Martin McKee

@martinmckee.bsky.social

12K followers 690 following 1.4K posts

Prof of European Public Health LSHTM
Co-Director European Observatory on Health Systems & Policy
Member Independent SAGE
Past President BMA & EUPHA
Committed to 🇬🇧 rejoining 🇪🇺

https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/mckee.martin .. more

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Clifford Martin McKee, CBE, is professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Source: Wikipedia

Public Health 40%

Medicine 24%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3h

Don’t know… my generation has done so much damage (like Brexit) and many seem to have lost their critical faculties, swallowing utter garbage online. I’d be willing to sacrifice my access for the good of future generations

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3h

Almost fell off my seat. England adopting well-established practice from a continental European country. Whatever next? Decent pensions, quality childcare?

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 8h

I’ve had two as well. Obviously they have absolutely no idea about my work! Perhaps should emulate @mikedaube.bsky.social , who enabled his dog, Dr Olivia Doll, to get onto boards of predatory journals to expose their tactics

www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Medical science goes to the dogs - ABC listen

A Perth professor duped editors of a number of medical journals by turning his pet dog into Dr Olivia Doll and making up her academic profile. The exercise was designed to expose sham medical journals...

www.abc.net.au

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 8h

Many of us have been highly critical to cuts to US development assistance, yet a new report from @cgdev.org reveals that cuts by U.K. have been even deeper. What on earth is going on?

www.cgdev.org/blog/uk-aid-...

UK Aid Cuts Now Deeper than the US After Congress Pushes Back

The US Congress has just passed its Fiscal Year 2026 spending bill. The bill includes much of the international affairs budget and—while there’s no guarantee these funds will be fully spent by the adm...

www.cgdev.org

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 17h

Fully agree. Got it for Christmas. As someone who has traveled across them all, going back to Interrail in 1970s (or as a child in Belfast), I really enjoyed it. Indeed, many played an important part in my career. Meticulously researched and I learned a lot.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 23h

Meanwhile, he writes out of history the 200,000 British Empire troops who died in WW2

Reposted by Martin McKee, Jonathan Hopkin

Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 1d

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski just schooled Czech Deputy Prime Minister Petr Macinka into accepting that the European Union operates as a democracy.

Populists have nowhere to hide when met with hard facts.

An extraordinary exchange. Well worth a watch.

Reposted by Martin McKee

Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 1d

The main argument against rejoining the EU is that it would "embolden Farage".

Bullshit. It would expose Farage.

It would force him to oppose the majority of voters, remind them that his last "Great Crusader" left us poor and powerless, and force him to admit he wants us to remain that way.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 1d

Yes it is! ☘️

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 2d

Exactly

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Living on the edge: precariousness and why it matters for health - Archives of Public Health

The post-war period in Europe, between the late 1940s and the 1970s, was characterised by an expansion of the role of by the state, protecting its citizens from risks of unemployment, poverty, homeles...

link.springer.com

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 2d

We know they don’t as they can take it away from us at a whim …

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 2d

If this had been 40 years ago it could have been me, as a junior doctor who often hadn’t slept for a week. There are lots of essential workers who have every reason to look exhausted at 8 am

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, as far as I understand it, it’s just if you are a UK citizen but only have the passport of your other nationality. I can see that you might need to link it in their database but can’t see why that should cost more than a few pounds (if even that).

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 2d

Yes. My comment was really about the ridiculously high charge, which is new. On principle I’ve always believed that everyone should have as many nationalities as they can, just to highlight how nationality is such an arbitrary concept

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

2/ Not just the Brexit queues for the concern that, if anything bad should happen to us, the UK would do virtually nothing to help (or, as Boris did, make it much worse). Simply compare John McCarthy & Brian Keenan in Lebanon.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

1/ Fortunately, as someone who travels on an Irish passport, I'm (so far) exempt from this ludicrously high charge. But worth reflecting on why so many of us, with dual nationality, chose not to use our UK one.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Dual nationals to be denied entry to UK from 25 February unless they have British passport

New border controls require ‘certificate of entitlement’ to attach to second nationality passport that costs £589

www.theguardian.com

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

9/ The goal must not be “more AI” but better health. We need to ask:
* Does the task add value
* Can AI perform the task
* and then, should AI perform the task
All three are important

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

8/ Governance must be grounded in human rights. The Oviedo Convention holds that the human being takes precedence over science or society. The EU AI Act reinforces this with a risk‑based regulatory framework.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

7/ AI also brings risks:
• Reproducing historical biases
• Widening digital divides
• Concentration of power among a few tech giants
• Environmental impacts from massive AI facilities

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

6/ Keeping a Human-in-the-loop is essential. AI offers probability, clinicians offer judgement. Without proper training, automation bias can lead to over‑trusting machine outputs.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

5/ Where AI can add real value today:
• Diagnostics & precision medicine
• Public health forecasting
• Drug discovery
• Operational efficiency
However, health care often involves high stakes, so we need regulatory safeguards

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

4/ Large Language models don’t “know” facts. They predict the next likely word. That’s why hallucinations happen; plausible but false outputs. There are tools that can help by forcing models to “look up” answers in trusted clinical sources.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

3/ AI isn’t one thing. It ranges from simple regression models to deep learning and Generative AI.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

2/ AI in health isn’t magic—it’s maths. Much of the hype paints AI as sentient or all‑knowing, but in reality it’s a statistical tool that depends entirely on data quality and human oversight.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

🧵1/ Are you mystified by what AI means for health policy? Our new book, from @obshealth.bsky.social led by @paula171.bsky.social with Jasjot Saund, Dimitra Pantel, & myself, aims to help you make sense of this rapidly evolving, and often contested issue
eurohealthobservatory.who.int/publications...

Demystifying artificial intelligence in health: What health policy-makers need to know

A study on demystifying artificial intelligence in health, published by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

eurohealthobservatory.who.int

Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Els Torreele

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

7/ Our analysis outlines what is at stake, and what Europe can do next. Read the full paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Geopolitics and public health: Europe under the shadow of the U.S. National Security Strategy

The 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy marks a major shift toward a narrowly defined “America First” agenda with significant implications for Europe…

www.sciencedirect.com

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

6/ As leaders gather in Munich, the message is clear: Europe must treat health as a security priority, protecting fiscal space for care, defending multilateralism, and resisting pressures that would fragment health protection across the continent.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

5/ A more unilateral U.S. stance also threatens global health security: a weakened WHO, stalled pandemic agreements, and more transactional transatlantic relations, all at a moment when shared surveillance and cooperation are vital.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

4/ The NSS’s rhetoric on migration and identity mirrors and strengthens Europe’s far‑right narratives. This risks policies that restrict migrant access to care, deepen inequalities, and exacerbate health workforce shortages.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 3d

3/ For Europe, the implications are profound. The U.S. call for 5% of GDP on defence forces fiscal trade‑offs that risk crowding out investment in health and social care, precisely the systems that proved essential during COVID‑19.

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