The Lancet Voice

Prof. Salim Abdool Karim, director of CAPRISA and former leader of the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19, describes the discovery of the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant, explains what we know about it so far, and discusses how South Africa feels about the global response.

Climate research pioneer Prof. Michael E. Mann joins the podcast to lay out the most important things that happened at COP26.

Further reading:
https://www.thelancet.com/countdown-health-climate

Why are the countries which currently suffer the most direct health impacts from climate change some of the least likely to publish climate research? In the lead-up to COP26, Prof. Penny Murage of LSHTM discusses the field and her community work in sub-Saharan Africa, and Ayesha Tandon of CarbonBrief talks about her recent piece on inequality in climate research.

Lancet Countdown: https://www.thelancet.com/countdown-health-climate
CarbonBrief article: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-the-lack-of-diversity-in-climate-science-research

We hear from Prof. Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein and Alexandria Macmadu on how COVID-19 has affected the prison system in the USA, and Prof. Marie Claire Van Hout talks about the health problems faced by prisoners in sub-Saharan Africa.

Vaccine-rich countries are beginning programmes of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, but what's the evidence for them? What does this mean for countries which have no vaccines? Prof. Sir Richard Peto lays out the current evidence and Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, discusses what booster shots mean for the rest of the world, and how India is currently coping with COVID-19 following the wave there in early 2021.

Further reading:
Considerations in boosting COVID-19 vaccine immune responses
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02046-8/fulltext

What are the most pressing humanitarian needs in Afghanistan? How can the country preserve its health system? Former Afghanistan government public health director Dr. Mohammad Haqmal and Dr. Ayesha Ahmad highlight the main issues, and Prof. Muhammad Zaman discusses the changing needs of refugees worldwide as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further reading:
Urgent health and humanitarian needs of the Afghan population under the Taliban:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01963-2/fulltext

The mental health of health workers is often overlooked, but with the pandemic still raging around the world, a conversation about their wellbeing is vital. In this episode we speak to Pier Bryden, Julie Maggi, and Lisa Richardson about their work in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and to Sam Harvey of the Black Dog Institute in Sydney about his new Review of the subject.

Jocalyn Clark and Jessamy Bagenal of The Lancet are joined by Prof. Sarah Kaplan, Director of the Institute for Gender & the Economy,  to discuss what a feminist recovery from COVID-19 might look like.

Tranexamic acid is proven to lower mortality rates among women who have postpartum haemorrhage, but it's still rarely used. Professors Haleema Shakur-Still and Ian Roberts of LSHTM discuss their new documentary on the subject and their research, while Dr. Taissa Vila and Professor Wilson Savino discuss Brazil's struggles with COVID-19.

Adrian Bauman and Masamitsu Kamada discuss why the Olympics don't seem to have much of an effect on physical activity levels in their host countries.