Understanding how corporations both drive & use neoliberalism to block progress in public health

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
D Miller
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Significant Public Health ◽  
Economic Elites

Abstract This paper examines the role of corporations in the creation and utilisation of think tanks, lobby ventures and front groups, both nationally and internationally. It examines how these were implicated in the introduction of neoliberalism in the 1970s/80s. It briefly tells the story of the development of the Mont Pelerin Society and how its acolytes 'littered the world' with free market think tanks which then did battle in the struggle to introduce neoliberalism. It examines how this led to the 'disembedding' (Polanyi 1944) of political and economic elites from society via the rise and maturation of a wide range of intermediary institutions and organisations including three main kinds of groups: National and transnational policy planning groups; Think tanks and think tank networks; lobbying and public relations consultancies. This part of the paper concludes by examining the role of those industrial sectors that have had the most significant Public Health footprint in the neoliberal revolution, in each of the three kinds of groups mentioned above. The paper then turns to the concrete advantages that these ongoing changes gave specific corporate actors with negative public health effects

Brazilian businessmen movements: Right-wing populism and the (dis)connection between policy and politics

Organization ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amon Barros ◽  
Sergio Wanderley
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Right Wing Populism

We advocate for the relevance of taking Brazilian past experience and theorization of populism into account to understand present-day challenges. We depart from Weffort’s conceptualization of populism to discuss the role of businesspeople movements in supporting and taking control of the political agenda through think tanks. According to Weffort, populism is built over precarious alliances that tend to favor policy or politics in different moments. During times of divergence among political elites, a populist leader emerges as a mediator in orchestrating an unstable hegemony among asymmetric classes. At the same time, the classes included in the populist alliance give legitimacy to the populist leader; they hinder his capacity of imposing decisions. However, treason of the weakest within the alliance is certain. We suggest that the political role played by the think tank IPES, in 1960s Brazil, in reframing middle-class demands is akin to contemporary populist events in Brazil—represented by the election of Jair Bolsonaro—and in the Anglo-Saxon world. Trumpism and Brexit are examples of a still-powerful free-market ideology project wrapped up under a populist discourse (re)framed with the support of businessmen and think tanks. A corporate takeover of government and the imposition of a free-market agenda are certain, as it is the treason of the weakest in the populist coalition. CMS academics should engage with the demands that give birth to populist movements as a way to dispute the neoliberal hegemony and anti-democratic populist solutions.

Case study 2

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Ferlie ◽  
Sue Dopson ◽  
Chris Bennett ◽  
Michael D. Fischer ◽  
Jean Ledger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Significant Potential ◽  
Key Stakeholders

This chapter analyses the role of think tanks in generating a distinctive mode of policy knowledge, pragmatically orientated to inform and shape issues of importance to civil society. Drawing on political science literature, we argue that think tanks exploit niche areas of expertise and influence to actively mobilize policy analyses and recommendations across diverse stakeholders. Through our exploratory mapping of think tanks, geographically concentrated within London, we characterize their influence as significantly boosting knowledge intensity across the regional ecosystem. In particular, we study the empirical case of one London-based think tank which powerfully mobilized policy knowledge through its formal and informal networks to build influential expert consensus amongst key stakeholders. We conclude that such organizations act as key knowledge producers and mobilizers, with significant potential to influence policy discourses and implementation.

scholarly journals A cross-sectional survey assessing the preparedness of the long-term care sector to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Yu-Hin Siu ◽  
Lorand Kristof ◽  
Dawn Elston ◽  
Abe Hafid ◽  
Fred Mather
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Significant Public Health ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
The Government

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a significant public health emergency that impacts all sectors of healthcare. The negative health outcomes for the COVID-19 infection have been most severe in the frail elderly dwelling in Canadian long-term care (LTC) homes.Methods: An online cross-sectional survey of Ontario LTC Clinicians working in LTC homes in Ontario Canada was conducted to provide the LTC clinician perspective on the preparedness and engagement of the LTC sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey questionnaire was developed in collaboration with the Ontario Long-Term Care Clinicians organization (OLTCC) and was distributed between March 30, 2020 to May 25, 2020. All registered members of the OLTCC and Nurse-led LTC Outreach Teams were invited to participate. The primary outcomes were: 1) the descriptive report of the screening measures implemented, communication and information received, and the preparation of the respondent’s LTC home to a potential COVID-19 outbreak; and 2) the level of agreement, as reported using a five-point Likert scale), to COVID-19 preparedness statements for the respondent’s LTC home was also assessed.Results: The overall response rate was 54% (160/294). LTC homes implemented a wide range of important interventions (e.g. instituting established respiratory isolation protocols, active screening of new LTC admissions, increasing education on infection control processes, encouraging sick staff to take time off, etc). Ample communications pertinent to the pandemic were received from provincial LTC organizations, the government and public health officials. However, the feasibility of implementing public health recommendations, as well as the engagement of the LTC sector in pandemic planning were identified as areas of concern. Medical director status was associated with an increased knowledge of local implementation of interventions to mitigate COVID-19, as well as endorsing increased access to reliable COVID-19 information and resources to manage a potential COVID-19 outbreak in their LTC home.Conclusions: This study highlights the communication to and implementation of recommendations in the Ontario LTC sector, despite some concerns regarding feasibility. Importantly, LTC clinician respondents clearly indicated that better engagement with LTC leaders is needed to plan a coordinated pandemic response.

Thinks tanks and their role in policy making in ireland

2021 ◽  
pp. 157-170
Author(s):  
Chris McInerney
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
International Experience ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Broad Variety

This chapter reviews the role of think tanks in policy making. Like most modern democracies, Ireland relies on a range of sources to influence the choices and designs of public policy. Apart from political and administrative influences, a broad variety of civil society, academic and private sector actors seek to access, influence, advise, inform and sometimes embarrass those in power. The chapter focuses on ‘think tanks’, defining them, reviewing international experience, examining different types and considering the complex issue of assessing think tank influence. It maps out Ireland’s limited think tank landscape and examines recent developments. Think tanks’ influence on Irish policymaking is assessed across a number of indicators.

Market Failures, the Environment, and Human Health

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karyn Morrissey
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Health Care Demand ◽  
Goods And Services

Knowledge of the important role that the environment plays in determining human health predates the modern public health era. However, the tendency to see health, disease, and their determinants as attributes of individuals rather than characteristics of communities meant that the role of the environment in human health was seldom accorded sufficient importance during much of the 20th century. Instead, research began to focus on specific risk factors that correlated with diseases of greatest concern, i.e., the non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, asthma, and diabetes. Many of these risk factors (e.g., smoking, alcohol consumption, and diet) were aspects of individual lifestyle and behaviors, freely chosen by the individual. Within this individual-centric framework of human health, the standard economic model for human health became primarily the Grossman model of health and health care demand. In this model, an individual’s health stock may be increased by investing in health (by consuming health services, for example) or decreased by endogenous (age) or exogenous (smoking) individual factors. Within this model, individuals used their available resources, their budget, to purchase goods and services that either increased or decreased their health stock. Grossman’s model provides a consumption-based approach to human health, where individuals purchase goods and services required to improve their individual health in the marketplace. Grossman’s model of health assumes that the goods and services required to optimize good health can be purchased through market-based interactions and that these goods and services are optimally priced—that the value of the goods and services are reflected in their price. In reality, many types of goods and services that are good for human health are not available to purchase, or if they are available they are undervalued in the free market. Across the environmental and health literature, these goods and services are, today, broadly referred to as “ecosystem services for human health.” However, the quasi-public good nature of ecosystem services for human health means that the private market will generate a suboptimal environment for both individual and public health outcomes. In the face of continued austerity and scarce public resources, understanding the role of the environment in human health may help to alleviate future health care demand by decreasing (or increasing) environmental risk (or benefits) associated with health outcomes. However, to take advantage of the role that the environment plays in human health requires a fundamental reorientation of public health policy and spending to include environmental considerations.

scholarly journals PRECONDITIONS OF ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITY: DOCTRINAL ISSUES

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 102-111
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Gerasymenko
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Current State ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Rule Making ◽  
Administrative Responsibility

A thorough analysis of liability for administrative offence is not possible without clear understanding of its preconditions. The problem of preconditions for administrative responsibility is directly related to administrative delictization of offenses, effectiveness of the fight against delict, prominent state policy in the field of law enforcement and law order. In this aspect, the role of the preconditions for administrative responsibility is a lot more important because they formulate proper foundations for achieving its general objectives. Thus, they determine the effectiveness of administrative responsibility at sectoral and general social levels. The importance of the definition is due to the urgent needs of rule-making and law enforcement practice, the effectiveness of which directly depends on how reasonable and appropriate each administrative delict norm is. Unfortunately, despite all its scientific and practical significance, the issue of preconditions for administrative liability has not been resolved yet. Therefore, there is a need to form unified, consistent scientific approach to understanding the grounds for administrative liability. To this end, the article provides a critical analysis of the basic doctrinal concepts of the preconditions of administrative responsibility. A wide range of social, economic, technical and other factors that determine the effectiveness of administrative responsibility, its current state, its dynamics and prospects for its development have been studied. Discovered the role of these factors in creating a favorable socio-economic and information-technical environment for the implementation of the main tasks of administrative responsibility, in particular: offences prevention, reliable protection of public relations and education of citizens in the spirit of law. The author concluded the scientific and practical expediency of the systematic study of the preconditions for establishing administrative responsibility (preconditions for administrative delictization) and the preconditions for the effectiveness of administrative responsibility.

scholarly journals A cross-sectional survey assessing the preparedness of the long-term care sector to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Yu-Hin Siu ◽  
Lorand Kristof ◽  
Dawn Elston ◽  
Abe Hafid ◽  
Fred Mather
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Significant Public Health ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
The Government

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a significant public health emergency that impacts all sectors of healthcare. The negative health outcomes for the COVID-19 infection have been most severe in the frail elderly dwelling in Canadian long-term care (LTC) homes. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey of Ontario LTC Clinicians working in LTC homes in Ontario Canada was conducted to provide the LTC clinician perspective on the preparedness and engagement of the LTC sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey questionnaire was developed in collaboration with the Ontario Long-Term Care Clinicians organization (OLTCC) and was distributed between March 30, 2020 to May 25, 2020. All registered members of the OLTCC and Nurse-led LTC Outreach Teams were invited to participate. The primary outcomes were: 1) the descriptive report of the screening measures implemented, communication and information received, and the preparation of the respondent’s LTC home to a potential COVID-19 outbreak; and 2) the level of agreement, as reported using a five-point Likert scale), to COVID-19 preparedness statements for the respondent’s LTC home was also assessed.Results: The overall response rate was 54% (160/294). LTC homes implemented a wide range of important interventions (e.g. instituting established respiratory isolation protocols, active screening of new LTC admissions, increasing education on infection control processes, encouraging sick staff to take time off, etc). Ample communications pertinent to the pandemic were received from provincial LTC organizations, the government and public health officials. However, the feasibility of implementing public health recommendations, as well as the engagement of the LTC sector in pandemic planning were identified as areas of concern. Medical director status was associated with an increased knowledge of local implementation of interventions to mitigate COVID-19, as well as endorsing increased access to reliable COVID-19 information and resources to manage a potential COVID-19 outbreak in their LTC home. Conclusions: This study highlights the communication to and implementation of recommendations in the Ontario LTC sector, despite some concerns regarding feasibility. Importantly, LTC clinician respondents clearly indicated that better engagement with LTC leaders is needed to plan a coordinated pandemic response.

Impact of the Opioid/Fentanyl Epidemic on the Toxicology Laboratory’s Workload: The CMCVAMC Experience

2019 ◽  
Vol 152 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S90-S90
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Petersen ◽  
Thomas George ◽  
Darshana Jhala
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Opioid Epidemic ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Significant Public Health Concern ◽  
Significant Public Health ◽  
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy

Abstract Introduction Opiates have long been used by both the population at large and the veteran population as a drug of abuse. However, recently, fentanyl—a synthetic opioid—has risen in prominence in this opioid drug abuse epidemic as a drug used by suppliers to “cut” heroin, to masquerade for another opiate, or for direct usage. As this is a recent phenomenon, the new increasing need to test for fentanyl for clinical reasons has a major impact on the toxicology laboratory’s workload. Method Quality assurance/improvement data were obtained to determine the number of fentanyl tests by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) performed by the toxicology laboratory since quarter 1 of 2011 (October-December 2010) to quarter 1 of 2018 (October-December 2017). The numbers of tests required for clinical care in each quarter were tabulated and compared in a graph. Quarters for each year begin and end in October. Results The total number of GC/MS tests for fentanyl needed for clinical care has been drastically increasing recently. From 2011 to 2015, the yearly number of tests clinically needed has ranged from 83 to 92. In 2016, the total number of clinically needed tests for fentanyl spiked to 167 and by fiscal year 2017 included 1,108 fentanyl GC/MS tests. The last examined quarter (quarter 1 of fiscal year 2018) included 527 tests, which is more than the highest number from 2017 (377 in quarter 4 of 2017). Conclusion The increasing use of fentanyl in the opioid epidemic appears to have played a role in significantly increasing the clinical need to test for fentanyl by GC/MS, increasing the volume by over 10 to 15 times. The role of fentanyl in the opioid epidemic remains a significant public health concern.

scholarly journals Understanding lead in water and avoidance strategies: a United States perspective for informed decision-making

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 540-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsey J. Pieper ◽  
Adrienne Katner ◽  
Rebecca Kriss ◽  
Min Tang ◽  
Marc A. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Simplified Approach ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Avoidance Strategies ◽  
Significant Public Health

Abstract The pervasiveness of lead in drinking water poses a significant public health threat, which can be reduced by implementing preventive measures. However, the causes of elevated lead in water and the benefits of lead in water avoidance strategies are often misunderstood. Based on experiences in the United States, this paper describes an oversimplified ‘lead in water equation’ to explain key variables controlling the presence of lead in drinking water to better inform public health practitioners, government officials, utility personnel, and concerned residents. We illustrate the application of the equation in Flint, Michigan and explore the primary household-level water lead avoidance strategies recommended during the crisis, including flushing, filtration, bottled water use, and lead pipe removal. In addition to lead reduction, strategies are evaluated based on costs and limitations. While these lead avoidance strategies will reduce water lead to some degree, the costs, limitations, and effectiveness of these strategies will be site- and event-specific. This paper presents a simplified approach to communicate key factors which must be considered to effectively reduce waterborne lead exposures for a wide range of decision makers. This article has been made Open Access thanks to the generous support of a global network of libraries as part of the Knowledge Unlatched Select initiative.

scholarly journals Bringing the commercial determinants of health out of the shadows: a review of how the commercial determinants are represented in conceptual frameworks

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 660-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nason Maani ◽  
Jeff Collin ◽  
Sharon Friel ◽  
Anna B Gilmore ◽  
Jim McCambridge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
Transnational Companies

Abstract Background The term ‘commercial determinants of health’ (CDOH) is increasingly focussing attention upon the role of tobacco, alcohol and food and beverage companies and others—as important drivers of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). However, the CDOH do not seem to be clearly represented in the most common social determinants of health (SDOH) frameworks. We review a wide range of existing frameworks of the determinants of health to determine whether and how commercial determinants are incorporated into current SDOH thinking. Methods We searched for papers and non-academic reports published in English since 2000 describing influences on population health outcomes. We included documents with a formal conceptual framework or diagram, showing the integration of the different determinants. Results Forty-eight framework documents were identified. Only one explicitly included the CDOH in a conceptual diagram. Ten papers discussed the commercial determinants in some form in the text only and fourteen described negative impacts of commercial determinants in the text. Twelve discussed positive roles for the private sector in producing harmful commodities. Overall, descriptions of commercial determinants are frequently understated, not made explicit, or simply missing. The role of commercial actors as vectors of NCDs is largely absent or invisible in many of the most influential conceptual diagrams. Conclusions Our current public health models may risk framing public health problems and solutions in ways that obscure the role that the private sector, in particular large transnational companies, play in shaping the broader environment and individual behaviours, and thus population health outcomes.

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