Jens Holst

In May 2023, the BMJ Global Health published our critical appraisal of the newly implemented Virchow Prize awarded for the first time ever during the World Health Summit held in Berlin in October 2022: Holst J, Tinnemann P, van de Pas R. The Virchow Prize: cementing commodification, coloniality and biomedical reductionism in global health? BMJ Global Health
2023;8:e011240. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2022-011240. In July, the same journal published the following response to to our comment: Bhopal A, Getnet F, Manga S. Caught in the crossfires: the Virchow Prize, its inaugural winner, and the quest to decolonise global health. BMJ Glob Health 2023;8:e013272. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2023-013272. They allege to explore the authors' analysis of the first Virchow Prize winner and focus primarily on the need to decolonise global health. Thereby they bloat a sideshow of our comment, marginalise the key ideas and hijack the arguments in the service in the quest for the decolonisation of global health. Please find here a reply and critical discussion of the critique of the critique of the Virchow Prize.