Dr Ellen Fallows

@ellenfallows.bsky.social

Doctor, Lifestyle Medicine, population health, obesity treatment. Vice-President The British Society of Lifestyle Medicine. RCGP diabetes and obesity advisor. Oxford Clinical School Lifestyle Medicine course lead.

I'd put it the other way round. Scientific method, as a human practice, is intrinsically value laden. What you choose to investigate, what you decide to measure, how you measure, what you ignore, how you deal with uncomfortable results, even who you allow to do it, are all soaked in values.

Tom Spoors@tomspoors.bsky.social · last yr.

Scientific method may be as close to value free as any human activity but scientists have values, foibles and favourites, and are often funded by companies or governments which most certainly are not.

Without warning Trump administration has CANCELLED the meeting to discuss plans for development of autumn winter flu vaccine. It takes ~6months to develop a vax. This move seriously jeopardises flu vax campaign. Flu killed 86 children & 19,000 adults in US this year.

Trump administration cancels meeting on flu shots, fueling anti-vax concerns

FDA, which vaccine skeptic RFK Jr oversees, made the announcement with no explanation or new date

theguardian.com

🆕| Moving care into the community means valuing and respecting our general practice nursing staff. But our recent survey shows three in ten working in England received no pay rise at all, despite being promised one by the government last year. Read more ⬇️

Pay crisis in general practice nursing: government must change funding model now | News | Royal College of Nursing

A pay crisis in GP surgeries is undermining government ambitions to move more care into the community, with a third of nursing staff missing out on a pay rise

buff.ly

measles is one of the most infectious diseases out there and it is a dangerous illness, particularly for young children - vaccination has kept it at bay for decades. Not vaccinating - and not suppporting vaccination - has consequences

Tom Sandora, MD MPH@tomsandora.bsky.social · 2y ago

Up to 300 people are now suspected to have measles in the Texas outbreak. Most are children, 13 of whom have been hospitalized. Without vaccination, the outbreak could go on for months.

Deaths from alcohol specific causes in England rose by 42.2% between 2019 and 2023, the highest number on record. A national strategy to tackle the harms caused by alcohol is long overdue, and important for reducing health inequalities, say Julia M A Sinclair et al www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Young people drinking

We've just joined Bluesky 🎉 Follow us for research, news, comment and opinion from Nature journal 🧪

Headlines are warning of a 'quad-demic' about the hit the NHS, but data show that a 'quad-demic' is v unlikely. The worry is not that the NHS is about to be hit by unprecedented demand, but that it is unable to cope with normal demand. I've written about it here open.substack.com/pub/christin...

Is the NHS facing a 'quad-demic' this winter?

No, but it is finding it harder and harder to cope with 'normal' winter pressures. Plus flu might still have a nasty kicker in store this winter.

open.substack.com

Funding for primary care should recognise clinical need which is currently not the case. To future proof the NHS this is more important than any reform. @nuffieldtrust.bsky.social @becksfisher.bsky.social & team thank you for articulating brilliantly what we see & feel on the ground in practice

Bild
Patients Association@patients-association.org.uk · 2y ago

Great to see this briefing from @nuffieldtrust.bsky.social. Our new report calls on the Government to immediately reform the Carr-Hill Formula to include a substantial deprivation adjustment that allocates proportionally higher funding to general practices serving poorer areas ⬇️