COVID-19 reveals weak health systems by design: Why we must re-make global health in this historic moment

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the critical need to reimagine and repair the broken systems of global health. Specifically, the pandemic demonstrates the hollowness of the global health rhetoric of equity, the weaknesses of a health security-driven global health agenda, and the negative health impacts of power differentials not only globally, but also regionally and locally. This article analyses the effects of these inequities and calls on governments, multilateral agencies, universities, and NGOs to engage in true collaboration and partnership in this historic moment. Before this pandemic spreads further–including in the Global South–with potentially extreme impact, we must work together to rectify the field and practice of global health.