#EAPM - Songs in the key of life: Time to sing a single health-care tune

Apart from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson advising us to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice while washing our hands for 20 seconds, there’s probably not too much call for sing-a-longs at the moment as the coronavirus situation wreaks havoc across Europe and the rest of the world, writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director Denis Horgan.

However, a few song titles come to mind with self-isolation, transport curbs, schools, bars and restaurants closing, and difficult-to-understand panic-buying of toilet paper…

‘Last train to Clarksville’ (The Monkees), ’Schools Out’ (Alice Cooper) and ‘If I Could Just Get It Down on Paper’ (Jimmy Buffet) are all reasonably apposite, and if your local supermarket goes short of loo roll then you might want to consider recycling some of the more sensationalist tabloid newspapers. (‘The Sun ain’t gonna shine anymore’, anyone?)

For obvious reasons, ‘Leaving on a jet plane’ (John Denver) doesn’t make the playlist.

In terms of self-isolation, Charlie Rich wondered, if you remember, what goes on ‘Behind Closed Doors’, while Eric Carmen’s hit “All by myself” and Roy Orbison’s “Only the lonely” might ring a few bells down the line… (We don’t count Gilbert O’Sullivan’s ‘Alone again, (naturally)’ as a virus spreading from bats to humans - or even produced in a lab, dear conspiracy theorists - may be called many things, but ‘natural’ ain’t one of ‘em.)

Freddie Mercury and his band Queen have a couple that spring to mind, not least ‘I want to break free’ which, after a fortnight-or-so of self-imposed exile might sum up the fact that many will be going stir crazy, twitching the curtains and waiting for the delivered groceries to land on the doorstep, while yearning for the great outdoors and the comfort of a football crowd or a beer with mates.

Very pertinent to EAPM, its partners and stakeholders at the moment, is another song by Freddie and co - ‘The show must go on’.

The show must go on

The show must go on, yeah

Inside my heart is breaking

My makeup may be flaking

But my smile, still, stays on

We refer you to this song as, not only was it written during the time of the unfolding of Freddie’s own personal tragedy but also due to the fact that, while the Alliance’s 24 March presidency conference will regrettably now no longer take place in a single venue, it will happen ‘virtually’, ie online. The show will, indeed, go on.

For those that have already registered, links will be sent soon to enable access.You won’t have to miss a thing and can spare yourself all that tedious travel and hotel breakfasting. The bars and restaurants will be shut in Brussels anyway…but our ‘smile still stays on’.

As an aside, the phrase ‘the show must go on’ is a showbiz commandment that whatever event has been planned still has to be staged for the paying public. 

This has obviously recently been cast aside by everyone from various national football authorities to the Formula One top table to those who would have us buy our beer solely from the supermarché and, anyway, is synonymous with circuses (which may or may not have relevance as every government seems to be running its own circus at the moment with little or no cross-border coordination).

The phrase also jibes with the band playing as the Titanic sank. But let’s not go there…

Time to grow up

There is a blunt but pretty clever social media meme doing the rounds at the moment which sees the coronavirus, the Spanish Flu and the Black Death sitting at a bar. The coronavirus is telling the other two that: “My vision is not to KILL people, per se, but to raise awareness around access to public health.” 

The other two roll their eyes while muttering “F…ing millennials…”

Maturity or lack thereof is a key question, here, funny or not. We’ve often heard that the financial crisis of 2008 ushered in a more joined-up approach to financial coordination at the EU, so perhaps the 2020 COVID-19 crisis will see the bloc finally ‘leave its teens’ with respect to healthcare management.

What is needed as the century moves into its 20s is more maturity plus an enhanced ability and willingness to cooperate better, because what this crisis has shown beyond all doubt is that Europe needs more and better coordination between healthcare systems sourced from a central point.

Part of the key is better information (and its optimal sharing), with the work of DG SANTE potentially offeringsurveillance, with DG CONNECT establishing the framework for online cooperation and collaboration. This leads through to technical innovation via DG Research - which can support the necessary translation into our healthcare systems.

Speaking of support - as well as the other key EU institutions that’s partly why the European Parliament exists. Not only to support the citizens who elected the deputies, but also the member states in their hours of need.

“Cometh the hour, cometh the hemicycle.” As somebody nearly once said…

Europe and beyond

US President Donald Trump has, as he often does, piled in with both feet with an EU travel restriction that has left, among others, European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen a trifle miffed.

The UK (non-EU now, of course) and Ireland are not included in the ban on arrivals into the United States, which sort of calls The Donald’s knowledge of geography, the Channel Tunnel and ferries into question, but heigh-ho.

Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will now only meet, like us, ‘virtually’ until the end of April. 

The aim is partly to “limit international travel”. Presumably any planned meetings with America’s FDA are off the table, then?

In Denmark, meanwhile, the populace is now barred from buying any more prescription medicines in pharmacies than they would normally use, according to the Danish Medicines Agency.

Pharmacies and supermarkets will no longer sell more than one pack of over-the-counter medicines per customer, in order to prevent hoarding.

The agency chief, Thomas Senderovitz, said: “There are presently no signs of supply failure of medicines caused by the outbreak of coronavirus. We must keep it this way.” 

And in Germany, a country which we all know is very sceptical about cooperation with regard to new HTA proposals, especially in respect of centralised interference in national pricing and reimbursement decisions, Health Minister Jens Spahn arguably went against the grain by calling for a new European disease management and control centre to fight the likes of the coronavirus outbreak.

As a result, he had stuff to say on co-ordination regarding the crisis, saying it “can be done better”. Make your mind up on working together, please, Jens.

Finally, while the European Commission’s industrial strategy could be called a little sketchy as it stands, it’s sort-of-launch did highlight 'A new EU pharmaceutical strategy in 2020, including actions to secure supplies and ensure innovation for patients.'

Needless to say, EAPM has constantly called for such actions, in the words of Status Quo, ‘Again and again’…

So ‘bye’ for now. Be sure to tune in to our conference, and let’s all sing from the same song sheet.

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