Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken at Teddies
Lower Sixth pupil, Tildy De La Rosa, a member of MedSoc, reviews yesterday’s talk on ‘How to Make the World a Better Place (not for the squeamish)’, by Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken.
On Thursday we welcomed Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken, of the CBBC series Operation Ouch! and various Radio 4 series. They discussed humanitarian medicine, their fascinating research on food systems and infectious diseases, and the complexity of trying to make the world a better, safer place. They started off with high energy, engaging the audience from the very beginning.
Firstly, they discussed fears: how adrenaline is a response to any sense of threat, and the entry level emotion, disgust. This led quickly to a “Gross Alert!”, when they showed us a compilation of videos from their series Operation Ouch! The Shells and Fourth form thoroughly enjoyed that part. Soon Chris focused upon his work as an infectious disease doctor at UCL where he is researching how disease can spread from animals to humans. This led to the discussion of parasites; an especially notable case was when they discovered an infection with Gnathostoma spinigerum which has generally been confined to Southeast Asia and Central and South America. However, they found gnathostomiasis in Botswana. This story struck me particularly in Chris’s explanation of how parasites evolve along with us, finding how to take advantage of the way we, as a global population, live and interact. This presented the connection between parasitic infection, amongst other illnesses and diseases, and poverty, whereby Chris stated that, ‘To prevent parasitic infections we need to solve poverty’ and subsequently health inequality.
They soon asked us to consider the complications in trying to make the world a better place regarding health inequality and humanitarian aid. The underdevelopment of medicine and drugs for those who cannot pay for them was highlighted in the discussion of developing medicines for lasting impact on global equity. However, they suggested that companies need to change the incentives for how they develop drugs for people and how we can supply medicines to low-income countries and those in poverty. Xand and Chris discussed how humanitarian aid may meet people’s needs but not consider the people’s ambitions and futures outside the migrant camps in which they find themselves living. The issue of countries using these migrant camps to their advantage was also touched on, providing extremely low pay, hard labour jobs to people in migrant camps. Chris and Xand made it very clear that to change the world we as a population, companies and the government must challenge the status quo; combat and recognise that governments may not be protecting the people under their care, companies not being responsible and drug companies not making drugs for those in low-income countries.
Lastly, they discussed ultra-processed food made from waste products, commodity crops and additives. These types of food can lead to inflammatory issues, damaging effects to your microbiome, and drive excess consumption. So, they said, surely it is obvious to cut them out of your diet completely. However, they emphasised that if an average UK household were to cut out UPFs completely, they would spend a significant amount of their monthly income on food, compared to the current 8%. They also introduced the psychology of food packaging and how parents are less likely to buy foods without graphics on packaging, and children are more likely to want food with an illustrated character and/or colourful packaging.
Overall, this was thoroughly enjoyable, interactive and educational talk. Many thanks to Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken for the talk, for staying behind to answer the many questions we had and to take many photos with fans of Operation Ouch!
