New Delhi: James Smith, a lecturer at the University College London’s Institute of Epidemiology and Health, wrote an editorial on the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict along with his colleagues last month in the BMJ Global Health journal.
In that piece, Smith and his colleagues not only went on to describe the details of the attacks and their impact, but also gave important historical and political context.
Many members of the healthcare worker community criticised him for the strong stand taken in that piece.
The Wire spoke to him about the various aspects of the editorial, the suffering of the people as far as health and trauma are concerned, the conflict’s impact on the mental health of healthcare workers, the precedents of such conflicts in which attacks on healthcare facilities were involved, and most importantly, why the healthcare community is shy to take a political stand on crises like these.
Watch the full interview to know more.
