256 | James Meek on Healthcare: from WHO to NHS

David talks to the writer James Meek about what the Covid crisis has revealed about how we understand healthcare and how we think about the organisations tasked with delivering it.  A conversation about hospitals and community care, about Trump's America and Johnson's Britain, and about WHO and NHS. More of James' writing on these themes is available on the LRB website.

243 | Ebola, COVID and the WHO

David and Helen talk this week with Amy Maxmen, senior reporter at Nature. Amy has covered the Ebola epidemic in Western Africa and now COVID-19 in the US.  Does she see comparisons between the two?  What explains the failures of the US response?  Can the WHO still make a difference?  Plus we explore the implications of the growing politicisation of science.  When did data become so divisive?

242 | David Miliband on the Crisis

We talk with David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, about the impact of the pandemic on the world's poorest countries.  What happens in places where social distancing is not possible?  Plus we discuss the long-term implications of the crisis for the future global co-operation and global conflict.  Is this the moment for social democracy?  More details of the work of the IRC can be found here:  https://www.rescue-uk.org/