Healthcare News Review 2nd March 2022: What does the Ukraine crisis mean for health storytellers in India?

 2nd March 2022    PR News 
 Paarul Chand

PRmoment's weekly 'The Healthcare News Review' column will look at the biggest healthcare news trends every week and analyse the communications implications of that.

The unprecedented crisis in Ukraine has serious implications for a world already reeling from the pandemic.

 Though, US President Joe Biden has announced the release of 30 million barrel of oil to maintain global prices, oil prices surging over $100 a barrel in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

However, as per BBC, western nations impose sanctions on Russia, buyers are shunning Russian crude oil. This will impact availability and push the prices up again.

What does this mean for communicators?

1) Even as people return to offices in India, at least part-time, the economy will be in focus as oil prices impact recovery.

2) The world is seeing a lot of unrest globally, with strikes and protests in Canada, London and Australia. Some are pandemic related, but others are due to protests about work conditions ( The London metro workers protests).  This is a trend that communicators might like to examine closely for implications for the employee engagement.

3) Fake news will only escalate. There are resources increasingly available. For example, The Healthy Indian Project (THIP) is an effort to create verified health information relevant to people in India and make it available in multiple formats and in multiple Indian languages. 

Readers can reach out to factcheck@thip.in for verification,

Sudipta Sengupta, the founder and CEO for The Healthy Indian Project (THIP). says that, "As per the latest statistics, around 70,000 health related searches happen each minute on Google. Around 50% of Indians search for health information online."

Why is this is a problem?

Sengupta says, "Because most of these health information are not evidence based, or not written keeping the Indian medical systems in mind, they are not written in Indian languages or are often written by faceless, unqualified people making unscientific, false claims. This leads to multiple problems like wrong health decisions, delayed treatment, trust issues with your doctor, self medication.

The problem is even bigger when you consider that India has a very low doctor penetration in rural areas."

In other key health news:

1. The Times of India reports that production and export of the Sputnik vaccine is at risk due to the Ukraine crisis.

2. Celebrities are down with Covid. 'The Batman' director Matt Reeves missed the film's premiere due to testing positive for Covid.

3. US President Joe Biden warns about new Covid variants in his State of the Union Address.

News Curated for PRmoment India by:

Impact Research and Measurement