Holyrood 442 / 23 March 2020

A Public Health Special Issue including the immeasurable impact of Coronavirus, interview with Jason Leitch, the Scottish Government’s national clinical director, Sir Harry Burns on adopting an incremental gains approach to public health, Q&A with the conveners of the cross-party group for public health, and a closer look at Scotland’s battles with suicide and heart disease.

3 Editor’s note
The world is a scary place right now and the speed at which our sophisticated lifestyles have unravelled has been extraordinary to witness

6 Roundup
Pictures and numbers from the past two weeks

7 Talking Point
Europe must act for refugees, now more than ever

9 In Context
What is just transition?

10 Cover Story: The Coronavirus
Coronavirus offers the opportunity to make lasting changes

14 Overview: Incremental change
Improving public health means making small gains wherever you find them

18 Interview: Jason Leitch
The Scottish Government’s national clinical director on overcoming a public health crisis

22 Focus: Heart disease
The new head of BHF Scotland says there is much still to do to reduce cardiovascular disease

24 Q&A: Keeping Scotland healthy
Improving Scotland’s Health: 2021 And Beyond conveners are quizzed about public health

27 Focus: Suicide prevention
Suicide prevention expert Prof Rory O’Connor says research can save lives

30 Special Feature: Screen Scotland
A new film studio brings opportunity for Scotland’s whole screen sector

32 Roundtable
Why do the positive aims of transformational change often not turn into practice

36 Getting to Know You
Holyrood’s BSL policy officer, Mark McMillan, on making politics more deaf accessible

38 Comment
In the teeth of a crisis, we need art as well as science

39 Politician’s & their pets
Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater introduces us to her bearded dragon

40 Diary
Phenomenal Fraser, cattening the curve and the three Liberal Democ-rats in Christine Grahame’s office

42 Last Word
Sketch: Scotland urgently needs to explore the idea of cloning Jason Leitch

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