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Build Back Healthier

“The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently.” David Graeber

 

To coin a phrase from Professor Sir Michael Marmot, why treat COVID-19 and send people back to the conditions that made them more susceptible to it in the first place? Why indeed.

 

In the early stages, celebrities clambering to narrate the emerging devastation described the virus as “the great equaliser.” Madonna opted to provide her epidemiological commentary in the nude from inside a bath filled with rose petals. Clumsy attempts to encourage a mood of unity revealed a lack of understanding of, or interest in, our tragically unequal age and the consequences for individuals, society, and the economy.

 

Perhaps over the last year, through the pain of the pandemic, we have become more familiar with the characteristics of our country. We can hope. The story of a new virus chimes with an old story of health inequalities more broadly. The most diverse and disadvantaged communities have experienced more illness and more death than wealthier people and places. Surely we owe it to all those families grieving the loss of loved ones and everyone facing long COVID-19 – whether defined by the health or economic impacts - to create something better, fairer and more just?

 

So, how do we Build Back Healthier?

 

We could start by deciding on a success measure. The ONS is developing a Health Index to track the progress of our health. It will take a wide view of what health means, encompassing not just outcomes but also the role of determinates – the air we breathe and the work we do, for instance. The Carnegie Trust offers the idea of Gross Domestic Wellbeing as a holistic alternative to GDP.  

 

We could develop a policy agenda which prevents as well as cures and starts from the premise that health is an asset, one that can be improved or diminished by circumstances. Good homes, good incomes and good communities all add to the sum of our existence. These circumstances can be shaped. 

 

We could think about the role and responsibilities of government, businesses, public services and people – and the level of funding each needs to fulfil its contribution. We might like to talk positively about spending public money on human and economic flourishing.  

 

And, we could have some meaningful leadership too: words and actions. Sir Keir Starmer's assertion that “inequality is not only morally bankrupt, it’s economic stupidity too” felt like the sort of rallying cry we need. The Government could dust off the responses to its Prevention Green Paper from 2019 and lay out a Budget for Wellbeing.    

 

At the climax of Can’t Get You Out of My Head, the latest six-part epic from Adam Curtis, we are asked to “imagine genuinely new kinds of futures” and “regain the confidence that we have lost in this frightened and uncertain time.”

 

Dare we Build Back Healthier?


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