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** 28 February 2022
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** UK
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** Campaigners urge PM to back new food bill and tackle obesity crisis (#1)
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** Boris Johnson appoints combative election strategist David Canzini (#2)
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** Vallance and Whitty to step out of spotlight as Covid restrictions end in England (#3)
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** Scotland: Review to be launched into health of Scots over last two decades (#4)
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** International
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** Turkmenistan plans to make country smokefree by 2025 (#5)
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** UK
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** More than 100 campaign groups and major food businesses have called on the Government to support a new food bill amidst concerns that Boris Johnson is ready to abandon anti-obesity measures. The coalition says that the Government must seize “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to transform England’s food system when it publishes a white paper next month in response to Henry Dimbleby’s national food strategy.

Organisations to have joined the calls include the National trust, the RSPB, and the British Heart Foundation, as well as Greggs, Aldi, Tesco, and other major food businesses. The coalition wants ministers to introduce legally binding targets that that would force successive governments to take long-term action to tackle the obesity epidemic.

The Government is currently debating whether to introduce a tax on sugar and salt in response to Dimbleby’s national food strategy. Johnson has said he is “not attracted” to the idea, but campaigners say that it would allow food manufacturers to reduce salt and sugar without fearing that a competitor will undermine them. The Government is also reportedly considering whether to abandon a 9pm watershed on TV advertising for junk food, with ministers considering removing the measure from the Health and Social Care Bill when it returns to the House of Commons in March.

Johnson’s hesitancy comes as he attempts to appease Tory backbenchers following a spate of controversies. Dimbleby’s national food strategy calls for wide-ranging reforms to agriculture, a tax on sugar and salt, and Government targets for 2032 for the population to eat 30% more fruit and vegetables, 50% more fibre, to cut meat consumption by 30%, and to cut foods high in fat, salt, and sugar by 25%.

Source: The Guardian, 27 Feb 2022
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** Boris Johnson has appointed combative election strategist David Canzini, a key ally of political strategist Lynton Crosby, to his staff as he attempts to recover from new claims that Downing Street lockdown parties regularly descended into “carnage”. Canzini will be asked to win over disgruntled backbenchers and come up with an election-winning strategy amongst falling ratings for Johnson.

Canzini had been linked for weeks with a role in Johnson’s team but had reportedly insisted on a clearout of Downing Street before taking up any role. Canzini will be deputy to new chief of staff Steve Barclay and two other deputy chiefs of staff, Simone Finn and Ben Gascoigne. Canzini has been working at Crosby’s political consultancy Crosby Textor Group and worked under Theresa May.

Canzini is said to be admired by rightwing Tories in the lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group and the Brexit-backing European Research Group (ERG). Last month Johnson announced that he had rehired Crosby, who led his successful 2015 election strategy, but it transpired that Crosby would not be taking a formal job but would instead occasionally informally advise Johnson.

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** Source: The Guardian, 27 Feb 2022
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**
See also: Tobacco Tactics – Crosby Textor Group ([link removed])
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** Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance will turn their attention to tackling health inequalities, the state of the UK’s air, and emerging technologies, after Boris Johnson announced last week the plan to “live with Covid”. Whitty, England’s chief medical officer (CMO), and Vallance, chief scientific advisor, are not expected to again flank the prime minister to explain the UK’s response to COVID-19.

Whitty and Vallance will continue to follow the data on infections, hospitalisations and deaths, the effectiveness of vaccines, and whether further doses or different shots are needed, whilst the GP-led surveillance system for “influenza-like illness” is being adapted to detect new variants of COVID-19. Whitty and Vallance will also focus on planning for future outbreaks by strengthening public health capabilities, beefing up the NHS to withstand a surge in admissions, and making the population more resilient. Resilience might be increased by measures such as tobacco-like taxes on unhealthy products.

Whitty is already working on health inequalities and particularly at problems in coastal towns. Vallance has recently set up two new government bodies, the National Science and Technology Council and the Office for Science and Technology Strategy. A public inquiry into the pandemic response is also imminent, and Professor James Wilsdon of the University of Sheffield warns that the politicians who receive blame in the inquiry may well claim that they simply following the instruction of scientists.

Wilsdon says that Whitty will be part of efforts to help the NHS clear backlogs and recover from the pandemic, but could step back into a chief scientific advisor role if he does not choose to remain CMO.

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** Source: The Guardian, 26 Feb 2022
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** The Health Foundation will carry out a new independent review of health in Scotland over the last two decades amid concerns that Scotland suffers from persistent health inequalities which have been worsened by the pandemic. The review will being together academic research with stakeholder and public engagement.

Scotland currently has the lowest average life expectancy at birth of all four of the UK nations, with this also amongst the lowest in western Europe. The last five years has seen an increase in the difference in life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas. Earlier this month, National Records of Scotland (NRS) reported that “those living in the most deprived communities spend on average 24 years fewer in good health than those living in the least deprived areas”.

A recent NRS report found that reported life expectancy at birth in Scotland had fallen to 76.8 years for males and 81 years for females. The Health Foundation says that smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity, and harmful alcohol use are all leading risk factors “driving the UK’s high burden of preventable ill health” which is particularly concentrated in Scotland.

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** Source: STV News, 28 Feb 2022
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** International
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** Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has reportedly approved a National Program to free Turkmenistan from tobacco , with a wide-ranging set of measures planned to make Turkmenistan smokefree by 2025. Turkmenistan has already banned tobacco product advertising, banned smoking in universities, public places, administrative buildings, military installations, and when driving cars, and is a member of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

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** Source: Azer News, 27 Feb 2022
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.

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