Not long before the completion of the first issue of 2021 we received the message that Bernard Lown had died. Of course, this is a shock and great loss, despite the fact that he had almost reached the formidable age of 100 years. Finalising this issue was postponed, so as to include two commemorations of Dr Lown’s life by Sidney Alexander and Sergey Kolesnikov, who both knew him well and give vivid accounts of his influence and many accomplishments.
Some inspiring news at the beginning of 2021 was the coming into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 22 January. To mark this event a short commentary looks back at articles on nuclear weapons that have appeared over the 35-year life of this journal since its inception as Medicine & War.
Articles in this issue cover sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), attacks on healthcare workers in Syria, and an inspiring online project between medical students and doctors from Oxford University and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Motivations for sexual violence in armed conflicts: voices from combatants in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo covers the theoretical background on possible reasons the incidence is so high and researches this further not, as usually is the case, by interviewing the victims, but by consulting combatants from both the Congolese army and militias. Those interviewed believe sexual violence to be a serious crime and an immoral act, and that they want to protect civilians, but reality shows a ‘disconnect between their good soldiering ideals and own actions’. Recommendations include not only punishment but a variety of measures to address the situation combatants find themselves in.
A book review of Atomic Doctors in this issue describes the importance of context in a very different situation: the environment in the Los Alamos site where the first atomic bombs were made. Doctors used soldiers as guinea pigs and downplayed the dangers of radiation leading them ‘contrary to their wishes, to behave violently against the civilians they are supposed to protect’.
Caught in crossfire: health care workers’ experiences of violence in Syria draws on the experiences of healthcare workers and how different types of violence against them have evolved over time, not only as they try to assist and care for victims, but also in their daily lives. As others have, the authors conclude that the most destructive forms of violence against healthcare workers were committed mostly by Government of Syria troops and Islamic State fighters. However, they also conclude that every party involved has disregarded medical neutrality and that the international community has not taken sufficient action to protect Syrian health care.
The final article in this issue Distance-learning collaborations for rapid knowledge sharing to the occupied Palestinian territory during the COVID-19 response: experience from the OxPal partnership describes a positive example of long-distance learning in times of COVID. It focuses on OxPal, a collaboration between medical students and doctors from Oxford University and their colleagues in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). The authors conclude that online lectures ‘are feasible and effective for rapid education of medical students and clinicians’ in the oPt during a situation of medical emergency. This too is a form of medical collaboration Dr Lown would have been very much in favour of.
Book reviews in this issue cover subjects from resilience during World War I to future survival, via the Atomic Doctors of World War II already mentioned. The first world war and health – rethinking resilience is a volume of diverse articles that through their juxtaposition seek to re-think the concept of resilience, including medical anti-war activism. The Foundations of Global Health and Human Rights is a comprehensive account of the history and present dilemmas of international human rights law, and how it has and could impact on health and global governance. Terra Incognita – which was revised shortly before completion to include coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic – uses maps, charts and compelling commentary to shed light on topics key for our future related to globalization, inequalities and new technologies. The reviewer of a collection of poetry from World War I by 17 nurses – A Cap of Horror – describes how she was transported into the lived experiences of these women, and highlights the relevance of these for the present pandemic. This issue concludes with a review of the recent Medact report False Positives, which researches in detail the impact of the UK government’s counterterrorism Prevent programme on NHS healthcare, staff and patients.
On March 17th the British government announced it is increasing the limit placed on its Trident nuclear warheads by 40%; the majority of media coverage neglects to mention that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons now makes these weapons illegal under international law. They need to be constantly reminded.