Pieternella Pieterse's Avatar

Pieternella Pieterse

@p-pieterse.bsky.social

Research fellow, Institute of Global Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Health systems, human resources for health research, mainly Africa focused. PI of HRH in Sierra Leone study.

85 Followers  |  356 Following  |  14 Posts  |  Joined: 28.02.2025  |  1.9954

Latest posts by p-pieterse.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Incredibly instructive reporting on what appears well on its way to becoming the biggest, most concentrated, most energy- and resource-intensive, and most speculative wave of capital investment ever.
ig.ft.com/ai-data-cent...

31.07.2025 07:13 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 177    ๐Ÿ” 104    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 9    ๐Ÿ“Œ 14
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Break the selective silence on the genocide in Gaza Substantial and well-documented evidence indicates a catastrophic public health emergency in Gaza (appendix pp 1โ€“5), marked by severe food insecurity and alarming levels of malnutrition-related deaths...

An important and eloquent letter from our friend and colleague, Roberto De Vogli - please read and share
Break the selective silence on the genocide in Gaza - The Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

31.07.2025 09:55 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Just listened to the Nature podcast on this, fascinating. Congrats Dr Birhane

27.06.2025 04:34 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Awful, just awful

22.06.2025 14:04 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Opinion | The Waste Musk Created

โ€œChildren are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing โ€” while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses,โ€ our columnist @nickkristof.bsky.social writes of U.S.A.I.D. cuts in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

21.06.2025 13:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 404    ๐Ÿ” 179    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 22    ๐Ÿ“Œ 9

Such a fascinating paper:

19.06.2025 17:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

My perspective piece in the Int J of Health Management and Planning was published today.

12.06.2025 19:06 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Pieter Derks over het gevallen kabinet
Pieter Derks over het gevallen kabinet

Help ons. We kunnen niet meer.. Pieter Derks

youtu.be/jWBuexEdZ_M...

05.06.2025 09:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 62    ๐Ÿ” 20    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

Why are more people not talking about this? Surely this needs to be made clear to a general public, some of whom really havenโ€™t thought of this?!

14.05.2025 08:20 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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(Part 1)

Dr Pieternella Pieterseโ€™s Research Ireland-funded study: What impact do unsalaried health workers in Sierra Leone have on healthcare delivery?...

#Globalsurgery #GlobalSurgeryDay #GlobalSurgery10

@rcsi.bsky.social @researchireland.ie @p-pieterse.bsky.social

13.05.2025 11:22 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Research at risk: Life-saving heart pumps for babies | Cornell Chronicle After receiving a stop-work order from the federal government, the future of a device to help children with heart defects is uncertain.

One of grants frozen at Cornell: $6.7M (4 yrs) to develop heart pumps for babies born w/ heart defects.

It took decades of work to get to point of prepping device for in-human clinical trials. No private company could do this.

The cruelty of the Trump administration is heartbreaking. So to speak.

07.05.2025 11:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3406    ๐Ÿ” 1791    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 90    ๐Ÿ“Œ 160

fragile state averages, worst than Somalia, despite being 23 yrs post-war. Providing unsalaried jobs suits many, facilities are well staffed, health workers are blamed for โ€˜misbehaviourโ€™. Public +private health worker training is lucrative business, training women for non-existing jobs #publichealth

07.05.2025 11:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

โ€ฆ unsalaried. At hospital level perhaps even more. Negative consequences include reduced access to care due to informal charging, staff selling privately bought meds thus prioritizing sales over accurate diagnosis, and absenteeism of salaried staff. Many of SLโ€™s health outcomes are worst thanโ€ฆ

07.05.2025 11:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

My colleague and I returned to Sierra Leone to share our research findings last week. Due to a lack of funding for health (low priority + minimal tax income) health worker graduates are engaged in public health sector jobs on โ€˜voluntaryโ€™ = unsalaried basis. In primary care half of all staff isโ€ฆ

07.05.2025 11:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

New WHO report โ€œhealth gap targets will be missed, largely due to a lack of political will to tackle the structural drivers of poor healthโ€

06.05.2025 13:06 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Here's a nice story for you:
A group of young migrants in an asylum center in the Netherlands was gifted a fun day out to amusement park De Efteling.

But after remarks on social media by asylum minister Faber, the trip was canceled.

Today, crowd funds raised over 100,000 euros for a day out.

03.05.2025 11:54 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

This is a truly inspiring group, a rare spark of hope in an otherwise bleak time for international cooperation and collaboration for the greater good of the planet and its peoples.

03.05.2025 06:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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โ€˜This is insane:โ€™ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage Agency will make researchers outside United States seek grants of their own rather than โ€œsubawardsโ€ from U.S. scientists

โ€˜This is insane:โ€™ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

03.05.2025 06:12 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Medical journals hit with threatening letters from Justice Department The acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., has sent letters to several leading medical journals asking for information about their editorial practices.

The acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., has sent letters to several leading medical journals asking for information about their editorial practices.

02.05.2025 20:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3667    ๐Ÿ” 1675    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 499    ๐Ÿ“Œ 250

Does Ireland really need these sheep? Wouldnโ€™t it be much more cost effective, from achieving some level of reforestation and creating new carbon capturing areas, if the gov paid farmers not to graze these areas? I know thereโ€™s wild grazers, but if you took sheep out of the equation here?

03.05.2025 05:07 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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American scientists: maybe just pretending as though we aren't subject to the capricious whims of a mad king *isn't* a sensible strategy? The damage to #research, to scientific progress, & to #PublicHealth is going to be generational. We *must* respond accordingly.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

02.05.2025 05:13 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The impact of the PEPFAR funding freeze on HIV deaths and infections: a mathematical modelling study of seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa The sudden cessation of PEPFAR funding likely results in tens of thousands of HIV deaths and new infections. These losses of life and health should compel the United States government to rapidly and f...

๐Ÿ›‘ Jan 24, 2025: the U.S. freezes all foreign aid โ€” including PEPFAR.
7 countries. 90 days. HIV treatment disrupted. Waivers? Incomplete.

A new @thelancet.bsky.social study models the fallout. The results are devastating. ๐Ÿ‘‡
www.thelancet.com/journals/ecl... #HealthPolicy ๐Ÿงช๐Ÿ›Ÿ ๐Ÿ’Š๐ŸŒ

02.05.2025 05:22 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
RFK Jr. & HHS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
YouTube video by LastWeekTonight RFK Jr. & HHS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

We are in an *extraordinarily* dangerous moment for democracy, civil rights, & #PublicHealth. Share this video as widely as you can. Educate everyone you're able to. It's past time to push back *forcefully* against the ignorance & cruelty threatening us.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H34...

02.05.2025 05:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Hi Charlie, thanks for getting in touch, Iโ€™ll email you! Greetings from Salone, just on a short visit here

25.04.2025 20:23 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I keep coming back to this super effective framing: resistance to DEI and expanding equity is an attempt to maintain a monopoly over power, access, influence and opportunity

25.04.2025 13:50 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 82    ๐Ÿ” 23    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Vaccines save lives. Pass it on.

24.04.2025 05:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 228    ๐Ÿ” 101    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 5    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
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NIH cancels its first and largest study centered on women The Womenโ€™s Health Initiative has produced numerous influential findings

I don't get how anyone can possibly be okay with ending the WHI. This study has accrued decades of data from 42000 women and it is still going. It helps to address critical research gaps that have been allowed to go unfilled because of durable misogyny and provides invaluable insight into aging.

23.04.2025 12:57 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1897    ๐Ÿ” 968    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 70    ๐Ÿ“Œ 141

Every chance you get, say โ€œfuck youโ€ to authoritarian demands. One of the regimeโ€™s tools is making people believe resistance is futileโ€”that acquiescence is the only option. But especially for those with power and privilege, the most basic, necessary act is to say: FUCK YOU.

15.04.2025 15:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2201    ๐Ÿ” 487    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 35
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Why and how academic medicine must champion diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility US President Donald Trump has launched a series of Executive Actions1 to dismantle diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts; defund scientific research; and freeze federal funds and pro...

Why and how academic medicine must champion diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility

@arghavansallesmd.medsky.social @ananyatb.bsky.social @oniblackstock.bsky.social & colleagues @thelancet.bsky.social

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

12.04.2025 02:09 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 81    ๐Ÿ” 33    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Just came through to my email #Sudan #Ireland

15.04.2025 15:57 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

@p-pieterse is following 20 prominent accounts