{"id":240,"date":"2020-04-18T07:30:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T06:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/?p=240"},"modified":"2020-04-18T07:33:23","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T06:33:23","slug":"no-exit-the-united-kingdoms-probable-russian-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/2020\/04\/18\/no-exit-the-united-kingdoms-probable-russian-future\/","title":{"rendered":"No exit? The United Kingdom\u2019s probable Russian Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As many governments are announcing strategies for ending lockdowns, we\nhave the curious situation in which the leader\nof the Labour Party<\/a> and the Adam\nSmith Institute<\/a> agree that the UK government needs to set out such a\nstrategy, but the government refuses\nto do so.  It says only that five tests\nmust first be met<\/a>, but gives no evidence of being able to meet any\none of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is dangerously irresponsible, and is likely to have long-term\nnegative consequences for public health and health inequalities \u2013 consequences that\nmost public health researchers and practitioners seem determined to ignore.  Look ahead, for example, to next January when\nnew border controls (the UK imports\n30 percent of its food<\/a> from the European Union) create food\nshortages whilst economic collapse worsens fuel poverty that was already a\nsubstantial public health issue<\/a> before the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the absence of a clear, credible and rigorously implemented exit\nstrategy, the future may well resemble the situation in Russia after the\ncollapse of the former Soviet Union<\/a>. \nThe economy contracted\nby close to 50 percent<\/a>, existing social provision mechanisms and\nlarge portions of the health care system crumbled, and life expectancy \u2013\nespecially for men, who now are hit harder by the coronavirus \u2013 plunged by\nseveral years.  Conventional wisdom\nattributes a substantial part of this transition to alcohol consumption, but\nfrom a social determinants of health perspective this is explanandum <\/em>rather than explanans<\/em>:\nthat is, it demands explanation rather than providing one.  Twenty-five\nyears on<\/a>, Russian life expectancy still did not reflect the\ncountry\u2019s economic recovery.  That\nrecovery was accompanied by rising economic inequality,\nmassive capital flight<\/a>, and the emergence of a new stratum of\npolitically connected billionaire oligarchs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this could be avoided, but there is no sign that either the UK government\nor the public health community are even taking these risks seriously.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional sources on the Russian\nexperience:  <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Field MG and Twigg JL, eds. Russia’s Torn Safety Nets: Health and Social Welfare during the Transition<\/em>. New York: St. Martin’s Press; 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Field MG, Kotz DM, Bukhman G. Neoliberal Economic Policy, “State Desertion,” and the Russian Health Crisis. In: Kim JY, Millen JV, Irwin A, Gershman J, eds. Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor<\/em>. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press; 2000: pp. 155-73.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As many governments are announcing strategies for ending lockdowns, we have the curious situation in which the leader of the Labour Party and the Adam Smith Institute agree that the UK government needs to set out such a strategy, but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1834,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[35,36,48,40,47,14],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-economic-collapse","tag-inequality","tag-russia","tag-social-determinants-of-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1834"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/theodoreschrecker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}