Links and Resources

Key Websites

The UKHSA website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency
The UK Government website: https://www.gov.uk/topic/health-protection
The Welsh devolved administration website: https://phw.nhs.wales/
The Scottish devolved administration website: https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/
The Faculty of Public Health website: https://www.fph.org.uk/
The WHO website: http://www.who.int/
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control: https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/home
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/
The Green Book: www.dh.gov.uk/greenbook
RCGP Learning: https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/

Key References

These references cover the following subjects:

Outbreaks
Pandemics
Surveillance
Vaccine technology
Emergency Planning

Sexual Health

We have not included sexual health as part of the programme for this iteration of the course, but please see below for a presentation by Dr Bret Palmer that covers this topic.

Planetary Health

The following resources further encourage us all to think how healthcare can be delivered in a way that does not damage our health and the planet we live on and share with other species.

One Chance Left

As part of the University of Exeter's Green Futures campaign, we have brought together a sequence of new poems written by scientists, health professionals and a poet from the University of Exeter and the Met Office. Powerful poetry connects disciplines, research, communities, and emotions in diverse and challenging ways; poetry provokes questions, motivates positive change, and reveals what is most valuable.

Find out more: https://greenfutures.exeter.ac.uk/one-chance-left/

Poetry Power: A New Energy in Climate Communications

At the Met Office COP26 science pavilion, ‘Hot Poets’ and ‘One Chance Left’ presented complementary ways that scientists, health professionals and poets can work together to communicate climate science and impacts through poetry to COP26 and the public. This event introduced the projects and featured poems from both poets and scientists.

You can watch the live stream on the Met Office – Science and Services YouTube Channel.

Sustaining planetary health through systems thinking: Public health's critical role:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827321001191 (Open Access)

United Nations - Climate Change - Planetary Health: https://unfccc.int/climate-action/momentum-for-change/planetary-health

0142159X.2020.pdf

What can clinicians say to patients who ask about climate change?

January 22, 2021

What can clinicians say to patients who ask about climate change - The BMJ.pdf

The University of Exeter recently became an alliance network of the Planetary Health Alliance Network ( a global network of +200 organisations from + 40 countries). PHA works to catalyze the field of planetary health and its diverse science, stories, solutions, and communities through community-building, education, public outreach, and action: https://www.planetaryhealthalliance.org/

We already have Master of Public Health and MSc in Environment and Human Health. Below are a couple of slides with further details about the organisation and core initiatives. You might be interested in the Clinicians for Planetary Health, for example: https://www.planetaryhealthalliance.org/clinicians-for-planetary-health

PHA_UOE Information Slide.pptx

Waking up to the planetary health emergency webinars – University of Exeter 2020

The profound environmental damage we are inflicting on this planet, our common home, is adversely affecting the health of those alive today. And the damage we have already done will continue to impact on human health and wellbeing for many generations to come. The geo-biological changes we have initiated will persist for many centuries. We are already locked-in to that change. The actions we collectively take in the next few years will not only determine the future for our own species, but the future for the entire biosphere. This is a planetary health emergency.

You can now watch the webinar series below to learn about and reflect on the most pressing health challenge our species has ever faced. Engage with experts to understand what our individual and collective responsibilities should be and how even small changes may have big effects. The stakes could not be higher. The actions taken by those of us alive today will determine the future health and wellbeing for generations of humanity and the survival of many other species on our planet.

Webinar 1: Ecotoxicology: sitting on a time bomb by Professor Charles Tyler and Water - friend or foe? How to build resilience to global threats by Professor David Butler
Webinar 2: Round and round – can the economy be more like biology? by Professor Peter Hopkinson and What can society earn form the past? by Professor Amanda Power
Webinar 3: Human Migration: Facing coronavirus in a refugee camp. The impact of COVID-19 on Paletinian refugees villages by Cevdet Acu and Hot air and cold feet: Is campaigning good for health? By Dr Ben Eder and Rob Abrams
Webinar 4: Waking up to psychological aspects of the climate and environmental emergency: trauma, power, threat and meaning by Annie Mitchell and Behaving and Believing by Professor David Horrell
Webinar 5: The Stuff of Health: thinking in a more rounded way by John Malloch and Eat well for the planet by Rosemary Martin
Webinar 6: Systems thinking and tipping points for planetary health by Professor Tim Lenton and Delivering the world's first carbon net zero health service by Dr Nick Watts

Riptide volume 13: Climate Matters

Climate Matters is the Riptide Journal’s thirteenth volume and was produced and published to coincide with the launch of the ‘Waking up to the planetary health emergency’ 2020 webinar series. A burning issue of our time – the climate crisis – is the central theme of this collection of short stories, poetry, images and science writing. Many of the contributors ponder the links between our relentless drive to consume, our disrespect for the natural world and its disastrous effect on the climate and the survival of humanity. In a range of ways they question the role that capitalism plays and the need for a redefinition of what constitutes a good life. COVID-19’s appearance during the selection process means the pandemic and issues of health – both individual and planetary – play their part in the whole.

Download a pdf copy of this publication here.

The European launch of the Lancet Countdown on Climate Change and Health

2020 Lancet Countdown report for Climate Change and Health.pdf

With 1.3 million staff & 7% of the economy @NHSEngland just became the world's first health system to tackle climate change by committing to net zero carbon. Dr Nick Watts has been appointed new NHS Chief Sustainability Officer to lead the climate change and sustainability work of the NHS to deliver a Net Zero Health Service.

delivering-a-net-zero-national-health-service.pdf

Launch of NHS Ocean

NHS Ocean aims to conserve and protect coastal and marine ecosystems through minimising harm resulting from the procurement and delivery of healthcare whilst increasing awareness of the benefits to human health and wellbeing from healthy seas, coasts, and waterways.

We will do this through advancing the education of healthcare and public health professionals and the public on the interdependence between human and oceanic health and collaboration, encouraging engagement with research institutions, environmental organisations, and communities

You can watch the launch event here.