Generated by All in One SEO v5.0.1.1, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site.

# Papyrus Walk

A miscellany of musings

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://www.papyruswalk.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Performing health equity: A repeat prescription from yesteryear](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/08/performing-health-equity-a-repeat-prescription-yesteryear/) - In a recent paper in the International Journal for Health Equity, Berenson et al. deliver a hopeful vision of a world better able to take advantage of SDH research. Had the article been published in 2015, it would have landed in a world positioned to take full advantage of the prescription. Unfortunately, the very value
- [Global heating isn't important--if you're not suffering.](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/07/global-heating-isnt-important-if-youre-not-suffering/) - In the last weeks of June, Europe experienced a heatwave that broke temperature records from France through to Hungary. The heatwave combined high daytime and nighttime temperatures with high humidity. The result was more than 2,000 excess deaths in France alone. The third heatwave of the European summer has started. I have been fascinated by
- [Citation Panic](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/05/citation-panic/) - Fake citation panic has arrived. A paper was recently published in the Lancet that audited 2.5 million biomedical papers for fabricated citations; i.e., "references whose claimed titles correspond to no existing publication". The headline finding was that 1 in 277 papers contained fake citations. The response to the paper's publication has been varied but at
- [A New Global Health Architecture: Maximising Health Returns](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/04/a-new-global-health-architecture-maximising-health-returns/) - There have been a number of opinion pieces, resets, and declarations on what is needed in a new Global Health Architecture. These have been authored by diplomats, former Prime Ministers and Presidents, Multi-lateral agency staff and former staff, Philanthropies and peak bodies on what is needed in a new global health architecture. They have appeared
- [Campbell and Stanley explained replication rates in 1963](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/04/campbell-and-stanley-explained-replication-rates-in-1963/) - Over 60 years ago, Donald Campbell and Julian Stanley published their classic, slim volume Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research. One of their earliest observations concerns the trade-off between internal and external validity. Specifically, the more precisely one can establish a causal relationship, the less one can say about its generality. In recent work, I
- [Analytic robustness could be a real problem](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/04/analytic-robustness-could-be-a-real-problem/) - A recent article in Nature on the robustness of research findings in the social and behavioural sciences found that only 34% of re-analyses of the data yielded the same result as the original report. This sounds horrible. It sounds like two-thirds of the research that social and behavioural scientists are doing is low quality work,
- [Authorised Speech and Token Restraint](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/02/authorised-speech-and-token-restraint/) - At the Bafta film awards last Sunday, a man in the audience shouted the N-word while two Black actors were on stage. The BBC broadcast it. The fallout was considerable. The man was John Davidson, a Tourette syndrome activist whose life story had inspired one of the nominated films. He has Tourette's. He didn't choose
- [Ideology and the Illusion of Disagreement in Empirical Research](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/01/ideology-and-the-illusion-of-disagreement-in-empirical-research/) - There is deep scepticism about the honesty of researchers and their capacity to say things that are true about the world. If one could demonstrate that their interpretation of data was motivated by their ideology, that would be powerful evidence for the distrust. A recent paper in Science Advances ostensibly showed just that. The authors, Borjas
- [On becoming a decolonial scholar](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/01/on-becoming-a-decolonial-scholar/) - I have observed some early, tentative steps of young academics to become world-class decolonial scholars in global health. This is a rich and rewarding area of endeavour that has real potential to launch a career without the baggage of narrow disciplinary boundaries, rigid methodological commitments, or premature demands for epistemic closure. When approached carefully, decolonial
- [A Crime Boss is not a force for good](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/01/a-crime-boss-is-not-a-force-for-good/) - When US forces kidnapped Nicolás Maduro in Caracas last week they acted illegally. They broke multiple international laws. The President of the United States publicly declared that he cannot be held to account. He is not constrained by the law, he said, he is (un)constrained by his personal (im)morality. There is no doubt that Maduro
- [The crimes of the leader](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2026/01/the-crimes-of-the-leader/) - When is an entire nation guilty of the crimes of its leader? In the aftermath of World War II, there was considerable discussion about the collective responsibility of the German people for the horrific actions of the Nazis. By the mid-1950s, it was almost impossible to find a German who had ever been pro-Nazi—everyone was
- [Country X has no right to exist!](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/12/country-x-has-no-right-to-exist/) - Feel free to insert any country’s name in the title according to your personal preferences or animosities. My initial instinct was to go for click-bait and title the article, “Israel has no right to exist”. This would be sure to inflame the passions of all the Israelis who condemn as antisemites anyone who asserts Israel’s
- [“AI Wrote That!”](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/11/ai-wrote-that/) - “Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none; And some condemned for a fault alone.” [Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 1] If only we could all write like Shakespeare. It’s sonorous, timeless, replete with metaphor and meaning. Now we have AI slop swilling around the internet. Finding something written by a human, something
- [The End of the Green-Growth Illusion](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/11/the-end-of-the-green-growth-illusion/) - COP30 will produce nothing realistic to address a development, climate Ponzi scheme forced on the weak by the strong. This chart reveals some stark realities about the link between development and carbon. It plots excess CO₂ consumption against GDP per capita, measuring each nation against a fair per-capita carbon allocation. Consumption-based accounting attributes the carbon
- [Viewpoint Therapy—Getting Identity Right](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/10/viewpoint-therapy-getting-identity-right/) - It was a bland, beige waiting room. John approached the receptionist’s desk. He felt awkward and uncomfortable—the awkwardness of a teenager doing something embarrassing while knowing that people were watching and judging. The waiting room was empty except for the receptionist and John’s mother, who had nudged him towards the desk while she took a
- [Rational Abandonment is not MAD](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/10/rational-abandonment-is-not-mad/) - Earlier this year, I read with horror Annie Jacobsen’s book, “Nuclear War”. Jacobsen, an investigative journalist, tracks a scenario of a nuclear missile launch against the United States: minute by minute, second by second. The world as we know it ends within 92 minutes. There is an inescapable procedural logic from the detection of a
- [Justification by Faith Alone](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/06/justification-by-faith-alone/) - In my social media feed, there has been a revival of the question, does God exist? One recent example is a short clip of the evolutionary biologist and god-slayer, Richard Dawkins, skewering a member of the audience who asked him, “what if you’re wrong”? “Well, anybody could be wrong”, he countered, “we could all be
- [U.S. raises global risks](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/06/u-s-raises-global-risks/) - I awoke this morning to learn that the United States (US) used aircraft and submarines to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, targeting Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. US officials described it as a triumph of military precision. Officially, the purpose of the strike was to destroy Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Beneath the triumphalist headlines and
- [The Holocaust Indulgence](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/06/the-holocaust-indulgence/) - In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church sold indulgences—forgiveness of sin in exchange for money. The most famous indulgence-seller was Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar who promoted them with the catchy jingle: “As soon as the gold in the casket rings, the rescued soul to heaven springs”. And for the right price, Tetzel hinted, you
- [When Calm Is Not Enough](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/06/when-calm-is-not-enough/) - Douglas Adams fans will know that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has the words “Don’t Panic” inscribed on the front cover in large friendly letters. Useful advice in challenging times, because panic implies thoughtless and impulsive action. In contrast, in a recent substack essay, Sandro Galea offers a thoughtful and philosophically grounded argument for
- [The Hanging Garden of Human Rights](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/05/the-hanging-garden-of-human-rights/) - Human rights haven’t failed because they’re irrelevant. They’ve failed because they’re a hanging garden—detached from moral roots, stretched by competing claims, and hollowed out by politics. It’s time to reclaim the foundation. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, health and human rights was emerging. But the field carried intellectual divisions. On one side were
- [The Foreign Gaze: A Review](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/05/the-foreign-gaze-a-review/) - Seye Abimbola’s book, The Foreign Gaze, is a thoughtful and often elegantly written account of how power distorts knowledge production in global health. Drawing on personal experience and philosophical insight, Abimbola introduces the concept of “the foreign gaze” to describe the way researchers, particularly from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), shape their work for external
- [Hausdorff’s trap: Israel from river to sea.](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/04/hausdorffs-trap-israel-from-river-to-sea/) - Natasha Hausdorff, is a British barrister and advocate for the State of Israel. She contends that under international law, the entirety of the land west of the Jordan River—including what is commonly called the West Bank and Gaza—was designated for the establishment of a Jewish homeland under the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (1922),
- [Parsing the NIH Reform Debate](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/04/parsing-the-nih-reform-debate/) - I was recently alerted to Martin Kulldorff’s Blueprint for NIH Reform — a document that’s stirred some intense reactions among my colleagues. A few view it as a needed critique of systemic inefficiencies. Most regard it as an ideological Trojan horse—an attack on science dressed as reform. So where does the truth lie? The short
- [The Great Trade Experiment](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/04/the-great-trade-experiment/) - Last month I wrote about The Great Foreign Aid Experiment of the Trump administration. Foreign aid has not been without its critics because it is inefficient, promotes corruption, or is a part of an insidious program of neo-colonialism. The decision, however, by the US Government to put foreign aid “through the wood chipper” sets up
- [Parasitising Human Rights](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/04/parisitising-human-rights/) - Human rights are being parasitised by a dangerous but appealing rhetoric of right-wing conservative groups. They are overtly anti-women's rights but attack all.
- [Building Research Capacity with AI](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/03/building-research-capacity-with-ai/) - Over 25 years ago, the “10/90 gap” was used to illustrate the global imbalance in health research. Only 10% of global research benefited the regions where 90% of preventable deaths occurred. Since then, efforts to improve research capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)—where 90% of avoidable deaths occurred—have made important gains; nonetheless, significant challenges
- [US Aid: Strategic Transactionalism](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/03/us-aid-strategic-transactionalism/) - The US Government is showing all the compassion of a loan shark, where the Rubio Rule rules—"What's in it for me?" Tragically, any international social capital the U.S. built over the past 80 years has been torched in a bonfire of pointless cruelty. Yesterday, Politico published a draft document obtained from a government aide describing
- [Resistance is necessary](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/03/resistance-is-necessary/) - Resistance is necessary and it is an obligation. Small acts of everyday resistance can raise the costs of authoritarianism so high the system collapses.
- [Aid cruelty is not an opportunity](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/03/aid-cruelty-is-not-an-opportunity/) - Aid programs are not light switches can (or should) be turned off on a whim. Cutting funding overnight destroys systems that took decades to build\.
- [The Great Foreign Aid Experiment](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/03/the-great-foreign-aid-experiment/) - Foreign aid is bad. It’s bureaucratic, top-down, inefficient, promotes corruption and dependence, and does not get to where it’s needed. Let's stop it.
- [Trump v. Thucydides](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/02/trump-v-thucydides/) - Donald Trump is not a tragic figure who wields power out of necessity. He revels in the opportunity to put metaphorical kittens in a sack and drown them.
- [The Purge](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/02/the-purge/) - The Trump administration has started potentially the greatest assault on human knowledge in centuries. The purge of data and resources will do enormous damage.
- [When the U.S. ‘leans out’ of Global Health](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/01/when-the-u-s-leans-out-of-global-health/) - The most powerful country on the planet has just ‘leaned out’ of global health. Will the Global South take the opportunity to ‘lean in’ and what will that mean?
- [U.S. withdrawal from W.H.O.](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2025/01/us-withdrawal-from-who/) - The U.S. withdrawal from W.H.O. will be extremely challenging, but it may also be a strategic opportunity. Never let a crisis go to waste.
- [A Christmas Story](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2024/12/a-christmas-story/) - And so it came to pass in the last days of the last year of the reign of Biden that Yusouf and his wife Mariam, who was heavy with child, made there way to Beit Lahiya
- [Pandemic schmandemic](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2024/12/pandemic-schmandemic/) - The formal Pandemic Accord meetings for 2024 closed tonight (6 December 2024) without reaching an agreement. With changing global politics and emerging infectious disease, this is concerning
- [Farewell global health](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2024/12/farewell-global-health/) - Global health is about normative values. The current fracturing of the global order is destroying it. The Trump presidency will end it.
- [There is no right to scabies treatment](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2024/11/there-is-no-right-to-scabies-treatment/) - Treatment advocates attempt to manufacture a right to scabies treatment within other established rights. It subverts the very concept of rights.
- [What the Democrats did wrong](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2024/11/what-the-democrats-did-wrong/) - I feel like the guy at the all-you-can-eat buffet who didn’t understand that the prudent consumer treats it as an all-you-should-eat buffet. I am an avid consumer of modern American politics, but you can get too much of a good thing. The most recent presidential election was a long, exhausting, roller-coaster ride that crashed at
- [UKRI go its A.I. policy half right](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2024/11/ukri-go-its-a-i-policy-half-right/) - UKRI's AI policy for funding is half right. Their approach for applicants contrasts with outdated restrictions on assessors. Here's why this matters.
- [Scaffolding Human Rights](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2024/07/scaffolding-human-rights/) - I walked through the Place des Nations in Geneva today where the iconic Broken Chair sculpture was completely covered in scaffolding. I couldn't help but wonder: are we witnessing routine maintenance, or an unintended commentary on the state of global human rights? Broken Chair covered by scaffolding The Broken Chair has stood in the square
- [The Universal Ten: Commandments for our Time](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2024/06/the-universal-ten-commandments-for-our-time/) - Ten Universal Commandments I was struck by the recent announcement that all public schools in the US state of Louisiana had to display the ten biblical commandments on the wall of each classroom. Personally, I like the idea of societies being clear about their values. It declares, “This is who we are”. Unfortunately, the Ten
- [Harmonising Climate Protest with AI](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2024/05/harmonising-climate-protest-with-ai/) - We continue to slip towards climate disaster. AI can democratise the protest song
- [They Built God](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2023/03/they-built-god/) - This was a 1,000 word amusement inspired by the latest episode of the Ezra Klein show. Yes, yes ... it's a little generic, but I couldn't be bothered writing it and had Chat GPT4 do it for me. If Ezra Klein is right, we can expect something significantly better shortly. In case you want the
- [Leaders can be bullies too.](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2022/09/leaders-can-be-bullies-too/) - Board must take bullying by leaders seriously, manage it impartially, and be led by the evidence. It sets a loud, zero-tolerance tone within the organisation.
- [Research brain drain from the global south](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2022/04/research-brain-drain-from-the-global-south/) - Adam Habib, argued universities in the global north are taking the best and the brightest from the global south. There are ways to improve this.
- [Local causation and implementation science](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2022/04/local-causation-and-implementation-science/) - If you want to move a successful intervention from here (where it was first identified) to there (a plurality of new settings), spend your time understanding the context of the intervention. Understand the context of success. Implementation Science---the science of moving successful interventions from here to there---assumes a real (in the world effect) that can be generalised
- [The cartographic challenge of decolonising global health](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2021/10/the-cartographic-challenge-of-decolonising-global-health/) - “Decolonising” is ultimately about forgoing power and transferring power. The roadmap should not be determined nor led by those holding the whip and the chum.
- [Mr Grammarly writes a novel](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2021/10/mr-grammarly-writes-a-novel/) - Grammarly has a preference for a particular style of punctuation, the active voice, and short sentences but it leaves the authorial voice remarkably untouched.
- [Palliative care tradeoffs](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2021/10/palliative-care-tradeoffs/) - Is life so precious that any number of painful, scared deaths is acceptable to preserve one life? The palliative care tradeoff needs thoughtful consideration
- [Lessons in saying sorry](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2021/10/lessons-in-saying-sorry/) - An apology is supposed to feel uncomfortable. After all, you did something WRONG. It is supposed to expose you and make you vulnerable. The movie, A Fish Called Wanda, provides a textbook apology by John Cleese after he is hung out a window by his ankles and schooled in the art by Kevin Kline. In
- [The Leadership a-Gender -- 1](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/10/the-leadership-a-gender-1/) - Why are their fewer women in research leadership positions? One approach that has been taken to improve the situation is to "fix" the way women think.
- [W.H.O. still thinks health equals medicine.](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/09/w-h-o-still-thinks-health-equals-medicine/) - Not a WHO Director (source: JHU, Medicine) Health related, Director-level appointments in the World Health Organization (WHO) are not front-line health workers with well-honed clinical skills. They are Senior Management/Administration. They need to understand resources, politics, and systems. They need to be able to gather, balance and weigh evidence, lead teams, provide advice, develop strategy,
- [Flypaper financing: The sticky world of research overheads and indirect costs](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/09/flypaper-financing-the-sticky-world-of-research-overheads-and-indirect-costs/) - As a child, I was always a little grossed-out by flypaper. They were like sticky streamers of death hanging from the ceiling; anything that touched them was lost forever, including the eponymous fly. Indirect costs, also referred to as "indirects" or overheads, are the flypaper of global health research funding. Indirects reflect the money from
- [Conflicts of interest in research leadership (Part II)](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/09/conflicts-of-interest-in-research-leadership-part-ii/) - (The fond farewell. When enough is enough) When I started my research career, a research leader's retirement was a moment to celebrate. Their lives and their contributions were recalled through their research, their papers, their PhD graduates and Postdocs. The Festschrift was often published, literally celebrating their intellectual contribution to a field. Some of those
- [A literary bibelot](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/08/a-literary-bibelot/) - Within a minute I swung from apoplectic to flummoxed. My erudition had been called into question with an unkind gibe. A friend -- truth be told, an impious ragamuffin -- started this small, mental kerfuffle by suggesting I would not be able to use a set of 21 words in a single blog post. Was
- [Staff who want to leave](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/08/staff-who-want-to-leave/) - Do not bully a staff member into staying when they want to leave. When staff cannot leave, it is not employment, it is servitude.
- [Research Leaders](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/08/research-leaders/) - a leader is a person who acts strategically to move a collective towards its goals.
- [Conflicts of interest in research leadership (Part I)](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/07/conflicts-of-interest-in-research-leadership-part-i/) - In one of a series of articles, conflicts of interest from having family or friends employed in a research organisation are explored.
- [Playing Fair: "Horizontality" and the Future of Aid](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/07/playing-fair-horizontality-and-the-future-of-aid/) - aid needs to come with strong accountability mechanisms distributed to the least powerful and the least affluent first. Aid should not trickle down.
- [How do you make a grown man cry?](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/05/how-do-you-make-a-grown-man-cry/) - Answer: Give him £20. You look baffled -- like you missed the punchline to a joke. There was no joke and you didn't miss anything. Although I have a perniciously dark sense of humour, this is not an example of it. Outside a supermarket, in South London, there was a man begging. I had a
- [What is the optimal number of broken jaws?](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/05/what-is-the-optimal-number-of-broken-jaws/) - I was chatting with a friend recently about the COVID-19 response in different countries. Reflecting on her own country, she said, "It is so hard to know what is right!"; that is, it is so hard to know what the right response to COVID-19 should be. The variation, for instance, in countries' lockdown responses is
- [Relativity in a pandemic](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/05/relativity-in-a-pandemic/) - There is an inherent challenge to envisaging a post-COVOD-19 "new normal" that will sustain an economy.
- [Who speaks for whom in Global Health?](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/04/who-speaks-for-whom-in-global-health/) - Speakers' corner [Source: Wikimedia]I had an interesting experience the other day when a friend, Mark Cheong, and I submitted a letter to one of the leading health journals. Mark, a Malaysian academic, had done his PhD on palliative care with a particular focus on the delivery of palliative care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
- [Es ist ernst! [It is serious]](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/03/es-ist-ernst-it-is-serious/) - Chancellor Angela Merkel, 2019 (source: wikimedia) There are truly great, rousing political speeches. President John F Kennedy's Inaugural Address on 29 January 1961 comes to mind: "ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country." Prime Minister Winston Churchill's, "We shall fight them on the beaches"
- [Covid Economics](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2020/03/covid-economics/) - "Governments will not be able to minimise both deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the economic impact of viral spread." [Anderson et al.] A soup kitchen during the Great Depression. Apparently it was only men who were hungry It is easy to see that the economies of the world are being affected by the
- [The "underserved" are "undeserved"](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2019/09/the-underserved-are-undeserved/) - I hate the phrase, "the underserved". I would love to remove it from the lexicon of public health. But it appears to be here to stay, particularly in North America where there is even a journal devoted to them. A girl with kwashiorkor during the Nigerian-Biafran War (Public Domain; Wikipedia). On a number of occasions
- [Potential living-donors should have no choice](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2019/09/potential-living-donors-should-have-no-choice/) - I recently learned three interesting and disturbing facts. First, I have a distant, 5 year old relative with liver failure. He will be dead within weeks unless a suitable liver donor is found. Second the lobe from a living adult's liver can be used to save his life. Third, I am a match. I learned
- [To share power, someone has to give up power](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2019/09/to-share-power-someone-has-to-give-up-power/) - Over the past few years I have been peripherally involved in various discussions with male colleagues about gender equity. The conversations have had a predictable ebb and flow. Women's empowerment. It's great in theory, but who wants to give up power? Not these men. [source: reddit; https://bit.ly/2wd2AJC]The consensus, at least among my colleagues, is that
- [Indonesia pushes back against trickle down science](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2019/08/indonesia-pushes-back-against-trickle-down-science/) - A recent article in Science Magazine (July 2019) described changes to Indonesian laws regulating the way that foreign scientists can do science in Indonesia. The laws are, in essence, a push back against "trickle down science", in which scientist in Global North Institutions engage in colonial science. This is what happens when Global North researchers
- [Advice to junior academics, "Protect your CV!"](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2019/08/advice-to-junior-academics-protect-your-cv/) - Board Teaching School University Research [CC0 Public Domain; http://bit.ly/33YMuTG]Some years ago I was asked to give a staff seminar on "Developing an Academic Career." The request came at the same time that a number of my colleagues were under significant pressure to undertake more teaching. I suggested in the seminar that the best way to
- [Public Health is not a specialisation of medicine](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2019/05/public-health-is-not-a-specialisation-of-medicine/) - For historical and political reasons, Public Health is wrongly regarded by the medical fraternity as a specialisation of medicine
- [Globalisation and health](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2019/05/globalisation-and-health/) - The past has already been written and the accolades distributed. We now need to decide whether the next century is going to be good or bad for our health, and the role of globalisation in helping us to determine our destiny. People living in failed states do not enjoy utopian, anarchic freedom. They die young.
- [Join the Q: Chasing journal indicators of academic performance](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2019/03/join-the-q-chasing-journal-indicators-of-academic-performance/) - "Publish in more Q1 journals" is not a strategy, and should not drive strategy. Strategy should be driven by a vision of excellence and institutional purpose.
- [Donald Trump's BMI: getting the measure of the man.](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2019/02/donald-trumps-bmi-getting-the-measure-of-the-man/) - Donald Trump, like many American adults, over states his height. Overstating height affects the calculation of BMI and may affect health self management.
- [Play with Big Tobacco and you will be tarred](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/09/play-with-big-tobacco-and-you-will-be-tarred/) - Philip Morris International (PMI), profits by selling the world's leading cause of preventable death -- tobacco. The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW) recently handed PMI a public relations coup by accepting a $1 Billion donation. Who now could credibly work with FSFW? PMI is the world's largest, international tobacco company. It is quite explicitly
- [Beware of Big Tobacco bearing gifts](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/09/beware-of-big-tobacco-bearing-gifts/) - Philip Morris bought a lot of loyalty and a lot of naivety when it funded the Foundation for a Smoke Free World.
- [Prevalence of sexual assault at Australian Universities is ... non-zero.](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/08/prevalence-of-sexual-assault-at-australian-universities-is-non-zero/) - The AHRC report "Change the course" employed a flawed methodology that contributes little or nothing to our knowledge about the prevalence of sexual assault.
- [Low cost reproducible microscopy](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/07/low-cost-reproducible-microscopy/) - There has been growing interest in reproducible research. The interest arises from the idea that scientific discoveries that are one off, isolated and never to be repeated have limited value. For research to inform future science other must be able to reproduce the results. There are even courses on reproducible research. However, a look at
- [Software for cost effective community data collection](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/07/software-for-cost-effective-community-data-collection/) - Why SEACO moved from OpenDataKit to SurveyCTO for household data collection.
- [Fat on the success of my country](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/07/fat-on-the-success-of-my-country/) - Country-level wealth interacts with household-level wealth. The richest get thinner as country wealth increases, the poorest 80% get fatter
- [Does global health need a 'red team'?](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/06/does-global-health-need-a-red-team/) - Global health has been improving for the past Century. This may not continue, and Global Health Red Team would help.
- [Guidelines for the reporting of COde Developed to Analyse daTA (CODATA)](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/05/guidelines-for-the-reporting-of-code-developed-to-analyse-data-codata/) - I was reviewing an article recently for a journal in which the authors referenced a GitHub repository for the Stata code they had developed to support their analysis. I had a look at the repository. The code was there in a complex hierarchy of nested folders. Each individual do-file was well commented, but there was
- [Who will guard the journals? Gender bias in the "Big Five" medical journals.](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/05/who-will-guard-the-journals-gender-bias-in-the-big-five-medical-journals/) - A discussion of scientific journals' obligations to be self-critical of their own biases.
- [Sharing data while not sharing data](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/05/sharing-data-while-not-sharing-data/) - Scientific data published as a jpg can be turned into a machine readable for quickly and easily using on-line tools.
- [Would you give knee surgery to the FAT MAN?](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/04/would-you-give-knee-surgery-to-the-fat-man/) - I do understand your plight, Mr Smith. An arthritic knee can be extremely painful. And you say it's so bad you can't even walk from the living room to the kitchen. That's actually very good news! Yes, yes ... awful ... but terribly good news. If you can't walk to the kitchen, you can't eat.
- [Babies have less than a 1 in 3 chance of recovery from a poor 1 minute Apgar score](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/04/babies-have-less-than-a-1-in-3-chance-of-recovery-from-a-poor-1-minute-apgar-score/) - We recently completed a study of 272,472 live, singleton, term births without congenital anomalies recorded in the Malaysian National Obstetrics Registry (NOR). We wanted to know what proportion of births had a poor 1 minute Apgar score (
- [Zika Causes Birth Defects In 1 In 10 Pregnancies](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/04/zika-causes-birth-defects-in-1-in-10-pregnancies/) - Well ... Not really. But that was the misleading headline of an article I saw in the "healthy living" section of The Huffington Post. And then chased it up to its source -- an article published by Reuter's journalist Julie Steenhuysen. There were 3,978,497 births in the US in 2015. Assuming similar numbers in 2017
- [Inequality of life expectancy between countries](https://www.papyruswalk.com/2017/01/inequality-of-life-expectancy-between-countries/) - A colleague of mine recently asked me if I knew of a citation for the narrowing in life expectancy between high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). I didn't. But the question did get me thinking. Was there a narrowing between country-level life expectancy? Probably ... maybe ... I didn't know. There are

## Pages

- [About](https://www.papyruswalk.com/about/) - Papyrus Walk is a blog opportunity. It provides me with a place to note and discuss ideas in Global Health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Sociology, and Politics. More recently I have also become interested in organisational governance in global health and development. The blog originally appeared in 2015 on the domain reidpath.net. That site was hacked. Foolish

## Categories

- [Uncategorised](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/uncategorised/)
- [Global Health](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/global_health/) - The wikipedia pithy definition is: the health of populations in a global context. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_health
- [Public Health](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/global_health/public_health/) - In my mind, it is a subset of Global Health, often more locally focused.
- [Epidemiology](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/epidemiology/) - The study of the causes and distribution of disease. A methodological branch of health sciences
- [Biostatistics](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/biostats/) - A branch of statistics with a focus on biological systems — in my case almost always human health.
- [Politics](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/politics/) - From my point of view, this is big “P” politics of Nation States or Provinces within Nation States.
- [Education](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/education/) - Topics related to the education sector (usually the tertiary or Higher Education sector).
- [Teaching](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/education/teaching/) - Topics focused on the pedagogic process
- [Sociology](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/sociology/) - In the words of Wikipedia: Sociology is the study of social behaviour or society, including its origins, development, organization, networks, and institutions. In the context of this blog, it usually relates to the sociology of health.
- [Social Exclusion](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/sociology/social_exclusion/) - The control of social goods so as to marginalise.
- [Equity](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/equity/) - Related to the fairness of distribution of goods, opportunities, and processes.
- [National Obstetrics Registry](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/national-obstetrics-registry/)
- [Red Team](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/red-team/)
- [RISE](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/global_health/rise/)
- [Trickle Down Science](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/trickle-down-science/)
- [COVID-19](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/covid-19/)
- [Policy](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/politics/policy/)
- [Leadership](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/leadership/)
- [Climate Change](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/climate-change/)
- [AI](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/ai/)
- [Higher Education](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/higher-education/)
- [Research](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/research/)
- [#PandemicAccord](https://www.papyruswalk.com/category/pandemicaccord/)

## Tags

- [life expectancy](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/life-expectancy/)
- [inequality](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/inequality/)
- [Zika](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/zika/)
- [birth](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/birth/)
- [birth defects](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/birth-defects/)
- [National Obstetrics Registry](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/national-obstetrics-registry/)
- [Apgar score](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/apgar-score/)
- [NHS](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/nhs/)
- [Commissioning](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/commissioning/)
- [Resource allocation](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/resource-allocation/)
- [health and human rights](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/health-and-human-rights/)
- [Data sharing](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/data-sharing/)
- [Publication Bias](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/publication-bias/)
- [Gender Bias](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/gender-bias/)
- [NEJM](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/nejm/)
- [JAMA](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/jama/)
- [BMJ](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/bmj/)
- [Lancet](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/lancet/)
- [reproducible research](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/reproducible-research/)
- [Red Team](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/red-team/)
- [Obesity](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/obesity/)
- [World Health Survey](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/world-health-survey/)
- [SEACO](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/seaco/)
- [HDSS](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/hdss/)
- [ODK](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/odk/)
- [surveyCTO](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/surveycto/)
- [OpenDataKit](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/opendatakit/)
- [microscopy](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/microscopy/)
- [Australian Human Rights Commission](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/australian-human-rights-commission/)
- [Non-response Bias](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/non-response-bias/)
- [Sexual Assault](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/sexual-assault/)
- [Tobacco](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/tobacco/)
- [Smoking](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/smoking/)
- [Conflict of interest](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/conflict-of-interest/)
- [BMI](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/bmi/)
- [Self Management](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/self-management/)
- [impact factor](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/impact-factor/)
- [journal](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/journal/)
- [research performance](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/research-performance/)
- [Q-rank](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/q-rank/)
- [Politics](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/politics/)
- [Guilds](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/guilds/)
- [#Gender](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/gender/)
- [#Equity](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/equity/)
- [#Power](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/power/)
- [#trickeldownscience](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/trickeldownscience/)
- [Bajau Laut](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/bajau-laut/)
- [9MoASlave](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/9moaslave/)
- [UDHR](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/udhr/)
- [COVID](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/covid/)
- [SARS-CoV-2](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/sars-cov-2/)
- [COVID-2019](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/covid-2019/)
- [Leadership](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/leadership/)
- [PVT](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/pvt/)
- [PICUT](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/picut/)
- [palliative care](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/palliative-care/)
- [Research Capacity](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/research-capacity/)
- [Covid-19](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/covid-19/)
- [Unemployment](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/unemployment/)
- [Economics](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/economics/)
- [Mental health](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/mental-health/)
- [Homeless](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/homeless/)
- [#FutureOfAid](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/futureofaid/)
- [Research Organisations](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/research-organisations/)
- [Family](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/family/)
- [Friends](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/friends/)
- [Strategy](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/strategy/)
- [Leading Up](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/leading-up/)
- [Staff Relations](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/staff-relations/)
- [Nonsense](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/nonsense/)
- [Apology](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/apology/)
- [The Lancet](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/the-lancet/)
- [#morethanavagina](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/morethanavagina/)
- [tradeoff](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/tradeoff/)
- [quality of death](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/quality-of-death/)
- [writing](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/writing/)
- [grammarly](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/grammarly/)
- [literature](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/literature/)
- [Global Health](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/global-health/)
- [Decolonising](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/decolonising/)
- [Bullying](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/bullying/)
- [Development](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/development/)
- [Causation](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/causation/)
- [Implementation Science](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/implementation-science/)
- [Brain drain](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/brain-drain/)
- [360info](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/360info/)
- [Human Rights](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/human-rights/)
- [UKRI](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/ukri/)
- [Election](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/election/)
- [Harris](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/harris/)
- [Trump](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/trump/)
- [#HumanRights #Abortion](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/humanrights-abortion/)
- [#Trump2.0](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/trump2-0/)
- [#PandemicAccord](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/pandemicaccord/)
- [#PandemicTreaty](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/pandemictreaty/)
- [Pandemic](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/pandemic/)
- [H5N1](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/h5n1/)
- [#LoveActually](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/loveactually/)
- [Short Story](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/short-story/)
- [Christmas](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/christmas/)
- [#Tedros](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/tedros/)
- [#WHO](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/who/)
- [#Research](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/research/)
- [#Facts](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/facts/)
- [#Truth](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/truth/)
- [Thucydides](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/thucydides/)
- [USAID](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/usaid/)
- [Foreign Aid](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/foreign-aid/)
- [UK](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/uk/)
- [France](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/france/)
- [Germany](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/germany/)
- [Belgium](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/belgium/)
- [Resistance](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/resistance/)
- [Research Capacity Strengthening](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/research-capacity-strengthening/)
- [Tariffs](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/tariffs/)
- [Moral Philosopjy](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/moral-philosopjy/)
- [Antisemitism](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/antisemitism/)
- [Israel](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/israel/)
- [War](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/war/)
- [Middle East](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/middle-east/)
- [God](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/god/)
- [Richard Dawkins](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/richard-dawkins/)
- [Atheism](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/atheism/)
- [Speculative Fiction](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/speculative-fiction/)
- [Nuclear weapons](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/nuclear-weapons/)
- [#SCOTUS](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/scotus/)
- [Authorship](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/authorship/)
- [Creativity](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/creativity/)
- [Nationalism](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/nationalism/)
- [Historical Fantasy](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/historical-fantasy/)
- [Epistemic Injustice](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/epistemic-injustice/)
- [Standpoint](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/standpoint/)
- [Trust in Science](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/trust-in-science/)
- [Ideology](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/ideology/)
- [Bias](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/bias/)
- [Tourettes](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/tourettes/)
- [Large Language Models](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/large-language-models/)
- [Dementia](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/dementia/)
- [Robust research](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/robust-research/)
- [Credible science](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/credible-science/)
- [Replication crisis](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/replication-crisis/)
- [Global Health Architecture](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/global-health-architecture/)
- [AI](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/ai/)
- [Citations](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/citations/)
- [Heatwave](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/heatwave/)
- [Air conditioning](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/air-conditioning/)
- [Social Determinants of Health](https://www.papyruswalk.com/tag/social-determinants-of-health/)