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Facing leadership that kills
... It seems not unlikely that some sector lobbied politicians for policy positions more favorable to their commercial activities. As Jadad has noted, public health workforces in the United States and elsewhere are within government, and must be responsive to the demands of politicians "out of fear of committing career or financial suicide" (19). Viewed through this lens, the heavy funding of disinformation campaigns during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (20), and muddying of the epidemiological landscape through contraction, rather than expansion, of public health surveillance efforts and data sharing (21), may have (intentionally) generated scientific uncertainty where little important uncertainty was initially present, creating a "resource for negotiation" on policy. ...
The opportunity to create a value exchange environment is uniquely offered by the platform businesses. A novel approach of co-creating value is writing the rules in the platform business world. This paper analyzes the platform business models within the technology industry based on a multiple case study. As the main driver of business performance in this environment is technology, companies are using it to develop new products or to provide technology as a service. Thus, the main objective is to debate on the actual business needs in terms of business model innovation and to investigate how platform business models are developed through strategic acquisitions to achieve competitive advantage. The cases analysis suggests that technology acquisitions made around the core business may contribute to business model innovation. In addition, new partnerships with the external environment may facilitate mutual value creation exchanges and the platform may evolve through adding extra features from its external partners. We contribute to the advancement of business model research by putting platform business model study into the competitive context of the technology industry, with findings on how platforms are used in the digital era to innovate the core business model. From a practitioner’s perspective, this study may help companies to understand the importance of investing in other technology companies and to identify the opportunities of business model innovation through strategic partnerships. The limitation of this study is that the main data used for the multiple case study was derived from secondary sources and it provided insights about each company’s platform business model from a macro perspective.
This paper examines the association between media reporting on suicides and the subsequent suicides. Scientific papers from two online bibliographic sources Medline (PubMed) and PsycINFO were searched. The sample included 108 research papers examining the impact of different types of media stories on suicides. The review revealed that although the media can be a double-edged sword and serve both as a risk and a protective factor, the vast majority of research suggests that the relationship between the media reporting and the actual suicide rates is causal and real. Moreover, both the quantity and the quality of media reporting may trigger additional suicides in society. Simultaneously, research suggests that especially non-fictional presentations of celebrities’ suicides in newspapers and on television news have the biggest influence on the subsequent suicides. Additionally, a strong modelling effect of media reporting on suicide is based on nationality, age, and gender. However, research shows that because a negative reporting style can be modifiable and improved, the media can also have an educative or preventive effect and can reduce the risk of contagion. Consequently, it is important to monitor the implementation of media recommendations for the reporting of suicide, and continuous education of reporters is needed.
This brief essay considers the impact of the current conjunctural crisis on ideas about, and access to the ‘future’. It explores ways in which cultural critics and scholars might learn to think ‘scandalously’ in order to imagine and build a more equitable and humane world.
In the COVID-19 pandemic, whistleblowers have become the essential watchdogs disrupting suppression and control of information. Many governments have intentionally not disclosed information or failed to do so in a timely manner, misled the public or even promoted false beliefs. Fierce public interest defenders are pushing back against this censorship. Dr Fen and Dr Wenliang were the first whistleblowers in China to report that a new pandemic was possibly underway and ever since numerous other whistleblowers around the world have been reporting on the spread of the virus, the lack of medical equipment and other information of public interest. This paper maps the relevant whistleblowing cases in China, US and Europe and shows that many whistleblowers are initially censored, face disciplinary measures or even dismissals. At the same time, whistleblowing during the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn public attention to the shortcomings of institutional reporting systems and a wider appreciation of whistleblowers as uniquely placed to expose risk at early stages. Ultimately, whistleblowing as a means to transparency is not only becoming ever less controversial, but during COVID-19 it has become the ‘remedy’ to censorship.
Imagine a world in which every human being is healthy until the last breath. Thanks to the fast penetration of digital technologies in every region of the planet, this seemingly utopian scenario is not only feasible but also potentially viable. Now that digital technologies have provided almost full interconnectivity among all humans, they should be used to meet key challenges to ensure that health is created and that it spreads to reach every person on earth. The objective of this article is to describe and trigger a serious discussion of such challenges, which include: adopting a new concept of health; positioning self-rated health as the main outcome of the system; creating a health-oriented model to guide service provision; facilitating the identification, scaling up, and sustaining of innovations that can create and spread health; promoting a culture of health promotion; and encouraging the emergence of Precision Health. Once these challenges are met, and health becomes pandemic, public health would have fulfilled its vision, a healthy life for all, at last.
The current WHO definition of health, formulated in 1948,
describes health as “a state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity.”1 At that time this formulation was groundbreaking
because of its breadth and ambition. It overcame the negative
definition of health as absence of disease and included the
physical, mental, and social domains. Although the definition
has been criticised over the past 60 years, it has never been
adapted. Criticism is now intensifying,2-5 and as populations age
and the pattern of illnesses changes the definition may even be
counterproductive. The paper summarises the limitations of the
WHO definition and describes the proposals for making it more
useful that were developed at a conference of international health
experts held in the Netherlands.6
To evaluate whether happiness can spread from person to person and whether niches of happiness form within social networks.
Longitudinal social network analysis.
Framingham Heart Study social network.
4739 individuals followed from 1983 to 2003.
Happiness measured with validated four item scale; broad array of attributes of social networks and diverse social ties.
Clusters of happy and unhappy people are visible in the network, and the relationship between people's happiness extends up to three degrees of separation (for example, to the friends of one's friends' friends). People who are surrounded by many happy people and those who are central in the network are more likely to become happy in the future. Longitudinal statistical models suggest that clusters of happiness result from the spread of happiness and not just a tendency for people to associate with similar individuals. A friend who lives within a mile (about 1.6 km) and who becomes happy increases the probability that a person is happy by 25% (95% confidence interval 1% to 57%). Similar effects are seen in coresident spouses (8%, 0.2% to 16%), siblings who live within a mile (14%, 1% to 28%), and next door neighbours (34%, 7% to 70%). Effects are not seen between coworkers. The effect decays with time and with geographical separation.
People's happiness depends on the happiness of others with whom they are connected. This provides further justification for seeing happiness, like health, as a collective phenomenon.
We have reviewed theories and research in the area of contagion with an emphasis on definitions of contagion. The review shows that a great deal of the confusion surrounding the term is due to the fact that the phenomena involved in contagion are extremely heterogeneous, yet they typically have been placed under homogeneous rubrics. Accordingly, we propose herein that contagion should be conceptualized as a general type, social contagion, and three subtypes: disinhibitory, echo, and hysterical. In this article, we have distinguished social contagion and its subtypes from other types of social influence phenomena and reclassified theoretical and research articles under the newly proposed definitions. The proposed reconceptualization shows how contradictions in the literature can be resolved by distinguishing the type of contagion in question and provides the foundation for a more comprehensive and useful psychology of contagion.
This article maps and analyses the trajectory of India’s Covid-19 pandemic from its onset in early 2020 until the outbreak of the country’s devastating second wave a little over a year later. I begin with a critique of the lockdown policy of the right-wing Hindu nationalist government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which served as a political spectacle rather than a public health intervention. I then proceed to detail how India as a lockdown nation witnessed forms of social suffering and political repression that can only be truly understood in light of how the trajectory and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was shaped by two preexisting crises in India’s economy and polity. In conclusion, I reflect on the likely political outcomes of the pandemic, considering both the impact of its second wave, and the emergence of oppositional sociopolitical forces in the country.
Combining management research with infectious disease epidemiology, we propose a new perspective on mental disorders in a business context. We suggest that—similar to infectious diseases—clinical diagnoses of depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders can spread epidemically across the boundaries of organizations via social contagion. We propose a framework for assessing the patterns of disease transmission, with employee mobility as the driver of contagion across organizations. We empirically test the proposed mental disorder transmission patterns by observing more than 250,000 employees and more than 17,000 Danish firms over a period of 12 years. Our findings reveal that when organizations hire employees from other, unhealthy organizations (those with a high prevalence of mental disorders), they “implant” depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders into their workforces. Employees leaving unhealthy organizations act as “carriers” of these disorders regardless of whether they themselves have received a formal diagnosis of a mental disorder. The effect is especially pronounced if the newcomer holds a managerial position.
The dark side of Health draws uncomfortable lessons from over 300 case studies of events that occurred in the healthcare sector. Health services have many skilled and dedicated professionals but there is a dark side that cannot be ignored. The unthinkable has happened and might have been prevented. The case studies from many countries include serial killers with a health background, drugs and medical devices that proved to be dangerous, negligent and poor clinical practice as well as incompetent and weak management. The focus is learning not blame.
Background:
The pandemic caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and the countermeasures taken to protect the public are having a substantial effect on the health of the population. In Germany, nationwide protective measures to halt the spread of the virus were implemented in mid-March for 6 weeks.
Methods:
In May, the impact of the pandemic was assessed in the German National Cohort (NAKO). A total of 113 928 men and women aged 20 to 74 years at the time of the baseline examination conducted 1 to 5 years earlier (53%) answered, within a 30-day period, a follow-up questionnaire on SARS-CoV-2 test status, COVID-19- associated symptoms, and self-perceived health status.
Results:
The self-reported SARS-CoV-2 test frequency among the probands was 4.6%, and 344 participants (0.3%) reported a positive test result. Depressive and anxiety-related symptoms increased relative to baseline only in participants under 60 years of age, particularly in young women. The rate of moderate to severe depressive symptoms increased from 6.4% to 8.8%. Perceived stress increased in all age groups and both sexes, especially in the young. The scores for mental state and self-rated health worsened in participants tested for SARS-CoV-2 compared with those who were not tested. In 32% of the participants, however, self-rated health improved.
Conclusion:
The COVID-19 pandemic and the protective measures during the first wave had effects on mental health and on self-rated general health.
Panel data covering the French population before and after the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic reveal that self-reported health and well-being have improved during the lockdown in comparison to previous years. We name this counterintuitive phenomenon the “eye of the hurricane” paradox: the large majority of individuals who are not infected by the virus may be seeing their current condition in a more positive light than they normally would. There are, however, divergences across social groups that reflect socioeconomic inequalities. In particular, blue-collar workers deviate from the prevailing trend as their level of self-reported health declines over the lockdown period, Parisian residents experience a sudden drop in their subjective well-being, and people working long hours at home exhibit higher levels of stress during the quarantine.
This paper discusses different aspects of whistleblowers and how ICT can encourage whistleblowing. Reporting a misconduct at work should never be underestimated as a little spark can grow to a flame in a short time. There is a positive impact of using ICT framework when dealing with whistleblowing at work. The act presented in the paper consists of six components, the first component is creating an online reporting tool that streamlines the allegation process by providing a single reporting mechanism for whistleblowers with possible anonymous reporting functionality. Second is stating that any act that harms the organization considered a malpractice and will be treated seriously with complete discretion about the whistleblower. Third is the organization is vowed to protect reporters and treat information with great confidentiality while conducting inspection process through the online reporting tool. Fourth is penalties for claiming a false allegation. Fifth is awards for reporting depending on reflection report from inspection committee personnel who are utilizing data from the online reporting tool. Finally, clear way of conducting interrogation with stakeholders with utmost respect and value their privacy.
This Viewpoint advocates worldwide policy changes that encourages walking and bicycling and promotes healthful eating by such measures as taxing junk food and subsidizing nutritious food to curb the diabetes epidemic.
The pandemic of diabetes poses an enormous public health challenge for almost every country across the globe.¹,2 In 2014, more than 380 million people were living with diabetes worldwide, representing 8.3% of the global adult population.¹ This number is expected to increase to 592 million by 2035.¹ Diabetes is no longer a disease of the affluent, with lower socioeconomic groups being disproportionately affected in high-income countries and with 77% of the world’s diabetic population living in low- and middle-income countries. It is also no longer predominantly a disease of older persons, with almost half of the people with diabetes in the 40- to 59-year age range. Low- and middle-income countries face the added challenge of dealing with a dual burden of disease, as they are seeing an increase in obesity and diabetes levels, while still grappling with undernutrition and infectious diseases.³
The prevalence of obesity has increased substantially over the past 30 years. We performed a quantitative analysis of the nature and extent of the person-to-person spread of obesity as a possible factor contributing to the obesity epidemic.
We evaluated a densely interconnected social network of 12,067 people assessed repeatedly from 1971 to 2003 as part of the Framingham Heart Study. The body-mass index was available for all subjects. We used longitudinal statistical models to examine whether weight gain in one person was associated with weight gain in his or her friends, siblings, spouse, and neighbors.
Discernible clusters of obese persons (body-mass index [the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters], > or =30) were present in the network at all time points, and the clusters extended to three degrees of separation. These clusters did not appear to be solely attributable to the selective formation of social ties among obese persons. A person's chances of becoming obese increased by 57% (95% confidence interval [CI], 6 to 123) if he or she had a friend who became obese in a given interval. Among pairs of adult siblings, if one sibling became obese, the chance that the other would become obese increased by 40% (95% CI, 21 to 60). If one spouse became obese, the likelihood that the other spouse would become obese increased by 37% (95% CI, 7 to 73). These effects were not seen among neighbors in the immediate geographic location. Persons of the same sex had relatively greater influence on each other than those of the opposite sex. The spread of smoking cessation did not account for the spread of obesity in the network.
Network phenomena appear to be relevant to the biologic and behavioral trait of obesity, and obesity appears to spread through social ties. These findings have implications for clinical and public health interventions.
Decades ago, discussion of an impending global pandemic of obesity was thought of as heresy. But in the 1970s, diets began to shift towards increased reliance upon processed foods, increased away-from-home food intake, and increased use of edible oils and sugar-sweetened beverages. Reductions in physical activity and increases in sedentary behavior began to be seen as well. The negative effects of these changes began to be recognized in the early 1990s, primarily in low- and middle-income populations, but they did not become clearly acknowledged until diabetes, hypertension, and obesity began to dominate the globe. Now, rapid increases in the rates of obesity and overweight are widely documented, from urban and rural areas in the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to populations in countries with higher income levels. Concurrent rapid shifts in diet and activity are well documented as well. An array of large-scale programmatic and policy measures are being explored in a few countries; however, few countries are engaged in serious efforts to prevent the serious dietary challenges being faced.
THE GREAT MORTALITY AMONG CHILDREN of the working class, and especially among those of the factory operatives, is proof enough of the unwholesome conditions under which they pass their first years. These influences are at work, of course, among the children who survive, but not quite so powerfully as upon those who succumb. The result in the most favourable case is a tendency to disease, or some check in development, and consequent less than normal vigour of the constitution. A nine-year-old child of a factory operative that has grown up in want, privation, and changing conditions, in cold and damp, with insufficient clothing and unwholesome dwellings, is far from having the working strength of a child brought up under healthier conditions. At nine years of age it is sent into the mill to work 61/2 hours (formerly 8, earlier still, 12 to 14, even 16 hours) daily, until the thirteenth year; then twelve hours until the eighteenth year. The old enfeebling influences continue, while the work is added to them. . . . but in no case can its [the child’s] presence in the damp, heavy air of the factory, often at once warm and wet, contribute to good health; and, in any case, it is unpardonable to sacrifice to the greed of an unfeeling bourgeoisie the time of children which should be devoted solely to their physical and mental development, and to withdraw them from school and the fresh air in order to wear them out for the benefit of the manufacturers. . . .
The prevalence of smoking has decreased substantially in the United States over the past 30 years. We examined the extent of the person-to-person spread of smoking behavior and the extent to which groups of widely connected people quit together.
We studied a densely interconnected social network of 12,067 people assessed repeatedly from 1971 to 2003 as part of the Framingham Heart Study. We used network analytic methods and longitudinal statistical models.
Discernible clusters of smokers and nonsmokers were present in the network, and the clusters extended to three degrees of separation. Despite the decrease in smoking in the overall population, the size of the clusters of smokers remained the same across time, suggesting that whole groups of people were quitting in concert. Smokers were also progressively found in the periphery of the social network. Smoking cessation by a spouse decreased a person's chances of smoking by 67% (95% confidence interval [CI], 59 to 73). Smoking cessation by a sibling decreased the chances by 25% (95% CI, 14 to 35). Smoking cessation by a friend decreased the chances by 36% (95% CI, 12 to 55 ). Among persons working in small firms, smoking cessation by a coworker decreased the chances by 34% (95% CI, 5 to 56). Friends with more education influenced one another more than those with less education. These effects were not seen among neighbors in the immediate geographic area.
Network phenomena appear to be relevant to smoking cessation. Smoking behavior spreads through close and distant social ties, groups of interconnected people stop smoking in concert, and smokers are increasingly marginalized socially. These findings have implications for clinical and public health interventions to reduce and prevent smoking.
COVID-19: the largest attack on whistleblowers in the world
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Feinstein S. COVID-19: the largest attack on whistleblowers in the world. Government Accountability Project; 2020. https:// whist leblo wer. org/ blog/ covid-19-the-large st-attack-on-whist leblo wers-in-the-world/.
Is it a crime to mishandle a public health response? Council on Foreign Relations
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Scheffer DJ. Is it a crime to mishandle a public health response? Council on Foreign Relations; 2020.
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Overview of whistleblowing software. Transparency International Knowledge Hub
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Unleashing a pandemic of health from the workplace: believing is seeing
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The age of social murder. ScheerPost, scheerpost.com
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Understanding “pandemic” through etymology. Logophilia
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Health status: perceived health status. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
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Is shame necessary? New uses for an old tool
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Principles of sociology
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