London exceeded World Health Organisation recommended levels for PM₂.₅, with many areas being more than double the recommended levels. Scenarios like these have allowed researchers to investigate the dangers of breathing in really polluted air. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Congestion charge sign and traffic at night" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572457/original/file-20240131-21-wonco7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cars are a big source of air pollution in the UK capital.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sampajano_Anizza / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00350-8/fulltext">One study</a> found that, across the world, 86% of people who live in urban areas are exposed to PM₂.₅ at levels higher than even the World Health Organisation’s more lenient 2005 guidelines, resulting in 1.8 million excess deaths in 2019. <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00255-2/fulltext">Another</a> found NO₂ to be responsible for 1.85 million cases of childhood asthma worldwide in 2019.</p>
<p>These figures come from studies on large populations of people, which take public health data and compare it to pollution data to look for correlations between pollution and disease. These are known as epidemiological studies. Although these studies can provide great insight into the risks associated with air pollution exposure, they do have their limitations.</p>
<p>For example, NO₂ and PM₂.₅ are emitted from the same sources, so you’d expect that when levels of one pollutant are high, levels of the other are high too. Therefore, without some very complicated maths, it’s sometimes hard to use epidemiological data to fully tease out the health effects of one pollutant compared to another.</p>
<p>For this reason, research needs to take place in a more controlled environment. This can be achieved in a laboratory setting either by using invasive animal testing strategies, or by implementing cell-based systems of human cells that represent the organ in a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084952122003676">dish</a>.</p>
<h2>Lungs in a lab</h2>
<p>In our lab at Swansea University Medical School, we are trying to replicate the layer of cells known as the alveolar epithelium, which lines the deepest part of your lungs where oxygen enters your bloodstream and carbon dioxide leaves as you breathe in and out. This means it’s also a key area that air pollution can target and damage. We therefore want to understand how pollution affects this specific and very delicate body part.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="illustration of the research described in the article" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572451/original/file-20240131-19-dwxfzc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lung cells can be grown in the lab and exposed to air pollutants in a way that is similar to how humans are exposed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joshua Bateman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The alveolar epithelium is made up of several different types of cells, each with a specific job. Some allow movement of gases into and out of the blood, some produce surfactant (a biological fluid that maintains the structure of the lower lung as one breathes in and out) and some help remove inhaled microbes and particles. </p>
<p>By mixing all these cells together at specific ratios, we can produce single layers of cells that look very much like the alveolar epithelium of healthy humans. Then, once we’ve grown these anatomically relevant alveolar models, we can expose them to various pollutants to investigate what effect they may have. </p>
<p>We use “standardised” urban or indoor dust particles, which allows us to compare results with those from other labs who might also be using these particles (although realistic particles taken straight from the air around us are also sometimes used). We then put them in an aerosol cloud that deposits the particles onto the cells in a way that mimics the inhalation of particles in real life. </p>
<p>We’ve also devised a state-of-the-art NO₂ chamber that we can put the cells into. This allows us to see what happens to the cells when grown in differing NO₂ concentrations.</p>
<p>By investigating the effects of NO₂ and PM₂.₅ separately, we can fill in the gaps left by epidemiological studies to find out how individually hazardous each particle is – and whether being exposed to both at once is worse than being exposed separately.</p>
<p>Initially, we are finding that NO₂ and PM may <a href="https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article/67/Supplement_1/i46/7159401">work in tandem</a> to damage important cells within the lower lung. Our results will hopefully improve our knowledge of how air pollution may damage the important cell types within the human (lower) lung, contributing to the onset or exacerbation of disease. Such findings would contribute to the human health assessment of exposure to air pollution, helping to develop future, relevant guidelines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Bateman receives funding from the COLT Foundation and UKHSA.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Clift receives funding from UKHSA, the EU (H2020 funding scheme) and UKRI (NERC and MRC) to assess the human health effects of air pollutants. He also receives funding from UKHSA and the COLT Foundation on this area of research. He is affiliated with the UK Government Committee on the Effects of Air Pollutants, and has an honorary contract with UKHSA. </span></em></p>Researchers created a layer of human lung cells and exposed them to different pollutants.Joshua Bateman, Postdoctoral Research Officer, Inhalation Toxicology, Swansea UniversityMartin Clift, Professor, Biomedical Sciences, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2208672024-01-16T14:55:38Z2024-01-16T14:55:38ZCOVID barely gets a mention these days – here’s why that’s a dangerous situation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568841/original/file-20240111-25-3s8lzt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C0%2C4635%2C3060&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">COVID is not getting milder. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/sentence-of-i-miss-you-mum-seen-on-the-national-covid-19-news-photo/1901345432?adppopup=true">Hesther Ng/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://fortune.com/well/2024/01/05/us-reachest-second-highest-covid-peak-pirola-jn1-omicron-pi-rho/">United States</a> experienced its second largest COVID wave of the pandemic in January 2024. For the year to December 2023, in England COVID rates <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/winter-coronavirus-covid-19-infection-study-estimates-of-epidemiological-characteristics-england-and-scotland-2023-to-2024/winter-coronavirus-covid-19-infection-study-estimates-of-epidemiological-characteristics-11-january-2024">peaked</a> at around <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/winter-coronavirus-covid-19-infection-study-estimates-of-epidemiological-characteristics-england-and-scotland-2023-to-2024/winter-coronavirus-covid-19-infection-study-estimates-of-epidemiological-characteristics-21-december-2023">one in 24</a> people. During the same month, <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/singapore-witnesses-record-surge-in-number-of-covid-19-cases-mask-mandate-returns-671031">Singapore</a> also experienced record COVID cases and a spike in hospitalisations. </p>
<p>COVID, then, is still a major public health problem, accounting for 10,000 deaths in 50 countries and a 42% increase in hospitalisations <a href="https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1745092955558354961?s=20">during December 2023 alone</a>. </p>
<p>COVID may not be a global health emergency at the moment, but it is still killing and harming far too many people worldwide. </p>
<p>Yet, judging by the lack of media coverage and social media attention, at least compared to earlier in the pandemic, you might be forgiven for thinking that COVID is no longer a big deal.</p>
<p>But acting as though COVID doesn’t exist or isn’t a problem is a dangerous situation. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)01012-7/fulltext">COVID complacency</a>, by governments, the media and the public, <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/science/covid-19-scientists-complacency-who-pandemic-over-2321071">is a threat</a> to the overall health of the population, to health services and particularly to those <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/28-03-2023-sage-updates-covid-19-vaccination-guidance">most vulnerable</a>, including older adults and those with pre-existing health conditions. </p>
<p>Contrary to the popular misbelief, COVID is not getting milder. We have <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-common-covid-myths-busted-by-a-virologist-and-a-public-health-expert-188396">known this for a while</a>, but <a href="https://fortune.com/well/2024/01/08/covid-omicron-variants-pirola-ba286-jn1-more-severe-disease-lung-gi-tract-symptoms/">new research</a> is starting to suggest that Omicron variants might be evolving into more severe forms. </p>
<p>Another common misapprehension is that once we have had COVID, which most of us have by now, our immune system is all the better for it. </p>
<p>While infection does lead the body to produce antibodies, getting our antibodies from vaccines and boosters is a safer option, particularly in light of <a href="https://time.com/6553340/covid-19-reinfection-risk/">growing evidence</a> that repeat COVID infections increase the risk of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36357676/">long COVID symptoms, hospitalisation and death</a>. </p>
<p>Also, high COVID rates add pressure to already strained health systems. COVID, along with flu and other respiratory viruses are playing their part in the healthcare crisis being experienced in the <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/383/bmj.p2962.full.pdf">UK</a> and a number of <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/449c4748-ef63-4f0a-b26e-4e528889fac4">EU countries</a>, for example – and long COVID is responsible for <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12875-023-02196-1">substantial financial burden</a> on health services. </p>
<p>It’s perhaps understandable why many people are less interested in COVID these days. It’s been a long four years. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258781">research</a> with colleagues on public attitudes to COVID, we found as early as winter 2020 that people were getting fatigued by COVID news and information. But raising awareness of the ongoing risks posed by COVID remains as important as ever.</p>
<h2>How to fight COVID complacency</h2>
<p>First, we need to ensure vaccine uptake is as high as possible. In <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6596accec23a10000d8d0b7e/Weekly-flu-and-COVID-19-surveillance-report-week-1.pdf">the UK</a>, like many countries, booster uptake amongst those eligible this year has been significantly lower compared to last year, and fewer population groups have been offered the vaccine. In future campaigns, boosters should be offered <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/08/uk-mps-press-for-wider-covid-vaccine-access-amid-concern-over-new-variant">more broadly</a>. </p>
<p>But broadening vaccine access is only one part of the puzzle - for example in the US, where new boosters are available to everyone, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data-research/dashboard/vaccination-trends-adults.html">only two-in-ten</a> have taken the offer up, including only four-in-ten of those aged over 65. </p>
<p>One of the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-12-20/why-arent-americans-getting-the-new-covid-19-vaccine">most common reasons</a> for not getting boosted is the misconception that once a person has been infected there is no point in getting vaccinated. Vaccine campaigns should be accompanied by proactive, visible and clear public health messaging to inform the public that boosters can still <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/13-12-2023-statement-on-the-antigen-composition-of-covid-19-vaccines">help to reduce the risk</a> of illness, hospitalisation, and defend against newer COVID variants such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p2975">JN.1</a>, which was named by the <a href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/18122023_jn.1_ire_clean.pdf?sfvrsn=6103754a_3">World Health Organization</a> (WHO) on December 19 2023 as a “variant of interest” and may be more infectious than other variants.</p>
<p>Second, we can still make use of protections that work. For example, fundamental investment in better ventilation is much needed. Cleaner air is essential for public health and will have benefits that <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-investment-in-clean-indoor-air-would-do-more-than-help-us-fight-covid-it-would-help-us-concentrate-with-lasting-benefits-176547">extend beyond COVID</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus/ventilation-and-coronavirus-covid-19#:%7E:text=Ensuring%20proper%20ventilation%20with%20outside,air%20and%20land%20on%20surfaces.">Good ventilation</a> can not only <a href="https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/impact-non-pharmaceutical-interventions-on-covid-19-transmission/the-royal-society-covid-19-examining-the-effectiveness-of-non-pharmaceutical-interventions-report.pdf">reduce the spread of COVID</a> and other respiratory viruses, but can generally help reduce indoor air pollution, and can even improve things such as <a href="https://www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/general/attendance-focus-shows-why-good-ventilation-schools-still-matters">school attendance</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-investment-in-clean-indoor-air-would-do-more-than-help-us-fight-covid-it-would-help-us-concentrate-with-lasting-benefits-176547">concentration</a> in the classroom.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Older male seated on a bus, wearing a brown coat, hat and white COVID mask" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568885/original/file-20240111-23-i3s8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568885/original/file-20240111-23-i3s8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568885/original/file-20240111-23-i3s8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568885/original/file-20240111-23-i3s8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568885/original/file-20240111-23-i3s8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568885/original/file-20240111-23-i3s8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568885/original/file-20240111-23-i3s8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Masks are still effective protection against COVID.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/february-2023-brandenburg-cottbus-pensioner-horst-becker-news-photo/1246713249?adppopup=true">Frank Hammerschmidt/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/spain-facemasks-mandatory-hospitals-flu-covid-cases-surge">Spain</a>, for example, has just reintroduced face mask rules in hospitals and other healthcare settings. <a href="https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/impact-non-pharmaceutical-interventions-on-covid-19-transmission/">Existing evidence</a> suggests that masks do work to help reduce the transmission of COVID. Masks have been controversial, but can be thought of <a href="https://theconversation.com/living-with-covid-how-treating-masks-like-umbrellas-could-help-us-weather-future-pandemic-threats-187377">like umbrellas</a> - we can use them as, when and where needed. </p>
<p>Other countries would also do well to follow <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/who-designates-jn1-separate-covid-19-variant-interest">WHO advice</a> and reintroduce face mask regulation in medical settings, to reduce hospital acquired infections, protect vulnerable patients and reduce sickness and absenteeism amongst healthcare workers.</p>
<p>We can still live with COVID and at the same time respect, and try to reduce, the harm it can cause.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Nicholas Williams has received funding from Senedd Cymru, Public Health Wales and the Wales Covid Evidence Centre for research on COVID-19, and has consulted for the World Health Organization. However, this article reflects the views of the author only, in his academic capacity at Swansea University, and no funding or organizational bodies were involved in the writing or content of this article.</span></em></p>COVID complacency is a serious threat to public health. COVID hasn’t gone away. Vaccines haven’t become pointless – and it’s a good idea to keep wearing your mask.Simon Nicholas Williams, Lecturer in Psychology, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2112872024-01-11T17:16:14Z2024-01-11T17:16:14ZHedd Wyn: how the life of one of Wales’ most promising poets was cut short by the first world war<p>The names Passchendaele, the Somme and Mametz Wood stand as grim sentinels, forever bound to the unimaginable carnage of the first world war. Almost 500,000 men were killed in three months at Passchendaele, the <a href="https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-third-battle-of-ypres-passchendaele#:%7E:text=Casualties%20were%20heavy&text=Casualties%20among%20German%20forces%20were,the%20Third%20Battle%20of%20Ypres.">third battle of Ypres</a>. On the first day of that battle, Wales lost one of its most talented poets. </p>
<p>Born on January 13 1887, Ellis Humphrey Evans was the eldest child of Mary and Evan Evans and one of 11 siblings. He became known by his bardic name, <a href="https://www.ylolfa.com/products/9781784610425/cofiant-hedd-wyn">Hedd Wyn</a> (Blessed Peace). The family lived and worked at a remote farm outside Trawsfynydd in north-west Wales, called <em>Yr Ysgwrn</em>.</p>
<p>Evan Evans bought his son a book on the rules of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-welsh-developed-their-own-form-of-poetry-73299">strict-metre Welsh verse</a> when Hedd Wyn was 11 years old. He read the book with passion and enthusiasm, and soon mastered the difficult and intricate rules of strict-metre verse, known as <em>cynghanedd</em>.</p>
<p>He wrote his first ever <em>englyn</em> (a short four-lined poem in strict-metre) before his 12th birthday. Soon after, he began competing at local <em>eisteddfodau</em>, Welsh cultural festivals which showcase literary and artistic endeavours.</p>
<p>Hedd Wyn spent most of his short life at home. He received little formal schooling. His education was spasmodic and he was frequently absent from school when the weather was bad, as there was a substantial distance between the school and his home.</p>
<p>Hedd Wyn was an inept farmer and shepherd, but he loved looking after the sheep out on the mountain pastures, though only because the solitude and silence gave him ample opportunity to meditate and to write poetry.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="An old black and white photo of a man wearing a suit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567888/original/file-20240104-26-q5itn3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567888/original/file-20240104-26-q5itn3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567888/original/file-20240104-26-q5itn3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567888/original/file-20240104-26-q5itn3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567888/original/file-20240104-26-q5itn3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1127&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567888/original/file-20240104-26-q5itn3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1127&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567888/original/file-20240104-26-q5itn3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1127&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hedd Wyn was 30 years old when he was killed.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Conscription</h2>
<p>And then came war. Hedd Wyn’s fate, along with thousands of others, was sealed when parliament passed the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1916/104/contents/enacted">Military Service Act</a> in 1916. This new legislation imposed conscription and was aimed at unmarried men or widowers. </p>
<p>Hedd Wyn had no choice but to enlist. He joined the 15th battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and by July 1917, he was stationed at Fléchin, a small village in northern France. </p>
<p>He and thousands of other soldiers were to participate in one of the major engagements of the war, the third battle of Ypres, otherwise known as the battle of Passchendaele. British troops were to occupy the village of Pilkem on Pilkem Ridge, and the marshlands to the east of Ypres before advancing towards Langemarck. Capturing the village of Pilkem and Pilkem Ridge, and holding both positions, was one of the main objectives of this enormous campaign. </p>
<p>It was during a period of intense fighting on Iron Cross Ridge on July 31 that Hedd Wyn was mortally wounded. </p>
<h2>The National Eisteddfod</h2>
<p>For a Welsh poet, winning the coveted chair at the <a href="https://eisteddfod.wales">National Eisteddfod</a>, an annual festival celebrating arts, language and culture, represents the <a href="https://blog.library.wales/the-chairing-of-the-bard-3/">pinnacle of achievement</a>. The chair is awarded to the winning entrant in the competition for the <em>awdl</em> – poetry written in strict-metre <em>cynghanedd</em> . A crown is awarded separately to those writing in free verse.</p>
<p>Chairing ceremonies are presided over by the archdruid, who reads the adjudicators’ comments before announcing the nom de plume of the winning bard. Nobody knows the true identity of the poet until the archdruid asks them to stand. </p>
<p>Before enlisting, Hedd Wyn had started working on an <em>awdl</em> for the chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod. Due to the war, the Eisteddfod that year was held in England, in Birkenhead near Liverpool. Hedd Wyn had almost won the chair the previous year in Aberystwyth.</p>
<p>While stationed in France, he finally completed his <em>awdl</em> titled <em><a href="https://www.library.wales/discover-learn/digital-exhibitions/manuscripts/modern-period/yr-arwr-hedd-wyn">Yr Arwr</a></em> (The Hero) and posted it to Birkenhead under his nom de plume, <em>Fleur-de-lis</em>. He was working on the poem until the last possible minute.</p>
<p>A packed crowd was watching the chairing ceremony in Birkenhead in early September, and among them was the prime minister at the time, David Lloyd George, himself a Welsh speaker. Without knowing he had died of his wounds several weeks earlier, the adjudicators had unanimously awarded the chair to Hedd Wyn. </p>
<p>As is customary, the archdruid called out <em>Fleur-de-lis</em> three times. But nobody stood up. Then he solemnly announced that the poet had been killed in battle six weeks earlier. The empty chair was draped in black in front of an emotional crowd. The 1917 eisteddfod became known as <em>Eisteddfod y Gadair Ddu</em> (the Eisteddfod of the Black Chair). </p>
<h2>Hedd Wyn’s legacy</h2>
<p>A volume of Hedd Wyn’s poetry, entitled <em>Cerddi’r Bugail</em> (The Shepherd’s Verses), was published a year later. The first 1,000 copies were sold in five days. Eventually every copy of the 4,000 first edition was sold. </p>
<p>In 1923, a statue, depicting Hedd Wyn as a shepherd, the work of artist L. S. Merrifield, was unveiled by his mother in Trawsfynydd. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lAU8frR8GiA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Hedd Wyn was the first Welsh film to be nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars in 1993.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On St David’s Day 2012, Wales’ then first minister, Carwyn Jones, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-17221011">announced</a> that Hedd Wyn’s home, <em>Yr Ysgwrn</em>, had been bought for the nation, to secure and safeguard the poet’s legacy. Two years later, it was renovated and turned into a <a href="https://yrysgwrn.com/en/">museum</a> by the Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park.</p>
<p>Hedd Wyn was a highly talented poet who wrote exquisite work. His <em>englyn</em> in memory of his friend, Lieutenant D. O. Evans of Blaenau Ffestiniog, for example, became an elegy for all the young men who had fallen on the killing fields of the Great War: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ei aberth nid â heibio – ei wyneb</p>
<p>Annwyl nid â'n ango</p>
<p>Er i'r Almaen ystaenio</p>
<p>Ei dwrn dur yn ei waed o.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It can be translated as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>His sacrifice was not in vain, his dear</p>
<p>Face will always remain,</p>
<p>Although he left a bloodstain</p>
<p>On Germany’s iron fist of pain.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Llwyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bard Hedd Wyn was killed in action in France in 1917.Alan Llwyd, Professor of Welsh, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2199972023-12-19T10:55:02Z2023-12-19T10:55:02ZDoctors rank patients’ own assessment of their illness as least important in diagnosis – new study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566376/original/file-20231218-25-h7xrtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5703%2C3790&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-shot-older-senior-female-patient-2033537717">Ground Picture/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Medical paternalism, where “doctors know best” and patient views and opinions are considered to be of lower importance, is viewed as increasingly unacceptable. We are in an age where patient-centred care and shared-decision making is encouraged between doctors and patients, but is this actually happening?</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/kead685">study</a>, led by Cambridge University and Kings’ College London, is focused on lupus, one of the most challenging autoimmune diseases to diagnose, to manage and to live with. Over 1,000 patients and doctors worldwide took part in the study. The results showed many areas where patient reports were under-valued. </p>
<p>The doctors were asked to rank 13 types of evidence used to diagnose neuropsychiatric lupus, a type of lupus that affects the brain and nervous system. This included blood tests, observations by family or friends, and patient views. </p>
<p>Even though the doctors often acknowledged that they didn’t know much about lupus and that tests were often not accurate, they ranked their own assessments and diagnostic tests highest. Patient self-assessments were ranked the lowest.</p>
<p>Less than 5% of doctors ranked asking patients for their self-assessments (whether their disease was flaring) in the top three types of evidence in diagnostic decisions. This is despite many lupus symptoms – such as headache, hallucinations and depression – being invisible and not testable, and so only captured through self-assessments. </p>
<p>Doctors and patients gave many examples where “subjective” symptoms had been ignored or misdiagnosed. Where this happened, patient <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/rap/rkaa037">trust</a> in doctors was usually lost, and some misdiagnoses had led to permanent disability and even death. </p>
<p>Almost half (46%) of the 676 patients reported never or rarely having been asked for their self-assessment of their disease activity. Many patients discussed feeling that their symptoms were not believed unless they were visible to the doctor or validated by test results. </p>
<p>One patient shared how “degrading” this felt, and added “when I enter a medical appointment and my body is being treated as if I don’t have any authority over it and what I’m feeling isn’t valid then that is a very unsafe environment”.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Neuropsychiatric lupus explained.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>‘Objective’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘accurate’</h2>
<p>The results of this study raise the question of why “objectivity” is often given much more weight in medicine than “subjective” patient reports and views. Part of the reason may be due to a mistaken belief that objective is similar in meaning to accurate. </p>
<p>In reality, objective tests in lupus and other rheumatology diseases can be unrevealing or even misleading. For example, brain scans, even in patients with severe neuropsychiatric lupus, are often completely normal.</p>
<p>Objective test results can be wrong and subjective self-interpretations can often be right.</p>
<p>We must also consider that if a patient is classified as doing well in objective tests (such as blood tests) but feels subjectively very unwell, is the subjective view not more important in terms of the patient’s quality of life? </p>
<p>Doctors face major obstacles in making accurate assessments due to limited resources, including short appointment times, making it difficult to discuss all the patient’s symptoms. We found in our earlier <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/kead369">research</a> that mental health symptoms in lupus and other rheumatology diseases were much more common than doctors realised. </p>
<p>Doctors are often having to make assessments with limited knowledge. They know less about a patient’s symptoms than the patient experiencing them, and this can be compounded by patients not telling their doctors about many of their symptoms due to fear of stigma and misdiagnoses. </p>
<p>Although doctors try to be as objective as possible, no human being can be wholly objective (not influenced by personal feelings or opinions). Our study found evidence that patients’ and doctors’ personal characteristics, particularly gender, may be influencing diagnosis. </p>
<p>This included male doctors being statistically more likely than female doctors to feel patients over-played their symptoms, and reports that female patients received more psychosomatic “in your head” type misdiagnoses. </p>
<p>Many of the symptoms patients told us about – such as increased nightmares, tingling all over, severe fatigue, or feeling “spaced out” before a lupus flare-up – cannot be seen or confirmed by investigations. They are also not on the formal diagnostic criteria. </p>
<h2>Patients need to be involved in diagnostic criteria</h2>
<p>Historically, doctors decided and wrote disease diagnostic criteria and designed research studies without involving patients’ views. Times are fortunately changing and there is now more research where patients are fully involved at every stage as equals. </p>
<p>Hopefully, diagnostic criteria will soon then reflect the reality of patients’ symptoms so that patients and doctors will know which symptoms to look out for and discuss together. </p>
<p>There were positive doctor-patient relationships discussed in the study interviews. For example, one patient told us “[My rheumatologist] knows and recollects every single symptom I have ever told him … he tries to put it together and listens to us so well.” </p>
<p>However, the study found patient views tended to be overlooked. This research highlights that patients may often, although not always, be “expert diagnosticians in their own right”, as one of the psychiatrists interviewed said.</p>
<p>Both views in medical relationships – patients’ depth of “lived” experience, and doctors’ breadth of “learned” experience – need to be respected and valued. This may reap many potential benefits, including quicker and more accurate diagnoses. Stronger collaborative relationships would also ensure more patients feel heard and validated, and lead to greater trust and satisfaction – for both patients and doctors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Sloan receives funding from The Lupus Trust and LUPUS UK </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rupert Harwood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Doctors dismiss patients’ ‘subjective’ symptoms over their ‘objective’ evaluation.Melanie Sloan, Researcher, Public Health, University of CambridgeRupert Harwood, PhD Candidate, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2192672023-12-18T16:17:09Z2023-12-18T16:17:09ZHow a Victorian trip to Palestine spurred modern ornithology – and left it with imperial baggage<p>Palestine’s natural splendour offered a landscape ripe for scientific “discovery”, description and expropriation by European imperial powers in the 19th century. And in the 1860s an English vicar named <a href="https://www.sacristy.co.uk/books/history/henry-baker-tristram-ornithology#">Henry Baker Tristram</a> claimed its birds. </p>
<p>Tristram was a co-founder of <a href="https://bou.org.uk/about-the-bou/">Ibis</a>, the ornithology journal published since 1859 by the British Ornithologists’ Union. His articles on Palestinian ornithology began with the first issue, when he contributed a list of birds he’d collected during a brief visit there the previous year. The list included a species previously unknown to western science, which was named in his honour as Tristram’s grackle (now more commonly known as Tristram’s <a href="https://ebird.org/species/trista1?siteLanguage=en_GB">starling</a>). </p>
<p>Tristram made a major contribution to the study of birds. At that time ornithology reflected imperial priorities and was concerned with collecting, describing and mapping. His observations of Palestine’s birds, in particular, laid the groundwork for the modern ornithology of the area. </p>
<p>However, his exploits in Palestine, still honoured in the name “Tristram’s starling”, also show why honorific bird names like this have come under increasing <a href="https://americanornithology.org/about/english-bird-names-project/">scrutiny</a>. </p>
<p>Tristram returned to Palestine for a fuller investigation in 1864. He travelled south from Beirut with a group of fellow naturalists and a large baggage train. The account of his ten-month-long journey was published in 1865 as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Land_of_Israel.html?id=Qd8TAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Land of Israel</a>. </p>
<p>This book, and the several <a href="https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Tristram%2C%20H.%20B.%20%28Henry%20Baker%29%2C%201822-1906">others</a> he wrote about Palestine, formed part of a growing wave of popular tourist accounts of the Holy Land. They fed the interest and shaped the perceptions of British readers fascinated by the area’s historical and Biblical remnants, its living inhabitants, and the missionary efforts to achieve conversions to Christianity. </p>
<p>Unusually, Tristram and his companions travelled far off the well-beaten tourist and Christian pilgrimage routes throughout Palestine. The Land of Israel includes detailed descriptions of Palestine’s diverse ethnic groups, their domestic, religious, military and economic traditions and practices, and their relationships with one another. </p>
<h2>Imperialism</h2>
<p>Tristram’s descriptions of Palestine’s people in many ways reflected typical British imperial views of “natives”, not least in his use of the terms “childlike” and “savage”, and his comparison of Bedouins to “red Indians”. His racialising and religious views were also shaped by his inclinations as a natural historian – he categorised those he observed according to type, and deviation from type. </p>
<p>At best, his characterisations are paternalistic; at worst, deeply offensive. The terms “debased” and “degraded” repeat often. Of one group near Jericho he writes: “I never saw such vacant, sensual, and debased features in any group of human beings of the type and form of whites”. </p>
<p>Of some Bedouin further south, he observes that “they were all decidedly of the Semitic type, and, excepting the colour and the smell, had nothing of the negro about them. They must, however, be far inferior to the races they have supplanted.”</p>
<p>Occasionally, he acknowledges Ottoman oppression and neglect as the cause of poverty, but in most cases links it to “Moslem fanaticism” and “Oriental indolence”. Although there are exceptions, Muslim settlements and their inhabitants are almost invariably “filthy”, “squalid” and “miserable”. </p>
<p>Of religious sites, he notes many instances of churches which have been “perverted” into mosques. One of his most offensive observations is of a Bedouin sheikh, Abu Dahuk: “like all his followers, he is very dark – not so black as the commonalty, but of a deep olive brown. This may partly arise from the habit of these people, who never wash. They occasionally take off their clothes, search them, slaughter their thousands, and air themselves, but never apply water to their persons”. The odour, he remarks, “is unendurable”.</p>
<p>Conversion to Christianity appeared to redeem this degradation. In the Galilee he notes: “Christianity had here, as elsewhere, stamped the place and its substantial houses with a neatness and cleanliness to which the best of Moslem villages are strangers”. </p>
<p>Conversion also seemed to him to transform racial attributes. Of two Protestant converts he observes that “so much had religion and education elevated them, that they seemed of a different race from those around them”. Among Bethlehem’s Christians, he particularly admires “the handsome faces of the men and women, and the wondrous beauty of the children, so fair and European-like”. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An old brown book cover with the words The Land of Israel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of Land of Israel 1872 edition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jasmine Donahaye</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tristram describes Jewish ethnicity in typical missionary terms. The Jews were a “decayed and scattered people”, with “musty and crumbling learning”. At a Protestant missionary tent in Tiberias he notes that “the Polish Jews, very numerous here, were willing to listen … but the native Jews, with whom were mingled a few Moslems, were occasionally very violent in their expressions”. The Jews, he concludes, “are a stiff-necked race”. </p>
<p>During his months in Palestine in 1864, Tristram shot hundreds of birds for his collection, and shot many more during subsequent visits. His surviving collection in the Liverpool World Museum includes, among others, the original 1858 <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/whats-type-guide-type-specimens">type specimens</a> of Tristram’s grackle, and 17 Palestine sunbird skins.</p>
<p>Tristram depended on many people – servants, dragomen, muleteers, cooks, collectors and guards – for their expertise, labour and protection, and sometimes even for <a href="https://newwelshreview.com/book/birdsplaining-a-natural-history-by-jasmine-donahaye">saving his life</a>. He also depended on them for help with obtaining specimens. But for that help with collecting he only names one person: “Gemil, with a little training,” he writes, “would soon have made a first-rate collector.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dozens-of-north-american-bird-species-are-getting-new-names-every-name-tells-a-story-217886">Why dozens of North American bird species are getting new names: Every name tells a story</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>Those British imperial values that coloured Tristram’s view of Palestine’s people enabled him to name and claim its natural resources for western science, and for personal glory. They also gave him licence to propose that the land itself should be claimed: “Either an European protectorate or union with Egypt seems requisite to save Palestine from gradual dissolution,” he remarked, “unless, which seems hopeless, the Arabs can be induced to cultivate the sod.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Donahaye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>H.B. Tristram was a Victorian clergyman and ornithologist who categorised a list of birds he’d found in Palestine.Jasmine Donahaye, Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2147562023-12-01T17:52:49Z2023-12-01T17:52:49ZElectric arc furnaces: the technology poised to make British steelmaking more sustainable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556676/original/file-20231030-19-zblfpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C0%2C5615%2C3741&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Steel production in an electric arc furnace.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/steel-production-electric-furnace-780620236">Norenko Andrey/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a move to embrace sustainable steelmaking, British Steel has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/06/british-steel-scunthorpe-furnaces-jobs">unveiled</a> a £1.25 billion plan to replace two blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/electric-arc-furnace-process">electric arc furnaces</a>. This follows the UK government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/welsh-steels-future-secured-as-uk-government-and-tata-steel-announce-port-talbot-green-transition-proposal">commitment</a> in September to <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/live-updates-thousands-job-losses-27716778">invest</a> up to £500 million towards an electric arc furnace at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant in south Wales.</p>
<p>This method of steelmaking can use up to 100% scrap steel as its raw material, resulting in a significant reduction in carbon emissions. It is the future of steelmaking. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1721521512086196450"}"></div></p>
<p>Steel is an incredible material and for good reason. It’s the world’s most commonly used metal because it’s strong, durable and recyclable, making it the perfect material for everything from skyscrapers to electric vehicles and solar panels. More than <a href="https://worldsteel.org/steel-topics/statistics/annual-production-steel-data/?ind=P1_crude_steel_total_pub/WORLD_ALL/GBR">1.8 billion tonnes</a> of crude steel were produced globally last year. That number is only expected to grow as the world transitions to a more sustainable future.</p>
<p>The UK uses around 12 million tonnes of steel each year. And in 2022, it produced just under 6 million tonnes, contributing to around <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CDP-2023-0016/CDP-2023-0016.pdf">2.4%</a> of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.</p>
<h2>Electric arc furnaces</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.eurofer.eu/about-steel/learn-about-steel/what-is-steel-and-how-is-steel-made">two main</a> steel production methods. Currently, Port Talbot and Scunthorpe use the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace method. The purpose of the blast furnace is to separate iron ore extracted from the ground into its component parts: iron and oxygen. </p>
<p>A form of carbon, normally coal, combines with the oxygen in the iron ore. The outputs of this process are iron and carbon dioxide. The basic oxygen furnace is then used to convert the iron into steel. </p>
<p>As a global average, this method of steelmaking emits around <a href="https://worldsteel.org/wp-content/uploads/Sustainability-Indicators-2022-report.pdf">2.32 tonnes</a> of CO₂ per tonne of steel produced. </p>
<p>An electric arc furnace works by generating a high-temperature arc between graphite electrodes, using electricity as the energy source. This arc is then used to melt metal inside a chamber. </p>
<p>Using this method, up to 100% scrap steel can be used as the raw material, while the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace method can only use a maximum of <a href="https://worldsteel.org/steel-topics/raw-materials/">30% scrap</a>. A switch to the electric arc furnace method could reduce emissions to 0.67 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of steel produced when using 100% scrap steel.</p>
<p>In the future, it is also possible the electricity needed for electric arc furnace processes could come from 100% renewable sources, whereas a form of carbon will always be needed to reduce iron ore when using the blast furnace method.</p>
<h2>Recycled steel</h2>
<p>Steel is the most recycled material in the <a href="https://worldsteel.org/about-steel/steel-industry-facts/steel-core-green-economy/">world</a>, and so scrap steel is quickly becoming a crucial raw material. In 2021, the global steel industry recycled around 680 million tonnes of scrap steel. This equates to <a href="https://worldsteel.org/about-steel/steel-facts?fact=53">savings</a> of almost 1 billion tonnes of CO₂ emissions, compared to using virgin steel production. </p>
<p>In 2021, more than <a href="https://www.bir.org/images/BIR-pdf/Ferrous_report_2017-2021_lr.pdf">8.2 million tonnes</a> of steel scrap was exported from the UK. If collected and sorted more carefully, using this material domestically could provide both environmental and economic value, by helping to meet growing national demand for steel.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large steelworks lit up at night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6015%2C3357&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot, south Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/port-talbot-wales-uk-industrial-landscape-1264187401">Christopher Willans/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We know that steel produced with an electric arc furnace can have different properties to blast furnace produced material. A large factor in this is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03019233.2020.1805276">quality of scrap steel</a> used in the electric arc furnace – if the scrap steel quality is low, then so will the quality of the output.</p>
<p>With that in mind, there is a need for research, innovation and skills development to ensure this transition to lower-carbon steelmaking methods is successful. </p>
<p>Finding and sorting the right types of scrap material, confirming material properties and increasing supply chain understanding of electric arc furnace steelmaking are all necessary for a wide range of steel products to continue to be made in the UK.</p>
<h2>Sustainable steelmaking</h2>
<p>There is a race across Europe to secure investment for sustainable steelmaking technologies. <a href="https://www.hybritdevelopment.se/en/">Hybrit</a> is a fossil-free steel project in Sweden between several major steel producers and is already underway. </p>
<p>This follows plans to invest almost <a href="https://energypost.eu/hybrit-project-sweden-goes-for-zero-carbon-steel/">€40 billion</a> (almost £35 billion) in low-emission steelmaking technologies over the next 20 years. Also in Sweden, the company H2 Green Steel has secured <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/swedens-h2-green-steel-gains-support-345-bln-debt-funding-fossil-fuel-free-plant-2022-10-24/">€3.5 billion</a> (£3 billion) to build a hydrogen-powered steel plant.</p>
<p>In July 2023, the German government announced €2 billion (£1.7 billion) of <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/eu-commission-oks-e2-billion-state-aid-for-ailing-german-steel-sector/">support</a> for Thyssenkrupp, the steel multinational. And that was on top of the €3 billion (£2.6 billion) it had previously announced to support the country’s industrial green transition. A</p>
<p>ArcelorMittal, the second largest steel producer in the world, has also announced green investment in their plants in <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3404">Belgium</a> and <a href="https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/climate-action/decarbonisation-investment-plans/spain-a-1-billion-investment-to-halve-our-carbon-emissions-and-create-the-world-s-first-full-scale-zero-carbon-emissions-steel-plant">Spain</a>, totalling more than €1.2 billion (£1.5 billion).</p>
<p>While the UK government has <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-uk-should-lead-on-a-green-industrial-strategy-not-roll-back/">no published</a> industrial strategy, other organisations have produced roadmaps for decarbonised steelmaking in the UK. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.energy-transitions.org/new-report-breakthrough-steel-investment/">report</a> by the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of energy leaders committed to net-zero emissions, outlined plans for investing in low-emission steelmaking in early 2023. With the right level of government and private sector investment, the UK could become a world leader in green steelmaking – but only it acts now.</p>
<p>As global temperatures continue to rise and the climate emergency deepens, the need for a decarbonised steel industry is greater than ever. Lower carbon methods of steel production are the future of the industry both in the UK and around the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Becky Waldram receives funding from EPSRC, as part of the SUSTAIN Hub (Strategic University Steel Technology and Innovation Network). She is member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining. </span></em></p>Electric arc furnaces can use up to 100% scrap steel as its raw material, resulting in a significant reduction in emissions.Becky Waldram, Materials Scientist and SUSTAIN Impact & Engagement Manager, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2186292023-11-30T10:21:06Z2023-11-30T10:21:06ZPalantir: privacy fears over handing NHS data to US defence provider show how lack of trust is holding back much-needed reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562145/original/file-20231128-29-yf36gf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=613%2C49%2C6769%2C4978&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/clerk-leafing-through-stored-folders-looking-2254682601">Shutterstock/Marian Weyo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Controversial US tech company Palantir <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/2023/11/new-nhs-software-to-improve-care-for-millions-of-patients/">has been awarded a £330 million contract</a> to create a new system for sharing data – including patients’ medical details – within the NHS in England. </p>
<p>The move has been <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/2023/11/new-nhs-software-to-improve-care-for-millions-of-patients">welcomed by NHS leaders</a> as a way to enable healthcare workers to access live healthcare data at the “touch of a button”. But doctors’ organisations and human rights charities have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/21/patient-privacy-fears-us-spy-tech-firm-palantir-wins-nhs-contract">expressed concerns</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/business/palantir-nhs-uk-health-contract-thiel.html">about the contract</a> and Palantir, including whether patient data would be suitably protected.</p>
<p>The NHS is in desperate need of a better way to share information between the many care organisations that comprise it. The inability of its many existing data systems to talk to each other can lead to delays in care, poor understanding of local health service needs and hide inequalities in <a href="https://www.health.org.uk/publications/long-reads/how-better-use-of-data-can-help-address-key-challenges-facing-the-nhs">who gets care</a>.</p>
<p>However, our research shows the UK public are currently ambivalent about their medical data being handled by private companies. So actions that further increase mistrust risk holding back these vital reforms.</p>
<p>Data on the health of UK citizens is held in many databases across GP practices, hospitals, health authorities, care homes, pharmacies and many other organisations. This means a doctor seeing a patient from a different area of the UK would typically not be able to rapidly access their hospital records.</p>
<p>But we know things can be different. Close to real-time <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(22)00147-9/fulltext#seccestitle30">information</a> on the trajectory of the COVID pandemic helped coordinate a <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/government-data-sharing-pandemic">nationwide response</a>. (And some of these new capabilities were actually <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/privacy-notice/how-we-use-your-information/covid-19-response/nhs-covid-19-data-store/">facilitated by Palantir</a>.)</p>
<p>Sadly, the post-pandemic benefits of data sharing for patients with other conditions have been short-lived. Regulations have, for the most part, returned to pre-pandemic restrictions and data put back in silos.</p>
<h2>Palantir’s trust problem</h2>
<p>So a new system for sharing data across the NHS is vital. The issue highlighted by awarding the new contract to Palantir is how important public trust is to successful reform, and how missteps could damage that trust.</p>
<p>Palantir’s detractors, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlHPOH2s4Xg">Conservative MP David Davis</a>, say questions remain over whether it can be trusted with private information due, in part, to its <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/22/war-inside-palantir-data-mining-firms-ties-ice-under-attack-by-employees/">record</a> of working with intelligence, immigration and military organisations in the US and its founder’s financial backing for the successful 2016 Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/22/war-inside-palantir-data-mining-firms-ties-ice-under-attack-by-employees/">presidential campaign</a>. </p>
<p>Privacy concerns have also been raised, by groups <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/20/nhs-england-gives-key-role-in-handling-patient-data-to-us-spy-tech-firm-palantir">including the British Medical Association</a>, about whether confidential data will be seen by Palantir and other organisations outside of the NHS. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlHPOH2s4Xg">television interview</a> with Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp shortly before the announcement, concerns were raised about them selling NHS patient data. In response, Karp <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67254010">told the BBC</a>: “We’re the only company of our size and scale that doesn’t buy your data, doesn’t sell your data, doesn’t transfer it to any other company … That data belongs to the government of the United Kingdom.”</p>
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<p>However, if the public start to feel that their data will not be protected, it could erode the already limited trust they have in private companies to be involved in the NHS.</p>
<p>Our research is attempting to identify public attitudes to NHS data sharing. We work on Datamind – the Medical Research Council and Health Data Research UK’s Mental Health Data Hub. We have published <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/4/e057579">a large-scale assessment</a> of UK public opinion on NHS data sharing, which consulted almost 30,000 people. While the public are highly supportive of data sharing with the NHS, charities and university researchers, they are less trustful of private companies. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, previous examples of NHS-industry data sharing collaborations have not helped and show what can happen if trust isn’t secured. <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/care-data-Quick-reference-guide-v1.0.pdf">Care.data</a> was a programme that aimed to increase the range of health information collected across all NHS funded services, including general practice, for service planning and research. </p>
<p>It was explicitly stated that information would only be shared with industry for the benefit of health and care, such as developing new drugs, but not where it was solely for commercial purposes, such as insurance or marketing. Despite this, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/06/nhs-to-scrap-single-database-of-patients-medical-details">programme was scrapped</a> because of remaining concerns over who would be allowed to see confidential patient data, what it would be used for and whether patients would have the ability to opt-out. </p>
<h2>What can be done to improve trust?</h2>
<p>We believe that the sharing of patient data across NHS datasets could have enormous public health benefits that improve outcomes across the whole of medicine. But to achieve that, there has to be trust in the private companies that will inevitably be involved.</p>
<p>As we sit in our clinics, medical staff view and enter electronic health records on a Dell computer running Windows software manufactured by Microsoft that uses a patient record management system provided by the <a href="https://www.intersystems.com/uk/about-us/">InterSystems</a> Corporation. In other words, many services in the NHS are already provided by commercial companies. </p>
<p>There is a pressing need for the public to have the knowledge, language and skills to properly engage in nuanced conversations about the use of their data and to build trust in its responsible use where appropriate. </p>
<p>We developed an online <a href="https://datamind.org.uk/patients-and-public/data-literacy-short-course-2/">data literacy course</a> for the public with our <a href="https://datamind.org.uk/patients-and-public/the-super-research-advisory-group/">Research Advisory Group</a> and the patient engagement charity <a href="https://mcpin.org/">McPin</a>. We also developed a <a href="https://datamind.org.uk/glossary/">glossary tool</a> so people could quickly look up data science terms in easily understandable language. These allow people to effectively understand the information presented to them and ask difficult questions. </p>
<p>These conversations need to happen now. Otherwise we will lurch from one apparently misinformed data sharing crisis to another, further eroding public trust. This risks all the opportunities responsible safe and secure data sharing could provide. </p>
<p>Fundamentally, however, both government and industry need to prove that they are worthy of public trust. They need to commit to engaging the public as equal partners on the potential beneficiaries of this and other data sharing initiatives. We all need to know who stands to benefit from sharing our health data so that we can make truly informed decisions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218629/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew M McIntosh receives funding from The Wellcome Trust, UKRI, The European Commission and the US National Institutes of Health. He is the Chief Scientist of Datamind, the Health Data Research UK Hub for Mental Health. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann John receives funding from the MRC, MQ and Wellcome and is Principal investigator and Co-director of Datamind. She is a former Trustee at Samaritans and MQ.</span></em></p>The public are ambivalent about their medical data going to private companies, and missteps could erode vital trust.Andrew M McIntosh, Professor of Biological Psychiatry, The University of EdinburghAnn John, Clinical Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178412023-11-27T12:16:08Z2023-11-27T12:16:08ZHaving a single parent doesn’t determine your life chances – the data shows poverty is far more important<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560401/original/file-20231120-19-5r5dhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=580%2C0%2C3150%2C2144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mother-rides-child-bicycle-sunset-happy-2292524307">Valery Zotev/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Numerous research studies have suggested that children from a single-parent family are worse off than those who have two parents at home. These findings chime with decades of stigma that have painted coming from a single-parent home as undesirable. </p>
<p>Understandably, <a href="https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/about-us/news/single-parents-are-more-risk-anxiety">you may find this worrying</a> if you are a single parent – or if you’re thinking of embarking on parenthood alone. But it’s worth looking at the detail behind the stats. I reviewed the most up-to-date evidence for my book <a href="https://pinterandmartin.com/products/why-single-parents-matter">Why Single Parents Matter</a>, and found that conclusions that suggest significant negative outcomes as a result of coming from a single-parent family are often not supported by strong data.</p>
<p>For example, a 1991 <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/Stuff/divorce_paper.pdf">meta analysis</a> – a research paper that reviews the findings of numerous scholarly studies – is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4240051/">often cited as evidence</a> of a negative impact. However, the study <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/Stuff/divorce_paper.pdf">concludes that</a> the “effects are generally weak, with methodologically sophisticated studies and more recent studies tending to find even smaller differences between groups”.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/should-i-have-children-148388?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=InArticleTop&utm_campaign=Parenting2023">Should I have children?</a> The pieces in this series will help you answer this tough question – exploring fertility, climate change, the cost of living and social pressure.</em></p>
<p><em>We’ll keep the discussion going at a live event in London on November 30. <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/events/the-conversation-should-i-have-children/london-tottenham-court-road">Click here</a> for more information and tickets.</em></p>
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<h2>Small differences</h2>
<p>Other studies report differences that are unlikely to have any significant real-life impact. For example, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4201193/#:%7E:text=Mean%C2%B1SD%20of%20self,respectively%20(P%3D0.034).">one study concluded</a> that “adolescents’ self-esteem in single-parent families was lower than that in the two-parent nuclear families”. The average score for children from two-parent families was 39 and for those from one-parent families 37.5 – but a score of 25 and above indicated high self-esteem. </p>
<p>Other research has found small differences in rare outcomes such as <a href="https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/59/2/152.full.pdf">school expulsion</a>, which do not affect the majority of children regardless of family structure. Further <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X15001118?casa_token=4T8kUVlO1joAAAAA:no7QZyv8E3WIL7CzK7LbV5bwroOZ7HJYKZJG2BV13esmJPrco-INdg5aXFhdiwf2Rd948V7XOg">research</a> finds no differences in children’s educational achievement at all. </p>
<p>What’s more, when research takes into consideration important factors such as poverty, the differences often disappear. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://jech.bmj.com/content/67/2/181.short">Millennium Cohort Study</a> looked at differences in the health and wellbeing of over 13,000 seven-year-olds. It found almost all children were healthy: 0.4% of children living in two-parent households had poor health, compared with 0.9% in single-parent households. Other small differences were found for mental health, obesity and asthma. However, once poverty was taken into consideration, almost all significant differences disappeared. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="group of happy children outside" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The differences between children from one- and two-parent household are smaller than research conclusions might suggest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kids-playing-cheerful-park-outdoors-concept-419185651">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is a critical finding because single-parent families are far more likely to be living in poverty than two-parent families (62.7% versus 17.8% in the study). And data from other countries shows us that this issue should be fixable. One global study found small differences in educational outcomes for children from single-parent families. However, these almost all disappeared in countries that had <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2003.00681.x">more supportive social policies</a>, such as family and child allowances and parental leave. </p>
<p>Another angle that illustrates how context matters is research focused on mothers who become single parents by choice through IVF or adoption. These mothers tend to be older, have a higher income and feel ready for parenthood. Reflecting this, one study found <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1037/0002-9432.75.2.242">no difference in bonding between mother and baby</a> for single and married women who had IVF treatment.</p>
<p>Furthermore, when the researchers <a href="https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/20/6/1655/748804">followed these families up</a> when the children were two years old, the single mothers showed greater joy and lower levels of anger towards their children, and their children had fewer emotional and behavioural problems. </p>
<p>It’s also important to note that factors within a two-parent household can affect child outcomes. One study found no differences in the quality of parenting that children from one- or two-parent families experienced – except that when <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9586218/">parent conflict in two-parent homes was high</a>, or parents in a two-parent household had “lower levels of love for each other”, children were more likely to have behavioural problems. </p>
<h2>Stereotyping and wellbeing</h2>
<p>Differences are sometimes found between single parents and those with a partner when it comes to maternal wellbeing. Single mothers are <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00127-006-0125-4">more likely to experience depression</a> compared with mothers with a partner, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260515591278">exacerbated by</a> financial pressures, challenging relationships with ex-partners, and a lack of social support. </p>
<p>While single fathers may <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4175544/Heartwarming-photographs-single-dads-children.html">often be praised</a>, there are many <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-in-four-children-grow-up-in-a-single-parent-family-so-why-is-there-still-a-stigma-126562">stigmatising sterotypes</a> of single mothers. These often perpetuate the image of a younger mother, instead of considering the broad range of <a href="https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/our-work/single-parents-facts-and-figures/">single-parent family set-ups</a> in the UK today. </p>
<p>Historically, in the UK, pregnancy outside marriage was <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/4862?login=false">viewed as shameful</a>. Women and girls were thrown out of families, forced into workhouses, or made to give their baby <a href="https://www.ulster.ac.uk/news/2021/january/report-on-mother-and-baby-homes-and-magdalene-laundries-in-northern-ireland">up for adoption</a>. Although financial support for single mothers was eventually introduced, governments were anxious that this might <a href="https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/your-community/stories/single-parent-history-the-history-of-gingerbread/">encourage single motherhood</a>. </p>
<p>I do not wish to downplay the challenges and difficult emotions that children can experience during or after separation. But this is different to claiming that single parenthood directly harms children in the long term. Any differences are fixable by ensuring <a href="https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/">better support</a> for <a href="http://www.familylives.org.uk/">single families</a>, rather than exacerbating harmful stigma.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217841/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Brown has received funding from the ESRC, MRC, NIHR, HEFCW, UKRI, Infant feeding charities and Public Health Wales</span></em></p>Single parents need support, not stigma.Amy Brown, Professor of Child Public Health, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2175032023-11-15T17:44:32Z2023-11-15T17:44:32ZMae’r Gymraeg yn cael ei defnyddio i annog ymfudwyr i deimlo’n gartrefol<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558871/original/file-20230925-22-4zy1hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C0%2C4819%2C3166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mae Llywodraeth Cymru wedi cyhoeddi cynllun ar gyfer troi Cymru'n 'genedl noddfa'.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/second-severn-crossing-wales-november-2018-1229207257">Ceri Breeze/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Llywodraeth y Deyrnas Gyfunol yn unig sydd â’r grym i benderfynu pwy all gael mynediad i’r wlad, a hi sy’n gyfrifol am lunio polisïau mudo a lloches. Ond mae gan lywodraethau datganoledig y gallu i ddefnyddio’u <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8599/CBP-8599.pdf">grymoedd hwy</a> mewn meysydd fel tai, addysg, iechyd a gwasanaethau cymdeithasol er mwyn dylanwadu ar natur y cymorth a gynigir i newydd-ddyfodiaid.</p>
<p>Yn ystod y blynyddoedd diwethaf, mae llywodraeth Cymru wedi <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2023.2198809">edrych am ffyrdd</a> gwahanol o defnyddio’i grymoedd datganoledig er mwyn cynorthwyo ffoaduriaid a mewnfudwyr i integreiddio yng Cymru. Ac fel rhan o hyn rhoddwyd pwyslais cynyddol ar rôl yr iaith Gymraeg. </p>
<p>At ei gilydd, yr amcan fu ceisio datblygu amgylchedd croesawgar a chefnogol yng Nghymru. Mae hyn yn cyferbynnu â’r pwyslais mae llywodraeth y Deyrnas Gyfunol wedi’i roi ar yr angen i <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/long-term-international-migration-flows-to-and-from-the-uk/">leihau mudo net</a>, ac ar geisio creu <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/what-is-hostile-environment-theresa-may-windrush-eu-citizens-legal-immigrants-145067">“amgylchedd gelyniaethus”</a> i ffoaduriaid a cheiswyr lloches.</p>
<p>Y cam mwyaf arwyddocaol a gymerwyd hyd yma gan lywodraeth Cymru oedd cyhoeddi <a href="https://www.llyw.cymru/cynllun-ffoaduriaid-cheiswyr-lloches-cenedl-noddfa?_gl=1*hkjmzu*_ga*MTU3NDAyODI1MS4xNjkzODIxMjUy*_ga_L1471V4N02*MTY5OTg4OTQyNS4yNi4wLjE2OTk4ODk0MjUuMC4wLjA.&_ga=2.269041457.1195845828.1699807919-1574028251.1693821252">cynllun</a> yn 2019 yn amlinellu camau ar gyfer troi Cymru yn <a href="https://www.llyw.cymru/datganiad-ysgrifenedig-cymru-cenedl-noddfa?_ga=2.264264527.1195845828.1699807919-1574028251.1693821252&_gl=1*1c0cynv*_ga*MTU3NDAyODI1MS4xNjkzODIxMjUy*_ga_L1471V4N02*MTY5OTg4OTQyNS4yNi4xLjE2OTk4ODk1MjcuMC4wLjA.">“genedl noddfa”</a>.</p>
<p>Fodd bynnag, elfen arwyddocaol arall –- ond llai amlwg –- o waith llywodraeth Cymru fu’r camau a gymerwyd i sicrhau bod y Gymraeg yn chwarae rhan mwy blaenllaw yn y broses o groesawu mewnfudwyr a cheiswyr lloches.</p>
<p>Wrth drafod pwysigrwydd y gwaith hwn, dadleuodd <a href="https://www.llyw.cymru/jane-hutt?_ga=2.264264527.1195845828.1699807919-1574028251.1693821252&_gl=1*18je93l*_ga*MTU3NDAyODI1MS4xNjkzODIxMjUy*_ga_L1471V4N02*MTY5OTg4OTQyNS4yNi4xLjE2OTk4ODk1NTcuMC4wLjA.">Jane Hutt</a>, gweinidog cyfiawnder cymdeithasol Cymru, y gallai’r iaith Gymraeg fod yn <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/64811421">“arf integreiddio pwerus iawn”</a>.</p>
<h2>Lletygarwch ac integreiddio</h2>
<p>Gellir gweld sut mae’r sylw a roddir i’r Gymraeg fel rhan o’r broses integreiddio wedi datblygu wrth olrhain esblygiad y ddarpariaeth ESOL (Saesneg i siaradwyr ieithoedd eraill) yng Nghymru.</p>
<p>Yn 2013, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tougher-language-requirements-announced-for-british-citizenship">torrwyd</a> y cyswllt traddodiadol rhwng y ddarpariaeth ESOL a’r broses o sicrhau dinasyddiaeth yn y Deyrnas Gyfunol yn sgil newidiadau polisi a gyflwynwyd gan glymblaid y Ceidwadwyr a’r Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol. </p>
<p>Un o ganlyniadau annisgwyl y newid hwn oedd creu cyfle i ddatblygu dull neilltuol yng Nghymru ar gyfer darparu addysg ieithyddol i ymfudwyr. O ganlyniad, flwyddyn yn ddiweddarach cyhoeddodd llywodraeth Cymru ei <a href="https://www.llyw.cymru/saesneg-ar-gyfer-siaradwyr-ieithoedd-eraill-datganiad-polisi?_gl=1*2bp0sp*_ga*MTU3NDAyODI1MS4xNjkzODIxMjUy*_ga_L1471V4N02*MTY5OTgwNzU5Ny4yNS4wLjE2OTk4MDc1OTcuMC4wLjA.&_ga=2.47543975.1896786947.1699807597-1574028251.1693821252">bolisi ESOL cyntaf</a>. Hwn oedd y polisi cyntaf o’i fath i gael ei gyhoeddi gan unrhyw lywodraeth yn y Deyrnas Gyfunol. </p>
<p>Nid oedd y polisi ESOL gwreiddiol yn gwneud cysylltiad rhwng y Gymraeg ac integreiddio ieithyddol. Ond roedd <a href="https://www.llyw.cymru/sites/default/files/publications/2019-11/polisi-saesneg-ar-gyfer-siaradwyr-ieithoedd-eraill-esol-nghymru.pdf">fersiwn ddiweddarach</a>, a gyhoeddwyd yn 2019, yn galw ar ddarparwyr ESOL yng Nghymru i “gynnwys y Gymraeg yn eu gwersi”.</p>
<p>Ystyriwyd bod hyn yn angenrheidiol gan y “gall yr iaith Gymraeg fod yn sgil werthfawr yn y gweithle”. Yn ogystal, nodwyd bod dysgu Cymraeg yn medru hwyluso “integreiddio cymdeithasol”, yn enwedig mewn “ardaloedd lle mae’r rhan fwyaf o bobl yn siarad Cymraeg”.</p>
<p>Ochr yn ochr a hyn, bu’r <a href="https://dysgucymraeg.cymru/">Ganolfan Dysgu Cymraeg Genedlaethol</a> yn gweithio mewn partneriaeth ag <a href="https://www.adultlearning.wales/cym">Addysg Oedolion Cymru</a>, er mwyn datblygu darpariaeth arloesol fyddai’n cyflwyno’r Gymraeg i siaradwyr ieithoedd eraill (WSOL). Mae <a href="https://dysgucymraeg.cymru/croeso-i-bawb/">Croeso i Bawb</a>, a gafodd ei gyflwyno am y tro cyntaf yn 2019, yn gwrs pwrpasol sy’n rhoi cyfle i fewnfudwyr a ffoaduriaid ddechrau dysgu Cymraeg.</p>
<p>Ategwyd y syniad y gall y Gymraeg hybu integreiddio ac ymdeimlad o berthyn unwaith eto eleni mewn <a href="https://www.llyw.cymru/sites/default/files/publications/2023-07/adolygiad-o-bolisi-saesneg-i-siaradwyr-ieithoedd-eraill-esol-yng-nghymru.pdf">adolygiad</a> o’r ddarpariaeth ESOL yng Nghymru a gomisiynwyd gan lywodraeth Cymru. Galwodd yr adolygiad hefyd am gynnwys y Ganolfan Dysgu Cymraeg Genedlaethol yn llawn yn y rhwydweithiau addysgol sy’n gweithio i gefnogi mewnfudwyr yng Nghymru.</p>
<h2>Goblygiadau</h2>
<p>Mae'n bwysig peidio gorliwio maint y newidiadau a welwyd hyd yn hyn. Yn gyffredinol, y Saesneg sy’n parhau’n gyfrwng integreiddio ar gyfer y mwyafrif o fewnfudwyr a ffoaduriaid sy'n ymgartrefu yng Nghymru.</p>
<p>Serch hynny, mae’r pwyslais cynyddol a roddwyd ar y Gymraeg fel rhan o’r broses integreiddio yn atgyfnerthu’r argraff bod dull unigryw Gymreig o groesawu mewnfudwyr a ffoaduriaid yn cael ei ddatblygu. Mae’r ddarpariaeth WSOL newydd yn <a href="https://wales.britishcouncil.org/en/blog/migrants-multilingualism-and-welsh-language">herio’r</a> ddelwedd uniaith draddodiadol o fywyd ar draws y Deyrnas Gyfunol ac yn hybu persbectif amlieithog ac amlddiwylliannol.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gwybodaeth ar ddysgu Cymraeg i bobl sy'n ymgartrefu yng Nghymru.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Mae <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10993-019-09517-0">gwaith ymchwil</a> diweddar hefyd yn awgrymu bod dysgu Cymraeg yn medru gwella cyfleoedd cyflogaeth mewnfudwyr a ffoaduriaid. Gall hefyd hwyluso’r broses o ddatblygu rhwydweithiau cymdeithasol newydd. </p>
<p>Ond os oes bwriad i drin y Gymraeg fel elfen mwyfwy canolog o’r broses integreiddio, bydd angen gwneud mwy na dim ond cynnig cyfleodd ffurfiol i ddysgu’r iaith, er mor bwysig yw hynny.</p>
<p>Dylai llunwyr polisi ac ymgyrchwyr ystyried ffyrdd eraill o wneud dysgu Cymraeg yn fwy hygyrch. Mae darparu cyfleoedd i ddysgwyr ryngweithio'n gymdeithasol trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg hefyd yn allweddol.</p>
<p>Tra’i bod yn ymddangos y bydd llywodraeth y Deyrnas Gyfunol yn parhau i bwysleisio’r Saesneg fel yr unig gyfrwng ar gyfer integreiddio llwyddiannus, mae'r dystiolaeth bresennol yn awgrymu bod Cymru yn datblygu gweledigaeth wahanol, fwy amlieithog.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mae’r erthygl hon wedi elwa o gefnogaeth ariannol a gynigiwyd gan y Sefydliad Ymchwil Gymdeithasol Annibynnol (ISRF) fel rhan o brosiect ar foeseg integreiddio ieithyddol.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Chick is affiliated with the Welsh Refugee Council as a Trustee.</span></em></p>Mae llywodraeth Cymru wedi cymryd camau i sicrhau bod y Gymraeg yn chwarae rhan fwy blaenllaw wrth groesawu mewnfudwyr a cheiswyr lloches.Huw Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Aberystwyth UniversityGwennan Higham, Senior Lecturer in Welsh, Swansea UniversityMike Chick, Senior Lecturer in TESOL/English, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2116862023-11-15T17:44:31Z2023-11-15T17:44:31ZHow the Welsh language is being promoted to help migrants feel at home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550026/original/file-20230925-22-4zy1hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C0%2C4819%2C3174&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Welsh government has announced plans to make Wales a 'nation of sanctuary'.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/second-severn-crossing-wales-november-2018-1229207257">Ceri Breeze/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>You can read this article in <a href="https://theconversation.com/maer-gymraeg-yn-cael-ei-defnyddio-i-annog-ymfudwyr-i-deimlon-gartrefol-217503">Welsh</a>.</em></p>
<p>The UK government alone decides who can enter the country and how migration and asylum policies are made. But devolved governments have scope to use <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8599/CBP-8599.pdf">their powers</a> in fields such as housing, education, health and social services to shape the nature of the support that is subsequently offered to new arrivals.</p>
<p>In recent years, the Welsh government has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2023.2198809">looked for ways</a> to use its powers to help refugees and migrants integrate into Welsh society, taking into account the role of the Welsh language. </p>
<p>Overall, this is an approach that seeks to create a welcoming and supportive environment in Wales. It contrasts with the UK government’s commitment to <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/long-term-international-migration-flows-to-and-from-the-uk/">reducing net migration</a> and to create a “<a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/what-is-hostile-environment-theresa-may-windrush-eu-citizens-legal-immigrants-145067">hostile environment</a>” for refugees and asylum seekers.</p>
<p>The most prominent step taken to date was the publication of the Welsh government’s <a href="https://www.gov.wales/refugee-and-asylum-seeker-plan-nation-sanctuary">plan in 2019</a>, which set out measures aimed at turning Wales into a “<a href="https://www.gov.wales/written-statement-wales-nation-sanctuary">nation of sanctuary</a>”.</p>
<p>However, another significant – but less obvious – aspect of the Welsh government’s work are the steps taken to ensure that the Welsh language plays a more prominent role in the process of welcoming migrants and refugees.</p>
<p>Reflecting on this work, <a href="https://www.gov.wales/jane-hutt-ms">Jane Hutt</a>, Wales’ social justice minister, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/64811421">has argued</a> that the Welsh language could become “an extremely powerful integration tool”.</p>
<h2>Hospitality and integration</h2>
<p>The shift to viewing the Welsh language as a resource that can facilitate integration is evident when tracing the evolution of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) provision in Wales.</p>
<p>In 2013, the formal link between ESOL provision and the process of gaining UK citizenship was <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tougher-language-requirements-announced-for-british-citizenship">unpicked</a> by the then Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.</p>
<p>An unforeseen consequence of this reform was that it created an opportunity to initiate a distinct approach to language education for migrants in Wales. Hence, a year later, the Welsh government published its first <a href="https://www.gov.wales/english-speakers-other-languages-esol-policy-statement">ESOL policy for Wales</a>. It was the first of its kind to be developed by any of the UK’s four governments.</p>
<p>The original ESOL policy did not make a link between the Welsh language and linguistic integration. But a <a href="https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-11/english-for-speakers-of-other-languages-esol-policy-wales.pdf">later iteration</a>, published in 2019, called on ESOL providers in Wales “to integrate the Welsh language into their classes”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/esol-english-classes-are-crucial-for-migrant-integration-yet-challenges-remain-unaddressed-204415">Esol English classes are crucial for migrant integration, yet challenges remain unaddressed</a>
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<p>This was deemed necessary as the “the Welsh language can be a valuable skill in the workplace”. And also because learning Welsh can facilitate “social integration”, particularly in “predominantly Welsh speaking communities”.</p>
<p>Coinciding with this, the <a href="https://learnwelsh.cymru/learn-welsh-with-us-croeso-i-bawb/">National Centre for Learning Welsh</a> worked in partnership with <a href="https://www.adultlearning.wales/cym">Adult Learning Wales</a>, the umbrella organisation for adult education providers across Wales, to develop a novel Welsh for speakers of other languages (WSOL) provision. Introduced for the first time in 2019, <em><a href="https://learnwelsh.cymru/learn-welsh-with-us-croeso-i-bawb/">Croeso i Bawb</a></em> (“Welcome to Everyone”) is a bespoke course that aims to introduce the Welsh language to migrants and refugees.</p>
<p>A Welsh government-commissioned <a href="https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2023-07/review-english-speakers-other-languages-esol-policy-wales.pdf">review</a> of ESOL provision in Wales this year reiterated the value of introducing Welsh for promoting a sense of belonging. The review also called for the National Centre for Learning Welsh to be integrated fully into existing educational networks that work to support migrants in Wales. </p>
<h2>Implications</h2>
<p>It is important not to overstate the scale of these changes. Overall, English remains the primary medium of integration for the majority of immigrants and refugees settling in Wales.</p>
<p>Yet the increasing emphasis on the Welsh language in integration efforts reinforces the sense of a distinctive Welsh approach to welcoming migrants and refugees. The new WSOL provision <a href="https://wales.britishcouncil.org/en/blog/migrants-multilingualism-and-welsh-language">challenges</a> the monolingual image of life in the UK and promotes multilingualism and multiculturalism. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Adult Learning Wales’ information on WSOL.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Other <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10993-019-09517-0">research</a> suggests that learning Welsh can enhance the employment opportunities of migrants and refugees. It can also facilitate their ability to access a variety of new social networks. </p>
<p>But if there is to be a serious effort to offer a route to integration, it will not be sufficient to merely focus on offering formal opportunities to learn the Welsh language, important as that may be.</p>
<p>Policymakers and activists should consider other ways to make Welsh language learning more accessible. Providing opportunities for learners to interact socially through the medium of Welsh is also vital.</p>
<p>While the UK government seems set to continue emphasising English as the only way to integrate successfully, the current evidence suggests that Wales wants a different, more multilingual vision.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article has benefited from financial support offered by the Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) as part of a project on the ethics of linguistic integration.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Chick is affiliated with the Welsh Refugee Council as a Trustee.</span></em></p>The Welsh government has taken steps to ensure that the Welsh language plays a more prominent role in welcoming refugees and migrants.Huw Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Aberystwyth UniversityGwennan Higham, Senior Lecturer in Welsh, Swansea UniversityMike Chick, Senior Lecturer in TESOL/English, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2164712023-11-14T18:06:28Z2023-11-14T18:06:28ZAutistic people experience loneliness far more acutely than neurotypical people – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558608/original/file-20231109-21-q7xuk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C5972%2C3593&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New research debunks the stereotype that autistic people lack the motivation to form meaningful social connections.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-man-suffering-depression-social-anxiety-2252053059">KieferPix/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Autistic people are up to four times more likely to experience <a href="https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/loneliness#:%7E:text=Autistic%20people%20are%20more%20likely,rewarding%20relationships%20in%20your%20life.">loneliness</a> than non-autistic people. </p>
<p>Despite enduring <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3329932/">stereotypes</a> that autistic people lack the desire for meaningful social connections, <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/aut.2022.0062">new research</a> from my colleagues and I unveils the profound distress they experience due to loneliness. It also shows the unexpected role that differences in the ways individuals receive and interpret different stimuli through their senses – their “sensory processing” – may play in this phenomenon. </p>
<p>We combined two complementary studies that investigated autistic and non-autistic people’s experiences of loneliness, using different methods.</p>
<p>In the first study, autistic and non-autistic participants completed questionnaires measuring loneliness, anxiety, depression and sensory differences. We felt that the usual standardised loneliness questionnaires do not fully capture the important distinction between chosen solitude and distress caused by loneliness. </p>
<p>To address this, we added the additional question “How much does this upset you?” to each factor on the questionnaire to assess the level of distress caused by loneliness. Statistical analysis revealed how these factors related to each other and differed between the two groups. </p>
<p>In the second study, autistic participants discussed their experiences of loneliness in short, recorded conversations. We then identified common themes. </p>
<h2>Sensory differences and distress</h2>
<p>The results from the first study demonstrated a direct link between sensory processing differences and increased loneliness and poorer mental health in both autistic and non-autistic adults. </p>
<p>This association was particularly pronounced among autistic participants due to the differences in sensory processing and how they experience the environment around them. This was surprising, as the link between sensory processing differences and loneliness hasn’t been made before. </p>
<p>What’s more, autistic adults reported experiencing not only greater levels of loneliness but also more intense distress associated with it. This suggests that autistic individuals suffer more acutely from loneliness. This is on top of being more likely to experience it in the first place.</p>
<p>In the second study, autistic participants spoke about the intense pain of feeling lonely and socially isolated, while also needing to retreat into solitude to recover from over-stimulation. They expressed a deep desire for meaningful relationships with other people. </p>
<p>But they also described the barriers they faced in achieving this. These obstacles included difficulty connecting with non-autistic people, finding friends with shared interests, and feeling misunderstood and unaccepted by society.</p>
<p>One autistic participant described the difficulties she had faced in making friends as an adult: “I’m trying to reach out, I’m trying to find my people, but it all still feels a bit hopeless.”</p>
<p>Many autistic participants also described feeling overwhelmed in high-intensity social situations, such as being in large groups, around unfamiliar people, or in busy office environments. They needed time alone to recover afterwards. </p>
<p>However, they had a more positive experience of this type of chosen solitude compared with being forced to be alone. Additionally, having more access to quieter environments with less stimulation could reduce the amount of recovery time needed.</p>
<h2>Societal and environmental barriers</h2>
<p>In addition to the emotional distress of loneliness, many autistic people also cited practical barriers to social connection. These included financial constraints, a lack of affordable and accessible community spaces, and the difficulty of navigating busy and noisy urban environments.</p>
<p>Autistic people may be at heightened risk of financial hardship during the cost-of-living crisis, as they often face <a href="https://theconversation.com/dehumanising-policies-leave-autistic-people-struggling-to-access-health-education-and-housing-new-review-202997">barriers</a> to employment and benefits. They are also more likely to experience <a href="https://sensorystreet.uk/">sensory overload</a>, as they process sensory information differently. </p>
<p>For example, one autistic woman in her sixties described how she could see her aunt’s house from her living room window, but could not safely cross the busy road that separated them to visit her.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman sitting down looks into the middle distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558644/original/file-20231109-24-wbjilb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558644/original/file-20231109-24-wbjilb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558644/original/file-20231109-24-wbjilb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558644/original/file-20231109-24-wbjilb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558644/original/file-20231109-24-wbjilb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558644/original/file-20231109-24-wbjilb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558644/original/file-20231109-24-wbjilb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Many autistic people cited practical barriers to social connection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/serious-older-50s-woman-looks-out-2146877297">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Doing things differently</h2>
<p>Our findings debunk the outdated stereotype that autistic people lack the motivation to form meaningful social connections. Instead, social environments often exclude people with higher levels of sensory differences. This can limit the opportunities for autistic people to socialise and form meaningful relationships. </p>
<p>Our research highlights the need to create <a href="https://www.ribaj.com/intelligence/sensory-impact-buildings-and-neurodiversity">more welcoming sensory environments</a> to reduce these barriers. Small adjustments to lighting, acoustics, décor and wayfinding, among other sensory factors, can significantly reduce the burden on people with sensory processing differences and open up more social spaces to them. </p>
<p>Concerted efforts from society as a whole – including town planners, employers, educators and owners of public social spaces – are needed to create spaces that consider the sensory needs of all neurotypes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216471/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gemma L. Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Autistic people are not only more likely to feel lonely but are also more likely to experience it more acutely than non-autistic people according to new research.Gemma L. Williams, Research Officer in Public Health, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.