"We're potentially worsening health inequalities": Evaluating how delivery of the 2022 London polio booster campaign was tailored to Orthodox Jewish families to reduce transmission vulnerability.

A polio booster campaign targeting all children aged 1-9 was implemented across London between August-December 2022 as part of a national enhanced poliovirus incident response. Orthodox Jewish (OJ) children were particularly vulnerable to transmission due to disparities in childhood vaccination coverage and the transnational spread of poliovirus affecting linked populations in New York and Israel. This study aimed to evaluate how the polio booster campaign was tailored to increase uptake and enable access for OJ families in northeast and north central London boroughs, and the impact of the campaign on local-level vaccine inequities.

Tackling barriers to COVID-19 vaccine uptake in London: a mixed-methods evaluation.

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first vaccine was administered in December 2020 in England. However, vaccination uptake has historically been lower in London than in other English regions.

Methods: Mixed-methods: This comprised an analysis of cumulative percentage uptake across London between 8 December 2020 and 6 June 2021 by vaccine priority cohorts and ethnicity.

Sickle cell disease and thalassaemia antenatal screening programme in England over 10 years: a review from 2007/2008 to 2016/2017.

Objectives: To evaluate the antenatal sickle cell and thalassaemia screening programme in England over 10 years from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2017.

Methods: Four routine data sources were used: antenatal screening laboratory data; key performance indicator data from maternity trusts; prenatal diagnosis (PND) laboratory data and data from screening incidents.

Results: For the 10 years examined a total of 6608 575 booking samples were reported as screened, and 154 196 pregnant women required further testing.

The role of paediatricians in public health for children and young people.

There is an increasing awareness among practising clinicians that public health for children and young people has an enormous impact on child health outcomes, and is an intrinsic aspect of the practice of paediatrics. This article, the first in a series, explores the key concepts of child public health, explains why public health matters to clinicians through a series of examples, and outlines opportunities and resources for further learning.

Recent physician strike in Israel: a health system under stress?

In 2011, a series of physician strikes in Israel followed eight months of unsuccessful negotiations with the government (Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance). Strikes by physicians may be a warning that all is not well in a health system and protestors have claimed that they signify a system failure. In contrast, others argue that strikes have been a feature of the Israeli health system from its inception and should not be a cause for alarm.

The development of metacognitive ability in adolescence.

Introspection, or metacognition, is the capacity to reflect on our own thoughts and behaviours. Here, we investigated how one specific metacognitive ability (the relationship between task performance and confidence) develops in adolescence, a period of life associated with the emergence of self-concept and enhanced self-awareness. We employed a task that dissociates objective performance on a visual task from metacognitive ability in a group of 56 participants aged between 11 and 41 years.