Climate change is increasing the risks of foodborne diseases globally, while postal workers in France are on the climate frontlines, checking in on older people during heatwaves, offering advice, addressing loneliness, and making sure they are eating well and staying hydrated, reports The Health Wrap.
Our columnist also brings alarming news on Ebola, continues to document the Trump Administration’s war on science, and reports on an unconventional fund-raising campaign for research into marmots, which provide “a window on the health of high-alpine ecosystems”.
The quotable?
It was very disconcerting to listen to the compilation of falsehoods and misinformation delivered by Trump and Kennedy at the signing of the executive order.”
Lesley Russell writes:
Our Colorado sojourn continues with lots of hiking. We are usually out early in the morning for several reasons: the trailheads at the popular walks fill up quickly, the temperatures are cool (although the maximums here are rarely above 27C), and we avoid the late afternoon thunderstorms that often come rolling in.
We continue to experience a lot of wildfire smoke which turns the distant mountain views into shades of blue grey. Local fires are mostly under control, but we are getting smoke from Utah and the dreadful fire in Spokane, Washington.
We recently spent a few days in Aspen and hiked the Maroon Bells trail from Maroon Bells Lake to Crater Lake. The scenery here is always glorious, dominated by the towering, reddish (haematite), bell-shaped Maroon Bells peaks.
There’s a big focus on infectious diseases in this edition of The Health Wrap, including the links to politics and climate change.
McCarthyism revisited
The shocking news of the past week is the Republican witch hunt against Dr Anthony Fauci, led by Senators Rand Paul (with his medical training he should know better) and Ron Johnston.
The Senate committee led by Senator Paul has voted (along partisan lines) to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress and will now refer him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution after he declined to answer questions during a congressional hearing about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
[This is not usual procedure for such contempt cases, which should be voted on by the full Senate before referral to the Justice Department. But in these Trumpian times normal procedures are consistently cast aside and likely Paul fears that he would lose the Senate vote which would be subject to a filibuster.]As described by the Editorial Board of The Washington Post, the contempt vote against Fauci was a stunt. Congress could learn many lessons from the pandemic response, but this action doesn’t help. All Paul wants is to send the 85-year-old to jail.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had a major effort to scour eleven government servers to reassemble Fauci’s diary, which he had kept for many years, and turn it over to Paul – who then immediately made public the pages written during the pandemic, distorting the diary comments about the role of the Wuhan wet market.
HHS also made a copy of material on Fauci’s work phone available to Senator Johnson.
This type of congressional procedure is like a reversion to the days of McCarthyism and the political practice of making wild, unfair accusations of treason or disloyalty without good proof.
It’s hard to know what motivates this. Some of it clearly relates to the fact that there is not a good answer to the origin of the COVID-19 epidemic.
The 2025 report from the World Health Organization concluded that the weight of the evidence suggests zoonotic spillover, but emphasised that, with many unanswered (maybe unanswerable) questions, all theories remain on the table.
The undermining of science and expertise in the United States means this debate is open to lots of implausible assertions: the COVID origin story and gain-of-function research has turned into a spectacle.
Kennedy has claimed that Lyme disease, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) also originated from laboratory gain-of-function research – despite the fact that these infectious agents were around long before this type of research was invented.
You can see just how senseless and locked-in the opposition to Fauci is (and the misinformation linked to so many other MAGA/MAHA claims) in this interview CNN’s Dana Bash conducted with Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
There’s a much-needed fact check of this interview here.
Ahead of Fauci’s appearance before the Senate committee, a group of 155 scientists, physicians, and public health advocates signed an open letter calling on elected officials to end the “vilification and harassment” of scientists.
The letter states that the Trump Administration and its allies in Congress are “waging a war on individual scientists, through public harassment, arrests, criminal indictment, and ongoing threats of prosecution”.
“We are urging our elected representatives in Congress to stop these witch-hunts and support good public health and scientific practices so that America’s leadership in innovation remains secure,” they wrote.
A Washington friend, a much-respected political pundit, wrote this to me as we exchanged emails bemoaning Fauci’s fate, the Republicans’ nastiness and Kennedy’s stupidity: “After watching RFK Jr’s disgusting performance with Dana Bash, House Democrats should be introducing in impeachment resolution against him, with multiple articles.…Highlight his outrages and dangers to lives and our well-being, force Republicans to vote on the articles… It would also force the media to pay much more attention to what a disgraceful and dangerous Trump cabinet member is doing to our lives.”
Fauci had previously received a “pre-emptive” pardon from President Biden because of Biden’s belief that the Trump Administration and Republican lawmakers were likely to target him.
When asked whether the DOJ should prosecute Fauci, Trump said: “What he did is far more serious than a lot of crimes.”
Meanwhile, it looks like a biotechnology executive, Dr Steven Quay, is likely to take up Fauci’s old job of Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Quay was an early proponent that COVID-19 came from a Chinese lab.
[NIAID has not has a permanent director since Dr Jeanne Marrazzo, who succeeded Fauci in 2022, was fired in early 2025 because she spoke out against the risky public health policies of the Trump Administration.]See also this Croakey article: Inside the war on Fauci: the role of Covid, far-right networks, and digital radicalisation.
Yet more on Trump
President Trump has been aggressively pressing HHS Secretary Kennedy to take more aggressive action on investigating unproven links to autism.
Most recently, during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, Trump interrupted a discussion to ask Kennedy: “How are you doing on the autism research?”
Kennedy replied: “We will have an answer for you.”
Reportedly, Kennedy was taken aback because he has been asked by White House political advisers to tone down his vaccine efforts ahead of the midterm elections (it’s not winning votes).
Apparently, Trump hasn’t been listening to his political advisors either because he has this week moved forward with an Executive Order focused on the childhood vaccine schedule, autism, and parental choice, despite the political risks and widespread pushback from medical experts.
It was very disconcerting to listen to the compilation of falsehoods and misinformation delivered by Trump and Kennedy at the signing of the EO. There is a fact check of Trump’s remarks here.
Also see this article at Croakey by Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite: On the wide-ranging impacts of Trump’s latest assault on public health.
[It’s noteworthy that Trump first publicly suggested a link between vaccines and the increasing prevalence of autism in 2007 – although he never brought up this issue in his first term.]“President Trump has been clear: America must have the best childhood vaccine schedule in the world,” said a White House spokesman. “The Administration remains steadfastly committed to delivering on this presidential priority with Gold Standard Science for the countless parents whose questions and concerns about vaccinations have been ignored or mocked.”
The newly confirmed CDC Director, Dr Erica Schwartz, who has promised to uphold the scientific integrity of the agency, would be charged with implementing this EO.
Kennedy has also claimed, citing two flawed studies, that Tylenol (acetaminophen) use for circumcision causes autism. (Autism is still common in the United States – about 49 percent of male children are circumcised – although Tylenol is rarely used). The remarks came weeks after the White House warned pregnant women not to take acetaminophen over an unproven link with autism.
A new study of American children just published in JAMA Pediatrics finds no evidence linking neonatal male circumcision with autism spectrum disorder.
Food safety concerns
The United States is currently dealing with three serious food contamination outbreaks.
As of 7 August, the cyclospora outbreak has 22,000 reported cases from most states, with some 15 states seriously affected.
While cases in these 15 states have been linked to lettuce used in fast food chains, food safety experts believe multiple sources are likely contributing to the cyclospora surge across the country. Known products under investigation include frozen blueberries, powdered infant formula, eggs, and soft ricotta cheese.
A multistate salmonella outbreak linked to eggs has sickened 98 people across 17 states as of 7 August, and nearly 1.6 million cartons of eggs produced in Texas have been voluntarily recalled.
Another outbreak of salmonella in 27 states has been pinned on jalapeno peppers grown in Mexico and distributed to fast food chains. As of 5 August, 345 cases and 36 hospitalisations have been reported.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently lists 11 foodborne illness investigations as active and ongoing.
A 2011 law shifted FDA’s focus to preventing these illnesses rather than reacting to them. A report released in January this year by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that while the FDA has established a framework for preventing food contamination throughout the supply chain, it hasn’t completed all the law’s requirements. In particular, it has not updated guidance to help farmers reduce contamination risks.
Food safety issues are also managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
I have previously pointed out the loss of personnel and expertise in health agencies, but the same thing has been happening at USDA.
In February 2025, Trump dissolved the USDA National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods. By the beginning of this year USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service had lost 913 staff, and the Food and Nutrition Service lost 564. The agency’s National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection has also been axed.
The head of USDA, Brooke Rollins, says ensuring the safety of the nation’s food supply is the agency’s number one priority and insists that food in the United States is currently safe despite the outbreaks.
“The food supply remains the best, the safest, the most affordable in the world, and will continue to do so,” Rollins said.
Global burden of foodborne diseases
A new paper published in The Lancet Global Health updates the WHO estimates of the global, regional, sub-regional, and national foodborne disease burden caused by 42 infectious and chemical hazards in 2021 (so already several years out of date).
It shows that foodborne diseases cause a burden similar to that from tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS or malaria.
They lead to 866 million illnesses and 1.5 million deaths annually worldwide. Children under five are especially vulnerable, accounting for nearly one-third of all foodborne disease cases despite representing only nine percent of the global population.
One of the authors of the paper was quoted in a WHO media release: “The data show that foodborne diseases are not only persistent but are being made worse by climate change, which increases contamination risks, and by antimicrobial resistance, which makes infections harder to treat.”
Ebola updates
As of 9 August 2026, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had reported 4,381 confirmed cases and 2,011 deaths across 51 health zones in five provinces That represents more than 300 cases and more than 200 deaths since the last reporting period, just four days earlier.
Last week the Africa CDC and WHO called for urgent, community-led action to contain Ebola in the DRC. They want response operations to match the pace of transmission and point out that Uganda shows control can be achieved.
The fight against Ebola is not going well. Rather than the spread of the virus slowing, cases are doubling about every 10 days; more than 1,800 people have died, though the actual toll is likely at least twice as high.
This outbreak is spreading more quickly than any other in history, partly because the basic tools needed to control infectious disease – testing and follow-up – are not working in an effective and timely manner.
The daily numbers are so alarming that health experts are looking to research whether the virus is mutating to become more infectious.
It is encouraging to see that last week the US State Department announced it intends to provide an additional US$242 million in funding for Ebola response and preparedness efforts in the region and humanitarian assistance related to the outbreak. (I believe that Congress must act to deliver this.)
This additional funding brings the US funding for direct assistance to more than US $512 million. This is in addition to US $350 million for critical humanitarian assistance in the DRC, South Sudan, and Uganda.
A NEJM Perspective argues that the lack of vaccines and disease-specific therapeutics for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola has dramatically eroded community perceptions of Ebola treatment centres and turned medical isolation into a feared, coercive measure. This has severely undermined trust in their efforts.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has backed four candidate vaccines, which are being developed by biotechnology companies Moderna and Public Health Vaccines, non-profit research organisation International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), and the University of Oxford. The first of four vaccine candidates has entered clinical trials. You can read more here.
Last month WHO launched the Platform Adaptive Randomised Trial for New and Repurposed Filovirus TreatmentS (PARTNERS) clinical trial in DRC. This tests two drugs – Mapp Biopharmaceutical’s monoclonal antibody cocktail MBP134 and Gilead Sciences’ antiviral remdesivir – for the treatment of Bundibugyo Ebola.
Next United Nations chief
Who will be the new head of the United Nations? The race is on for the election of the next Secretary General of the United Nations to succeed António Guterres. This comes at a key time for the UN, amidst claims that it is an increasingly irrelevant global institution – not helped by the fact that the United States is abandoning and defunding much of its work.
“It feels like we’re on a precipice,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit devoted to preventing war. “The organisation is really, really in a very bad place, and it’s not clear that any Secretary General can turn that around.”
The selection process, to end late this year, with the new Secretary General to be sworn in on 1 January 2027, takes this form: UN member states nominate candidates; Security Council states then use anonymous straw polls to offer candidates “discourage”, “encourage”, or “no opinion” votes; in later rounds, the veto-holding countries use a special red-coloured ballot to signal that a nominee could get blocked; eventually, the 15-member Security Council puts forth a consensus candidate for a vote by the UN General Assembly.
You can read more about the process here and here. The membership of the Security Council is here.
Seven candidates have been nominated:: former Guyanese Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett; former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet; former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan; former Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa; former Senegalese President Macky Sall; veteran Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu; and Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, who currently leads the UN nuclear watchdog agency.
There are reports that President Trump wants to nominate FIFA chief Gianni Infantino (who is facing calls to resign over his plan to sell stakes in future World Cup profits to private equity funds) to the position. This is not something that would do anything to improve the current situation, although Trump would see it as increasing his influence over the UN. However, according to the selection process outlined above, it is too late for that.
Most of this year’s nominees have already appeared in a public town hall in July to discuss their priorities. You can watch the video here and the transcript is here.
During this event the nominees acknowledged the crisis of confidence facing the 80-year-old institution. Several said the UN needed to be leaner, more agile and more accountable.
The first straw poll by the Security Council was held during the last week of July. Rebeca Grynspan led this first round, followed by Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, and then Rafael Grossi.
Some countries hope to see the first-ever female Secretary General, and many expect to follow a tradition of geographic rotation and hand the job to someone from Latin America.
The Trump team hasn’t suggested those factors will matter to them. “Everything I hear suggests that what the US wants is someone who will be ideologically friendly and willing to sort of take even tougher financial reforms,” Gowan said. “I don’t think the US cares if that’s a man or a woman or a raccoon.”
Bird flu
For a surprisingly long time Australia was the only continent free from the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu, even as it wrought havoc in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic, where it has caused massive die-offs among seabirds like skuas and penguins and marine mammals, especially elephant seals.
[I wrote about the biosecurity measures that were required when we visited sub-Antarctic islands late last year, and the dead animals we saw, in the 2026 edition of The Hiking Wrap.]But there have now been several hundred confirmed or presumed cases of H5N1 avian flu in Australia (regular updates are provided here).
The initial cases were in a handful of migratory seabirds found dead on coastal beaches, but now – just six weeks since the first case was detected –helicopter surveillance has revealed the first mass mortality event, with more than 80 dead and sick birds (identified as greater crested terns which live around the Australian coastline year-round) seen on Baudin Rocks, near Robe in South Australia.
Now cases are also being reported from inland Australia and – most disconcertingly – there are reports that native birds are affected. A magpie was among the latest positive detections in Victoria.
On Kangaroo Island, tours of the sea lion colony (which I have often visited) have been cancelled. To date there have been no detections of bird flu in commercial poultry flocks in Australia, and this situation is being closely monitored, with outdoor flocks at most risk.
The real fear is for what H5N1 will do to native animals. A “doom list” put out by the federal government finds one in five native bird and mammal species is at high, very high or extreme risk. Carnivorous and scavenging mammals such as Tasmanian devils, quolls, and seals that feed on infected carcasses are especially at risk.
As outlined in a recent Croakey article, infectious disease experts and community groups are calling for Australian Governments to do more, and the National Rural Health Alliance has called for particular attention to the needs of rural and regional communities.
It is good to see that, in northern Australia, the Government is partnering with Indigenous ranger groups (their biosecurity plan is here) and communities. Their deep knowledge of Country can help to detect disease early and protect wildlife and culture.
But New Zealand is racing to vaccinate its endangered birds against avian flu. This is not an easy task, but many of the native flightless birds are already considered at risk.
A recent article in The Conversation makes the case that Australia should also begin targeted vaccination of threatened birds and urgently develop a strategy for seals and sea lions, rather than waiting until thousands are dead.
The Australian Government has purchased an inactivated H5N1 vaccine and is currently running pilot studies in captive non-poultry birds.
As the article outlines, “this is important groundwork, but not yet a public program comparable with New Zealand’s ambitious and proactive approach to vaccinate five of the country’s rarest birds before the arrival of H5N1”.
Agriculture Minister Julie Collins announced earlier this week that the Government has acquired $2 million worth of vaccines to inoculate captive native species most at risk from the disease.
While humans can catch H5N1 from animals, there has been no recorded human-to-human transmission. That is no reason for complacency. Australia does have a National Plan for the surveillance of avian influenza for human health, released in June.
To date over $113 million in total federal funding has been committed toward a comprehensive “One Health” approach to combat and prepare for H5N1 avian influenza. This includes $22.1 million specifically designated for human health measures to expand the National Medical Stockpile with pre-pandemic avian flu vaccines.
But this funding was provided in 2024 and we have no idea how it has been spent. And it might be a good idea to look at the provision of more updated vaccines for human use!
Bookmark this link to follow Croakey’s ongoing coverage.
French postal workers to the rescue
Back in August 2017, I reported for Croakey on a hike Liz Dax and I did along part of the Camino Le Puy (Chemin St Jaques) in France.
At dinner with our hosts in the tiny town of Seviac, I heard about how part of the job of the local postman/woman in that area is checking on the wellbeing of the elderly and those who live alone.
I was really impressed with this idea, imagining how it could work in small towns and rural Australian communities.
I think the scheme has changed somewhat since 2017 – for example, it will now deliver food for a fee. You can read more here.
Now there is news that, as France swelters in heatwave after heatwave, French postal workers are checking in on older people, offering advice, addressing loneliness, making sure they are eating well and staying hydrated.
All French cities keep a register of vulnerable residents who have asked to be contacted during hot periods, but those lists are hard to keep updated, and cities are not always able to make sure all interested parties have signed up.
The postal service has 65,000 workers embedded in their local communities, and so can help find people not registered with local authorities.
“Through their daily rounds, postal workers are often the only ones who have regular contact with elderly or isolated individuals,” said Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu in a letter to mayors listing measures and recommendations to face the heat.
In case you missed it
Coalition looks to cut size of APS
It looks like the Coalition is sticking with the policy then leader Peter Dutton took to the last election and will cut the size of the public service.
[This article in The Guardian will serve to remind readers of the Dutton approach (mirroring the Trump approach) to the public service.]An article published in The Mandarin (sadly paywalled) reports that Coalition leader Angus Taylor told a small. business forum in Queensland that he believes there are public sector agencies that serve only themselves, not the taxpayer.
Taylor said the Opposition would target wasteful bureaucracy, with climate change authorities dealing with net zero and housing policy agencies to be first in the Coalition’s crosshairs.
He also said that the shadow ministers have been told to rewrite their “orders” for every agency, so their focus is on the national interest.
As pointed out by Greens Senator, Barbara Pocock, in a follow-up article in The Mandarin (also paywalled), the long-term hollowing out of the public service by both major parties has increased reliance on costly external advisers.
Funding boost for LGBTIQA+ healthcare
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has announced a funding boost of $18 million for LGBTIQA+ healthcare.
The Federal Government will spend $18.1 million to improve healthcare for LGBTIQA+ Australians, including funding a new national accreditation scheme to help patients identify safe and inclusive primary care providers.
Of this, $10 million will go to La Trobe University to develop and deliver a new national accreditation scheme to help patients identify safe and inclusive primary care providers. This work will be done in partnership with ACON, Thorne Harbour Health and technology company Portable.
The voluntary scheme will provide training and accreditation for primary care providers to support the delivery of safe, respectful, and affirming care for LGBTIQA+ people.
The remaining $8.1 million will fund 18 national and state-based initiatives selected through an independent grants process administered by LGBTIQ+ Health Australia.
This is good news, but – daring to look a gift horse in the mouth – I will point out that, as a response to the National Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ People 2025-2035, released in December 2024, it was slow in arriving.
Calvary Mater Hospital Public Private Partnership deemed untenable
A report from the NSW Legislative Council into the management, maintenance and operational issues at Calvary Mater Hospital in Newcastle has said the current Public Private Partnership arrangement is “untenable” and that the hospital must be brought into public ownership and management as soon as reasonably practicable.
Furthermore, the committee recommended that NSW Health review all existing public private partnerships, “…to ensure that adequate visibility, oversight and intervention mechanisms are in place to prevent harm to quality of care, risks to staff safety and the broader erosion of trust in the state’s healthcare system – before the next tragedy, not after”.
There is an analysis of the report’s findings here in Health Services Daily.
Why ‘super movers’ have healthier brains
“Super movers” are defined as people who are able to walk significantly faster than most of their aging peers (I like to think that’s me!).
A study, published in July in Neurology, built on earlier research about “super movers” (men and women age 80 and older whose everyday gait speed resembles that of people in their 50s). It shows that these people are about half as likely to experience cognitive decline as their slower peers.
Scientists have long recognised that slow or uncertain gait in older people is disproportionately linked to poor health, short lifespans and dementia. This study looks at the flip side.
Super movers’ brains differed structurally from those of most of the slower movers, with greater volume in the hippocampus, a key memory centre.
“Walking in the real world is often a divided-attention task,” said one of the study’s authors. He described walkers’ brains as rapidly juggling inputs and instructions about motor control, navigation, uneven ground, jostling crowds, traffic and other distractions.
In this scenario, super moving represents a potentially brain-boosting puzzle as we age.
National Nursing Workforce Strategy released
The Federal Government has unveiled Australia’s first and long-awaited National Nursing Workforce Strategy to help address a projected nursing shortfall of 80,000 by 2035.
Charles Maskell-Knight has reported on the strategy and reaction in the latest edition of The Zap.
Work began in September 2023 and the draft strategy was released for comment in September 2024. Health Minister Butler unveiled the report at the Australian College of Nursing (ACN) National Nursing Forum.
ACN CEO, Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz, said that the strategy must be properly implemented to rectify the current ad hoc approach to nursing workforce planning.
[At this point I could bemoan, once again, the loss of Health Workforce Australia!]“ACN has been strongly advocating for the Strategy for two years. It is a long-awaited recognition that the nursing workforce cannot be left to chance or be subject to fragmented, jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction planning,” said Zeitz.
Wildfire smoke is a growing danger to unborn babies
A study just published shows that wildfire pollution has become an increasing proportion of the harmful pollution to which pregnant mothers and their unborn babies in America are exposed.
We can be fairly certain that this is also the case in Australia. There’s an article from 2020 on this threat to maternal and foetal health in Australia here in The Conversation.
Researchers credit the Clean Air Act for reducing pollution from cars and industrial facilities in the United States. But wildfire smoke has cut into those gains in recent years.
A 2023 study found that, since 2016, wildfire smoke has eroded the equivalent of around four years of air quality progress in most of the country.
Garma Festival
The 2026 Garma Festival was held 31 July to 3 August at Gulkula on Gumatj country in north-east Arnhem Land.
I have not (yet) been able to attend a Garma Festival, but I feel a strong attachment to the Yolŋu people of north-east Arnhem Land: back in 2022 I had the privilege of spending some time with the community of Bukudal. I wrote this up in the 2023 edition of The Hiking Wrap.
The ABC has a wonderful collection of photos from this year’s event which you can access here. The joy on the faces of the children and young people is wonderful to see.
But there was also serious business to be done.
The Festival coincided with the release by the Productivity Commission of the sixth Annual Data Compilation Report to inform reporting on progress under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
Of the 15 targets assessed, only three are on track to be met: employment, land and sea rights, and legal rights and interests.
The forward sums it up progress to date this way: “We are now at the half-way stage of meeting the agreement’s targets, which are due to be achieved by 2031. The urgency to alter the trajectory of those targets not on track, or more importantly, those which are declining, is strikingly clear.”
Indigenous leaders put forward a number of proposals about how to move forward. You can read Noel Pearson’s speech here.
In an article for The Saturday Paper (paywalled), Professor Marcia Langton outlines the structural changes in the management of Indigenous affairs put forward by Pearson and by Yingiya Mark Guyula, the independent member for Mulka in the Northern Territory.
Langton states that: “Both Guyula’s and Pearson’s broad proposals deserve serious attention, and the political class should not reach for the reflex that killed the Voice.”
An article in the National Indigenous Times outlines how the Coalition of Peaks sees that discussions at Garma reinforce the need for governments to focus on implementing the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, rather than creating a new agenda.
In his summary of the Garma Festival, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter Hartcher outlined the optimism and talk of self actualisation that he saw from the Indigenous attendees.
“There were demands for change, but not for charity. Most striking of all, the focus was not on the past but the future,” he wrote.
From my outsider’s perspective, I see the courage and grace this took, and the willingness to develop partnerships and to keep working together.
Best of Croakey
The issues around artificial intelligence (AI) – the good and the bad and the we-don’t-know-yet – are everywhere. Nowhere more so than in health.
My colleagues at Croakey Health Media are doing an excellent job of keeping us all across the issues. Here are some of the most recent AI articles:
- Outside the box and beyond the comfort zone: medical administrators’ conference to tackle AI culture and courage.
- AI revolution in radiology is about education, mature data guardrails and consent, not job loss.
- It might be able to pass exams, but will AI make medical education redundant?
- Why radiologists say we should question AI hope and hype.
- Amid calls for tighter regulation of AI scribes, what are the issues of concern?
And plenty more articles on AI are bookmarked here.
Good news story
This is really just a fun story about one of my favourite creatures! But there’s also an appeal for marmot research funds.
On our hikes in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, we often run across colonies of marmots. These are large ground squirrels; they are herbivores which, during the summer months, like nothing better than to hang out sunbaking on the rocks high up in the mountains. In the winter they hibernate in underground networks that smell pretty bad when we pass by.
The large fat males act as sentries and the sounds of their high-pitched warning cries announce that we are huffing and puffing up the trail. But they are mostly unafraid of humans and – warning delivered – they will simply sit and pose obligingly for photos as we pass by.
This past week we heard about Colorado’s answer to Alaska’s Fat Bear Week (also something you should follow).
Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory near Crested Butte is launching a competition where the public can vote for the chubbiest marmot in a tournament modelled after Alaska’s beloved contest. The voting starts 24 August – and you don’t even have to be in Colorado to vote!
At this time of the year the marmots are packing on the pounds/kilograms for the winter. The fatter the rodent, the better its odd of surviving months of hibernation.
“Marmots give us a window on the health of high-alpine ecosystems,” said biologist Dan Blumstein, who leads the lab’s long-running Marmot Project research initiative.
The contest comes as federal research cuts have put the lab’s marmot studies, ongoing since 1962, under financial pressure.
So Blumstein and his graduate students have created an unconventional fundraiser – posting wholesome marmot videos on OnlyFans under the account OnlyMarms, promising “uncensored marmot content” – to raise money and awareness for the lab’s research.
[OnlyFans is best known for sexually explicit videos and images. But Blumstein is clear: OnlyMarms is a G-rated project. “We’re not trying to sexualise marmots.”]You can read more in this New York Times article (paywalled). And you can follow the competition on Twitter/X via @OnlyMarmsRMBL.
A final note
There will be a hiatus for The Health Wrap until the middle of September. We are off to explore the Arctic and Norway – on the same ship, the Sylvia Earle from Aurora Expeditions, that we sailed to Antarctica last year.
We are hoping for polar bears, whales, puffins, and northern lights, and are looking forward to learning a lot. It will be interesting (is that the right word?) to compare how the Antarctic and Arctic are dealing with climate change.
To the extent we have connectivity I will be posting on BlueSky at @lrussellwolpe.bsky.social.
Croakey thanks and acknowledges Dr Lesley Russell for providing this column as a probono service to our readers. Follow her on Twitter at @LRussellWolpe.
Previous editions of The Health Wrap can be read here.
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