Johannesburg: Pandemic preparedness that focuses only on improved monitoring or faster vaccine development will not be sufficient to end pandemics globally, the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics has warned. The council emphasized the need for a more comprehensive approach to effectively tackle ongoing and future pandemics.
According to Namibia Press Agency, the Global Council, which includes prominent figures such as former First Lady and founder of the One Economy Foundation, Monica Geingos, and UNAIDS Executive Director and United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Winnie Byanyima, highlighted the critical role of addressing inequalities in a report launched in Johannesburg and online globally. The report stressed that ending ongoing pandemics like AIDS and bolstering defences against future outbreaks require strategies that disrupt the inequality cycle.
The report underscored the inevitability of future disease outbreaks and highlighted the dangers posed by inequalities that are prolonging current pandemics like HIV and tuberculosis, while simultaneously making the world more susceptible to future health crises. Research commissioned by the council indicated that countries with higher levels of inequality have suffered greater COVID-19 mortality rates, higher HIV mortality rates, and increased AIDS-related deaths compared to nations with lower inequality levels.
Additionally, the report provided several recommendations aimed at breaking the cycle of inequality and pandemics. Key suggestions included addressing international economic disparities that contribute to pandemics, tackling social determinants of health, ensuring equitable access to pandemic-related science and technology, and promoting multisectoral, community-led responses to foster trust and enhance effectiveness.
The report asserted the importance of removing debt and financing barriers within the global economic structure to enable all countries to possess the fiscal capacity necessary to address the inequalities driving pandemics. It further emphasized the need to reimagine global health security with measures that consider current high levels of inequality and address the economic, social, and legal determinants of pandemics in the long run.