Pre-existing vulnerabilities meant that covid-19 hit indigenous people particularly hard, but as Christine Ro reports, it also kickstarted initiatives to improve health Christine Ro freelance journalist "I don't want privileges. I just want the healthcare system to understand," says Marinete Tukano, treasurer coordinator of Makira E'ta, a network of indigenous women in the Brazilian state of Amazonas.
Can Japan really reach "zero deaths" from heat stroke?Even for a country that regularly battles with extreme heat, summer 2022 has been a harsh one for Japan. Christine Ro examines what will be needed to achieve its ambitious target to break the cycle of heat related deaths
Christine Ro freelance journalistWhen Jun Kanda was a child, people referred not to heat stroke but to summer lethargy. A common suggestion on hot days was to eat eel.The idea was that "if you eat something tasty, you gain energy," says Kanda, now an emergency physician and researcher at Teikyo University Hospital. "But if you talk about heat stroke, you have to have liquids and stay in cool places. So eel, even if it's good, isn't going to do anything." Kanda believes that heat stroke countermeasures in Japan are relatively recent, as extreme temperatures have become more frequent. "So many people thought it only happened on exceptional occasions. It took 20 years for a lot of people to raise awareness. So it's relatively new."The same could be said for many places. Climate change has brought unprecedented high temperatures in many corners of the world. But data show that Japan's temperatures have been rising faster than the global average. 1
or many scientists, engaging in activism and advocacy feels like a calling. They find fulfilment in using their expertise to push for changes to national or local policies, increased research funding or better patient care.Depending on the political context, however, there can be career repercussions to speaking out. It can also come at a cost to career advancement: time spent talking to elected representatives or campaigners is time not spent on producing papers -a main metric of achievement for many institutions. Peers might not recognize this non-research work, either. As such, many scientists who are committed to influencing policy do it in their own time.In a survey run by a consortium led by UK science-funding giant Wellcome, 61% of respondents cited insufficient time as the main reason that they did not get involved in public engagement (see go.nature.com/3jmahcc). Respondents said that being relieved of other work, such as teaching, would be the biggest incentive for helping them to participate in such activities.All too often, advocacy is treated as an extracurricular activity rather than an important part of the job. Even so, many scientists with the desire and opportunity to engage carve out ways to influence policies and the public, outside the laboratories and lecture halls. Here, three researchers share how they have managed to balance advocacy with scholarship.
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