Hidden in Plain Sight: Private Philanthropy’s Support for Research

In 2020 I was an infectious diseases researcher in London. When the Covid-19 virus started to spread and UK went into lockdown, my lab work halted. Suddenly, I had a lot of time on my hands. That became an opportunity to explore the many questions that have been piling up in my brain for more than a year at that point. Questions about economic, environmental and social justice in relation to people’s health. So, I started to read. A lot. And more questions emerged. What power dynamics are at play in health? What is the impact of wealth inequities on health? What knowledge and evidence we need to address the polycrisis? The more I dug, the more my understanding of ‘health’ expanded. I went from a biomedical limited understanding to a social preventable approach. It is when I realized I could be more useful to people’s health if I would hang my lab coat and take the path of system thinking.