Ed Jegasothy
@edjegasothy.bsky.social
Epidemiologist, biostatistician, egalitarian. Interested in environmental health and the causes of health inequality. Senior lecturer in public health at Sydney Uni. Opinions are my own.
Pinned
Ed Jegasothy
@edjegasothy.bsky.social
· Mar 19
While Australia is aggressively taxing tobacco, the black market flourishes | Edward Jegasothy and Francis Markham
The relationship between cigarette prices and smoking rates appears far more complex than the simplistic models on which tax policy is based
www.theguardian.com
Please read @francismarkham.work and my take on tobacco tax in Australia in @australia.theguardian.com. We need a serious review of this policy's impacts and unintended consequences.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
Suppose you wanted to persuade politicians that universities were just a bunch of money-hungry lobbyists, concerned more about profits than educating our young people. What would you do? The Group of 8 (lobby for "sandstone" unis) decided to join "an alliance of industry groups". #universities
November 23, 2025 at 4:15 AM
Suppose you wanted to persuade politicians that universities were just a bunch of money-hungry lobbyists, concerned more about profits than educating our young people. What would you do? The Group of 8 (lobby for "sandstone" unis) decided to join "an alliance of industry groups". #universities
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
Now @justiceandequity.bsky.social has added its name to the list of groups opposing this draconian and underhanded move.
These are the groups @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social has dismissed. She refuses to address concerns about separation of powers, due process and unintended consequences.
These are the groups @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social has dismissed. She refuses to address concerns about separation of powers, due process and unintended consequences.
November 5, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Now @justiceandequity.bsky.social has added its name to the list of groups opposing this draconian and underhanded move.
These are the groups @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social has dismissed. She refuses to address concerns about separation of powers, due process and unintended consequences.
These are the groups @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social has dismissed. She refuses to address concerns about separation of powers, due process and unintended consequences.
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
For the first time in a decade the majority of British adults believe the generosity of the welfare system stops people from supporting themselves, according to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). on.ft.com/3X6VYbZ
November 3, 2025 at 8:31 AM
For the first time in a decade the majority of British adults believe the generosity of the welfare system stops people from supporting themselves, according to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). on.ft.com/3X6VYbZ
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
A short while ago, Dr Janani Shanthosh and I had an engaging conversation about The Foreign Gaze, which she's now beautifully captured in text and audio.
It's the first in her series of interviews titled On Theory.
Please read, listen, and follow the series.
Here goes ontheory.com/interviews/s...
It's the first in her series of interviews titled On Theory.
Please read, listen, and follow the series.
Here goes ontheory.com/interviews/s...
Seye Abimbola | On Theory
Seye Abimbola wants us to stop mistaking prestige for insight – and inclusion for equity.
At a bustling restaurant tucked into a leafy corner of the University of Sydney, Associate Professor Seye Abim...
ontheory.com
October 20, 2025 at 12:05 PM
A short while ago, Dr Janani Shanthosh and I had an engaging conversation about The Foreign Gaze, which she's now beautifully captured in text and audio.
It's the first in her series of interviews titled On Theory.
Please read, listen, and follow the series.
Here goes ontheory.com/interviews/s...
It's the first in her series of interviews titled On Theory.
Please read, listen, and follow the series.
Here goes ontheory.com/interviews/s...
New blog post: Can we really measure how many people die from heat (or cold)?
edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/c...
edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/c...
Can we really measure how many people die from heat (or cold)?
Epidemiologists can model how many deaths occur during heatwaves. But what these numbers don’t tell us is how many deaths can be prevented – or by whom. Ambient temperature isn’t a modifiable…
edjegasothy.wordpress.com
October 16, 2025 at 6:39 AM
New blog post: Can we really measure how many people die from heat (or cold)?
edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/c...
edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/c...
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
On the centenary of Thatcher's birth, there have been predictable calls for a memorial to her memory. But Britain's 2300 food banks serve that purpose already.
October 13, 2025 at 6:29 PM
On the centenary of Thatcher's birth, there have been predictable calls for a memorial to her memory. But Britain's 2300 food banks serve that purpose already.
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
What I think I've learned from my kids:
Don't let people yuk your yum
Children are real people
Listen to people when they tell you what their needs are
Accommodating needs seems to more often result in better outcomes than forcing adaptation to environment
Don't let people yuk your yum
Children are real people
Listen to people when they tell you what their needs are
Accommodating needs seems to more often result in better outcomes than forcing adaptation to environment
October 14, 2025 at 6:36 AM
What I think I've learned from my kids:
Don't let people yuk your yum
Children are real people
Listen to people when they tell you what their needs are
Accommodating needs seems to more often result in better outcomes than forcing adaptation to environment
Don't let people yuk your yum
Children are real people
Listen to people when they tell you what their needs are
Accommodating needs seems to more often result in better outcomes than forcing adaptation to environment
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
As the brilliant Michael Kinnucan points out, it's more than a bit strange that there's a debate over whether New York can afford universal childcare. New York already has universal childcare! Every single child is cared for by somebody. Small children are never left home all day by themselves.
October 7, 2025 at 12:12 PM
As the brilliant Michael Kinnucan points out, it's more than a bit strange that there's a debate over whether New York can afford universal childcare. New York already has universal childcare! Every single child is cared for by somebody. Small children are never left home all day by themselves.
Reducing hazards ≠ justice. Unless we tackle the inequalities that shape who suffers harms & who benefits, inequity persists. My new blog on false equity arguments and why “doing one without the other is the injustice”:
👉 edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/d...
👉 edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/d...
The dangerous allure of false equity arguments
Over the past few years, something to which I have kept returning is how often equity is invoked in debates about public health and the environment – and how often those claims don’t really hold up…
edjegasothy.wordpress.com
September 23, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Reducing hazards ≠ justice. Unless we tackle the inequalities that shape who suffers harms & who benefits, inequity persists. My new blog on false equity arguments and why “doing one without the other is the injustice”:
👉 edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/d...
👉 edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/d...
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
I think there is a puritan streak in public health. Where these ideas that seem logical are popular even if there is no peer reviewed basis for them. The other one that frustrates me is you hear clinicians insist that only water counts towards people’s consumption of liquid
September 7, 2025 at 10:15 PM
I think there is a puritan streak in public health. Where these ideas that seem logical are popular even if there is no peer reviewed basis for them. The other one that frustrates me is you hear clinicians insist that only water counts towards people’s consumption of liquid
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
folks are really obsessed with trying to find evidence artificial sweeteners are bad. to date it's basically been a failed exercise, but that hasn't stopped spurious conclusions getting significant overage.
"Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing, study finds"
Or does it? Let's take a look at this "study"...
www.theguardian.com/food/2025/se...
Or does it? Let's take a look at this "study"...
www.theguardian.com/food/2025/se...
Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing, study finds
Researchers say low- and no-calorie sweeteners appear to affect thinking and memory in middle age
www.theguardian.com
September 7, 2025 at 11:37 AM
folks are really obsessed with trying to find evidence artificial sweeteners are bad. to date it's basically been a failed exercise, but that hasn't stopped spurious conclusions getting significant overage.
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
universal Medicare safety net - problem solved
Opening mail after a week away and I have a bureacracy issue I’ve never encountered before involving the Medicare safety net
September 6, 2025 at 11:27 AM
universal Medicare safety net - problem solved
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
the implication of this is there is only one method for improving low-middle incomes that is reliable, rigorous and evidence-based: redistribution. everything else is just talk.
everyone loves to quote Krugman on productivity growth being almost anything. strangely they never mention his view that productivity is a great mystery, one that is unresponsive to sweeping changes in government policy and ideology, and something that no one knows how to sustainably increase
August 26, 2025 at 12:18 PM
the implication of this is there is only one method for improving low-middle incomes that is reliable, rigorous and evidence-based: redistribution. everything else is just talk.
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
everyone loves to quote Krugman on productivity growth being almost anything. strangely they never mention his view that productivity is a great mystery, one that is unresponsive to sweeping changes in government policy and ideology, and something that no one knows how to sustainably increase
August 26, 2025 at 11:43 AM
everyone loves to quote Krugman on productivity growth being almost anything. strangely they never mention his view that productivity is a great mystery, one that is unresponsive to sweeping changes in government policy and ideology, and something that no one knows how to sustainably increase
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
My contribution to the welfare state debate: Pre-transfers, the Child Poverty Rate is 100%
[Link below]
[Link below]
August 25, 2025 at 11:39 AM
My contribution to the welfare state debate: Pre-transfers, the Child Poverty Rate is 100%
[Link below]
[Link below]
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
Two Sydney Uni staff members are being sued in Australia's Federal Court by complainants who claim that statements opposing genocide and Zionist oppression of Palestinians are racist hate speech. Please give what you can to help @nickriemer.bsky.social & @professorjkeane.bsky.social's legal defence
Help USyd Palestine advocates defeat Israel Lobby legal attack!
Dr Nick Riemer and Professor John Keane are academics at the University of Sydney and long-time advocates of freedom and justice for Palestinians. Since October 7, in articles, on social media and at ...
chuffed.org
August 18, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Two Sydney Uni staff members are being sued in Australia's Federal Court by complainants who claim that statements opposing genocide and Zionist oppression of Palestinians are racist hate speech. Please give what you can to help @nickriemer.bsky.social & @professorjkeane.bsky.social's legal defence
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
Just out in @aunz.theconversation.com: #AI #Abundance and money. My reflections on #BasicIncome #BasicServices and why we need more than technical solutions to the political challenges of #poverty and #inequality
theconversation.com/if-ai-takes-...
theconversation.com/if-ai-takes-...
If AI takes most of our jobs, money as we know it will be over. What then?
AI’s evangelists are promising a future of almost unimaginable prosperity. There’s good reason to be sceptical.
theconversation.com
August 17, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Just out in @aunz.theconversation.com: #AI #Abundance and money. My reflections on #BasicIncome #BasicServices and why we need more than technical solutions to the political challenges of #poverty and #inequality
theconversation.com/if-ai-takes-...
theconversation.com/if-ai-takes-...
The curve of this building in Darling Harbour is like an archimedes’ death ray
August 17, 2025 at 5:36 AM
The curve of this building in Darling Harbour is like an archimedes’ death ray
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
Commonwealth Ombudsman already smashed them and now not even govt's chosen auditing firm can say if the house of cards system of punitive mutual obligations is legal. Quite literally, they say, it is indefensible. Yet it persists. Even after Robodebt. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politic...
Exclusive: Government warned over ‘legal basis’ of welfare system
Despite being warned in 2018 that jobseekers were being exposed to unfair and excessive decisions, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations ‘chose to continue with the status quo’.
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au
August 15, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Commonwealth Ombudsman already smashed them and now not even govt's chosen auditing firm can say if the house of cards system of punitive mutual obligations is legal. Quite literally, they say, it is indefensible. Yet it persists. Even after Robodebt. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politic...
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
Hey @sydney.edu.au - Palestinians are starving in a systematic genocide being carried out by the state of Israel. Your pulling this flag down is very clearly partisan and also very clearly not a good look.
This morning when I checked the headlines, I discovered that USyd was carrying out shenanigans.
If you work for USyd, maybe now would be a great time to hang a flag out your office window... they can't remove them all!
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
If you work for USyd, maybe now would be a great time to hang a flag out your office window... they can't remove them all!
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
University of Sydney removes Palestinian flag from academic’s window after accusing him of breaching policy
Dr David Brophy claims new flag policy introduced in June was ‘precisely in response to people like me hanging Palestinian flags’
www.theguardian.com
August 7, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Hey @sydney.edu.au - Palestinians are starving in a systematic genocide being carried out by the state of Israel. Your pulling this flag down is very clearly partisan and also very clearly not a good look.
Reposted by Ed Jegasothy
Proud to stand with my Sociology colleagues, joined by @mehreenfaruqi.bsky.social @damiencahill.bsky.social and the mighty @nteunion.bsky.social against the devastating cuts proposed at Macquarie University
August 6, 2025 at 5:07 AM
Proud to stand with my Sociology colleagues, joined by @mehreenfaruqi.bsky.social @damiencahill.bsky.social and the mighty @nteunion.bsky.social against the devastating cuts proposed at Macquarie University