Showing 1 - 10 of 18
The world's babies need antibiotics
Oped, Glenda Gray, Published on 28/11/2024
» Over the last half-century, the number of children who die before reaching the age of five has fallen dramatically, from around 20 million in 1960 to 4.9 million in 2022, largely owing to the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI). Established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1974, the EPI has been extraordinarily successful in providing the youngest people with access to vaccines, saving more than 150 million lives. But while such progress is worthy of celebration, there is still much work to do, because newborns comprise half of all deaths in children under five each year, many of which are caused by infection.
Deepfakes will hijack your brain -- if you let them
News, F D Flam, Published on 22/02/2024
» Realistic AI-generated images and voice recordings may be the newest threat to democracy, but they're part of a longstanding family of deceptions. The way to fight so-called deepfakes isn't to develop some rumour-busting form of AI or to train the public to spot fake images. A better tactic would be to encourage a few well-known critical thinking methods -- refocusing our attention, reconsidering our sources, and questioning ourselves.
Musk must be more transparent about Neuralink
News, F D Flam, Published on 05/02/2024
» When researchers with Elon Musk's company Neuralink implanted a chip in someone's brain, they were working under a Food and Drug Administration clearance. But that doesn't mean this experiment was safe or ethical.
Ending the war of attrition in Ukraine
Oped, Jeffrey D Sachs, Published on 12/05/2022
» Wars often erupt and persist because of the two sides' miscalculations regarding their relative power. In the case of Ukraine, Russia blundered badly by underestimating the resolve of Ukrainians to fight and the effectiveness of Nato-supplied weaponry. Yet Ukraine and Nato are also overestimating their capacity to defeat Russia on the battlefield. The result is a war of attrition that each side believes it will win, but that both sides will lose.
Diplomacy may save the world, sanctions won't
Oped, Jeffrey D Sachs, Published on 16/03/2022
» Russian President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine is horrific and barbaric. Yet it could still be ended with a diplomatic solution in which Russia withdraws its forces in exchange for Ukraine's neutrality.
How to protect the sovereignty of Ukraine
Oped, Jeffrey D Sachs, Published on 23/02/2022
» Ukraine's Western friends claim that they are protecting the country by defending its right to join Nato. The opposite is true. In defending a theoretical right, they are jeopardising Ukraine's security by raising the likelihood of a Russian invasion. Ukraine's independence could be defended far more effectively by reaching a diplomatic agreement with Russia that guarantees Ukraine's sovereignty as a non-Nato country, akin to Austria, Finland, and Sweden (all members of the European Union but not of Nato).
COP26 falls sadly short of financial 'grand plan'
Oped, Jeffrey D Sachs, Published on 18/11/2021
» The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) fell far short of what is needed for a safe planet, owing mainly to the same lack of trust that has burdened global climate negotiations for almost three decades. Developing countries regard climate change as a crisis caused largely by the rich countries, which they also view as shirking their historical and ongoing responsibility for the crisis. Worried that they will be left paying the bills, many key developing countries, such as India, don't much care to negotiate or strategise.
The G20 and the means to climate safety
Oped, Jeffrey D Sachs, Published on 29/10/2021
» Philosopher Immanuel Kant famously said: "Whoever wills the end also wills… the indispensably necessary means to it that is in his control." Put simply, when we set a goal, we ought to take the actions needed to achieve it. This is an essential maxim for our governments, and it should guide G20 leaders when they meet in Rome tomorrow to confront the climate crisis.
Vaccine producers must step up
Oped, Jeffrey D Sachs, Published on 24/09/2021
» The world stands at a critical juncture of the Covid -19 pandemic. Countries that lack the first round of vaccine coverage are extraordinarily vulnerable to the highly infectious Delta variant, and are also seedbeds for new variants that could quickly spread worldwide. The Lancet Covid-19 Commission, which I chair, is working urgently with the United Nations system to strengthen the multilateral response. Governments of countries where vaccines are being produced -- the United States, European Union members, the United Kingdom, India, Russia, and China -- need to cooperate under UN leadership to ensure that a sufficient supply of vaccine doses reaches the poorest countries.
Share the IP rights on Covid-19
Oped, Jeffrey D Sachs, Published on 06/05/2021
» The governments of South Africa, India, and dozens of other developing countries are calling for intellectual property (IP) rights, including vaccine patents, to be waived to accelerate the worldwide production of supplies to fight Covid-19. They are absolutely correct. IP for fighting Covid-19 should be waived, and indeed actively shared among scientists, companies and nations.