Martin McKee

@martinmckee.bsky.social

12K followers 660 following 1.1K 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 · 16h

Fascinating day discussing AI in medical education at Hong Kong University today. Change is coming quickly but many unanswered questions about where we are going. Many opportunities but also many challenges. And a great view of course!

Reposted by Christina Pagel

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 1d

My hotel in Hong Kong, where people understand airborne transmission of respiratory viruses, has HEPA filters everywhere

Reposted by Martin McKee

Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley @ardernkate.bsky.social · 1d

Very well worth a read … I agree with the need for an urgent review of the remit, role, function and membership of SAGE 👇

www.bylinesupplement.com/p/230000-dea...

230,000 Deaths and the ‘Calculated Silence’ of the Medical Establishment About the COVID Inquiry

The Covid Inquiry Report is a devastating critique of the medical establishment which led the UK to the worst public health disaster in a century, argues Anthony Costello

www.bylinesupplement.com

Reposted by Martin McKee, Nando Sigona, Ben H. Ansell , and 8 more Martin McKee, Nando Sigona, Ben H. Ansell, Christian Odendahl, Richard S.J. Tol, Steve Peers, Alison Phipps, Jussi T. Eronen, Margot C. Finn, Maria Abreu, José Pina-Sánchez

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 1d

Fewer workers. Fewer international students. More people leaving.

A "step in the right direction" according to the PM.

Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UK net migration falls sharply with drop in arrivals for work and study

Provisional figures for net migration to the UK show levels dropped to 204,000 in the year to June 2025.

www.bbc.co.uk

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 1d

6/ We need a bit of honesty. The public finances, and thus the NHS, will continue to face severe financial pressures until politicians have courage to admit that Brexit is a disaster

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 1d

5/ Nearly 10 years post-referendum, the NHS remains under strain, underfunded, understaffed, facing longer waits, with Brexit's economic bite continuing to undermine service performance.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 1d

4/ A new report used counterfactual models on 33 countries to isolate Brexit’s economic impact, showing declines in GDP and NHS funding, even after adjusting for COVID effects.
www.nber.org/system/files...

www.nber.org

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 1d

3/ The Office for Budget Responsibility warned that slower growth would wipe out EU savings → ~£15 billion/year less for public services, including health.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 1d

2/ Despite promises by Brexit supporters that leaving EU would unlock extra money by ending contributions, Treasury and OECD projected the UK economy would be 3–5% smaller compared to remaining in the EU, piercing that optimism.

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 1d

1/🧵 In @bmj.com Mark Dayan @nuffieldtrust.org.uk & I ask how leaving the EU affected NHS finances. An important question given yesterday's budget.
"NHS funding faces a Brexit squeeze"
www.bmj.com/content/391/...

www.bmj.com

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 2d

4/ Third, no recognition (indeed policies that exacerbate) plight of universities, that can actually help 1st and 2nd problems

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 2d

3/ Second, no real attempt to address vast regional inequality and abysmally low productivity, at least some due to very poor health

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 2d

2/ First, no real acknowledgment that without addressing Brexit we’re doomed to follow a similar economic trajectory to Argentina post 1910

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 2d

1/ Almost 20 years ago, an Australian colleague and I asked “what are governments for?” We thought we had an answer.
After today’s budget I’m struggling to learn what THIS government is for.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.5694/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Martin McKee

Rebecca McKee @rebeccamckee.bsky.social · 2d

There's lots of reaction and analysis to the budget incoming from my expert colleagues at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk over on our live blog www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/live-blog/au...

LIVE BLOG | Autumn budget 2025: Rachel Reeves announce tax and spend measures | Institute for Government

IfG experts analyse Reeves' budget and explore what the chancellor's plans for the economy, tax and spending mean.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Reposted by Martin McKee

Dr Louella Vaughan @drlkvaughan.bsky.social · 2d

What's the future for Undergraduate Medical Education in England?

@martinmckee.bsky.social and I look at what's in the 10 Year Plan and the implications.

We think there is significant risk of the proposals devaluing degrees and the Profession.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Medical education at the crossroads. Part I: undergraduate education and the erosion of professional identity - Louella Vaughan, Martin McKee, 2025

journals.sagepub.com

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 2d

Disappointing to see so little progress in negotiations between the two sides discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Vance and Witkoff, on the one side, and Rubio, on the other (with Trump changing according to day of week) seem as far apart as ever

Reposted by Martin McKee

Institute for Government @instituteforgovernment.org.uk · 3d

EVENT | Are public inquiries a good way for government to learn lessons?

Join us to discuss the lessons from the second Covid Inquiry report and what it means for how future governments approach crisis management.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/govern...

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 4d

Looking for Christmas presents? My colleague Nick Black has just published his second medical novel/biography, this time on Thomas Wakely, founder of the Lancet. Highly recommended

amzn.eu/d/dthy3Q7

Bare-knuckle Surgeon

Bare-knuckle Surgeon eBook : Black, Nick: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

amzn.eu

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 4d

Brexit may not explain all of UK’s woes but, directly or indirectly, it explains a lot of them. Yet ministers still delude themselves (assuming they aren’t just lying) that they can “Make Brexit work”👇

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 4d

Over at the Daily Telegraph, they're scratching their heads as to why the former mining and steel producinv city of Gliwice in Poland is now 45% more prosperous than Darlington... and why it has new shiny infrastructure... without mentioning EU funds for urban and regional development...

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 4d

Yes, it’s about government decision making. She’s getting enough (entirely unjustified) criticism so no need to invite more by straying from remit. It’s an enormous task as it is (I reckon I’ve watched about 1/3 of hearings and read a fraction of evidence) so I’m hugely impressed by what she’s done

Reposted by Martin McKee, Steve Peers, Wolfgang Huber

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 4d

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 4d

Spot on analysis by Martin Wolf in @financialtimes.com on what is wrong with British economy and how successive governments have made it worse. Brexit disaster, failed regional policies, now attacks on universities. And inevitably, Farage features prominently, not in a good way

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 5d

That’s not its remit. See

covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/u...

covid19.public-inquiry.uk

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 5d

As we also wrote at the time

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Are Populist Leaders Creating the Conditions for the Spread of COVID-19? Comment on "A Scoping Review of Populist Radical Right Parties’ Influence on Welfare Policy and its Implications for Population Health in Europe"

Do populist leaders contribute to the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)? While all governments have struggled to respond to the pandemic, it is now becoming clear that some political leaders have performed much better than others. Among ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 5d

And here (plus quite a few others) and see also my evidence to module 7 of the Inquiry

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32766544/

The resilience of Taiwan's health system to address the COVID-19 pandemic - PubMed

The resilience of Taiwan's health system to address the COVID-19 pandemic

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 5d

And here

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32425281/

12 Lessons learned from the management of the coronavirus pandemic - PubMed

The Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has spread rapidly since the first cases hit Wuhan, China at the end of 2019, and has now landed in almost every part of the world. By mid-February 2020, China, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and - to some extent - Japan began to contain and control the spread of the viru …

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 5d

We did that too

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32979936/

Lessons learnt from easing COVID-19 restrictions: an analysis of countries and regions in Asia Pacific and Europe - PubMed

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global crisis. Many countries have implemented restrictions on population movement to slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and prevent health systems from becoming overwhelmed; some have instituted full or partial lockdowns. How …

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 5d

Indeed, as we did (and these are just 2 of our early published papers with Italian colleagues, which take time to appear in print). We heard their warnings very clearly but U.K. government didn’t.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

How the Italian NHS Is Fighting Against the COVID-19 Emergency

An official website of the United States government

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Reposted by Stephan Lewandowsky, Alastair H. Leyland, Elizabeth Stokoe , and 3 more Stephan Lewandowsky, Alastair H. Leyland, Elizabeth Stokoe, Martin Paul Eve, Ruairidh Milne, Christina Pagel

Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 5d

Powerful piece by @drrachelclarke.com on the COVID inquiry. Those who say it’s easy to be wise in hindsight are being utterly disingenuous. Many of us spoke out at the time, and it’s in the public record.
@independentsage.bsky.social

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

I’ll never forget the horror of the Covid wards | The Observer

observer.co.uk

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