By CarriAyne Jones Parr, PhD, Head of UK Science and Innovation Network, Southeast US; World Health and AMR Lead; Consul-General of the United Kingdom
As scientists, physicians, and public health leaders, we tend to address detailed challenges. We equip ourselves with data and pave the way to a solution. Statistics, norms, risk-benefit analysis, and concepts are the language we understand, so the language in which we often speak communicates with others. But as we saw in the COVID-19 virus, there are those who do not speak this language. They hear the noise in things that give us meaning.
For many, the power lies in stories and history and information. Retrieving the worldwide death toll from a disease is more specific than telling the story to your friend’s mother, who is currently battling that disease and her family is suffering by his bedside.
The responsibility is upon those of us who want to change policies or behaviors, who want to bring about change to a large extent, to outlines challenges and solutions to using audible language. We can’t talk to them, we have to talk to them.
To truly connect, we need to harness the power of art, in all its forms, to tell the stories of science and health.
It is in this spirit that the UK Science and Innovation Network has partnered with the CDC Foundation to bring Scottish music, The Mold That Changed The World, to Atlanta and Washington DC. This music tells the story of Sir Alexander Fleming and the discovery of penicillin in 1928: a scientific discovery that established modern medicine as we know it. However, the pathogens of the spine and kryptonite are our health systems, and the music provides a specific warning about the majority of human superbugs, or antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Hundreds of years since Fleming was first discovered, AMR is one of the greatest threats facing humanity, meaning that routine surgery and infectious diseases can re -signal death for patients. .
The event brings together London West End professional athletes and dancers with a volunteer choir of local scientists and doctors. health care providers, who, in the back of their lab and hospital work, make it part of the show, giving them a four -step foundation. ‘asoa. their day -to -day experience, and the creation of community -based champions along the way. Happy to join? The choir is taking exams now!
The musical game is special in time because the eyes of a world after disease are turned to disease and prevented. Using the mediums of art, drama, and music, we hope to use the current situation on global health as a starting point for dialogue and a collaborative time for practitioners. foundation, public health, and, most importantly, the public. With AMR hitting the weakest, art can play an important role in breaking the cycle of health inequality by initiating these important health discussions on on an empty basis.
New data published in The Lancet earlier this year shows that AMR was responsible for approximately 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019, and is associated with approximately 4.95 million deaths, more than HIV/AIDS or malaria. AMR is the third leading cause of death worldwide and the shocking fact is on an increasing trend. – But as for COVID-19, climate change, and now that AMR has been established, we cannot conduct a discussion with data. We have to use data to strengthen the bottom line of the process and combine it with bottom lines, like the one we use in The Mold That Changed the World, to have the power to change. behavior in all situations.
As noted by the UK’s Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance, Dame Sally Davies,
“It’s about all of us being leaders and activists in AMR. Educating ourselves and each other is the most effective way out of the AMR epidemic, and the Mold is listening to the audience to have a lasting impact on their behavior. I encourage someone to watch this music and it’s not a compulsive feeling to act. “
The music is on display in Washington DC at the Atlas Performing Arts Center from Oct. 18-23 and Atlanta at the Science Gallery in Pullman Yards from Nov. 1-6, 2022. Tickets and more information are available at www. moldthatchangedtheworld.com.
The Consul-General of the United Kingdom is a partner of the Center for Global Health Innovation’s, Office of Health Equity and Crisis Coordination.
