This blog reflects on the recent launch event for 'Political Philosophy in a Pandemic: Routes to a More Just Future', a new book by the SMF's Chief Economist, Dr Aveek Bhattacharya.

The GP crisis long predated COVID-19. During the pandemic, despite being ideally placed, primary care was bypassed at every stage; triage, test and trace, vaccination boosters. In this essay, Simon Hodes paints a detailed picture of the myriad pressures placed on the GPs service, showing the necessity of greater attention and investment into it.

A year on from COVID-19 being declared a worldwide pandemic, the UK has consistently placed high up in the global league tables of declared cases and deaths. But why has the health impact of the pandemic been so severe? What role have pre-existing health inequalities played? Our most recent Ask the Expert event, held in partnership with UK Research and Innovation sought to answer these questions, with our panel of experts Professor Vittal Katikireddi, the Health Foundation’s Dr Jennifer Dixon and the NHS Confederation’s Joan Saddler OBE.

Labour’s approach on Channel crossings could provide a more robust alternative to the government’s Rwanda plan in terms of achieving fair control of refugee flows, but it needs proper responsibility sharing for refugees across Europe to do so, a think tank says today.

Nearly six in ten (57%) people say tech giants – like Meta and TikTok – should share responsibility for reimbursing fraud victims with banks and building societies as ‘fraudemic’ sees one in ten targeted.