Two recent publications on the COVID-19 pandemic have attracted my interest in the past couple of weeks – the Lancet Commission report “On lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic” and a Politico Special Report on “How Bill Gates and his partners took over the global COVID response”. Both are useful assessments of the failure of a global approach to the pandemic, and I commend them both as the world moves to preparing for the next pandemic. But they miss the boat in different ways with regard to the multi-stakeholder nature of the global effort. One ignores its usefulness, while the other criticizes how it unfolded in the COVID-19 pandemic. In this commentary, I explain why I am concerned about both approaches. I believe that the pandemic opened up new opportunities for multi-stakeholder collaboration at the global level, and I sincerely hope that this kind of collaboration will continue to evolve in a positive direction in spite of the setbacks. Continue reading “Multi-stakeholder Concerns in Recent Lancet and Politico Reports: Losing Inspiration Part Two”
The COVID-19 Pandemic in 2022 – Losing Inspiration Part One
In 2020 and 2021, the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic inspired in me an enthusiasm for the global, multi-stakeholder collaboration that was unfolding through GAVI in the newly formed COVAX Facility. Regrettably, this vision has not evolved into a reality as I had hoped it would. As a result, I have backed off from writing about the scope of global collaboration in this pandemic. Most strikingly, the evolution of collaborative thinking has moved from the basic and worthwhile premise of a global distribution of available vaccines (and diagnostics and therapeutics) to a recognition that regional and locally-based control of manufacturing facilities for these same products is a preferred and alternative objective -at least, under the current circumstances. Continue reading “The COVID-19 Pandemic in 2022 – Losing Inspiration Part One”
Step by Step toward Resilience: A Commentary on Climate Change
In my ongoing campaign for multi-stakeholder collaboration, I have had a strong reaction to the film “Don’t Look Up” and the media attention it has attracted. I understand why Leonardo di Caprio’s well-known activism regarding climate change makes it an obvious comparison to the apparent failure of the Glasgow Summit on Climate Change (COP 26) to avoid the looming catastrophe of global warming. But it inspires me to share my somewhat contrary views about climate change. I do agree that climate change is happening and that much more needs to be done to avoid a catastrophe. But I also believe that the political will to do more depends on our building popular support for action through multistakeholder collaboration. Here is my commentary on what this means for us. Continue reading “Step by Step toward Resilience: A Commentary on Climate Change”
Returning to the Pandemic with Renewed Inspiration for a Global Response
Moving beyond the “subterranean machinations” of Franco-American rivalries, I revert back to my preoccupations with the prospects for global and multi-stakeholder collaboration on the COVID-19 pandemic. And I do so with renewed inspiration, perhaps reinforced by the very sudden global panic about the Omicron variant, which the World Health Organization has identified as a new “variant of concern”. My inspiration, however, had already been reviving as a result of my personal tracking of the interviews and personal appearances of key “pandemic players” in the past couple of months. Most strikingly, we all saw the signs in October of more collaboration between the WHO and WTO Directors-General but also their further collaboration with the heads of the IMF and World Bank, I was also encouraged anew by the opportunity also in October to sit in on interviews with two major American figures, Dr. Rochelle Wilensky at the US Centers for Disease Control and Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. And then, through the past few weeks, I have found additional hopefulness in the health-related outcomes of both the G20 Leaders Summit in Rome and and the Conference of the Parties (i.e. “COP 26”) in Glasgow – yes, even there!
Continue reading “Returning to the Pandemic with Renewed Inspiration for a Global Response”
Subterranean Machinations and Franco-American Relations
Living through the latest “bump in the road” in Franco-American relations has stirred me to venture into writing a commentary with a different twist than has been my usual pattern. I don’t mean to ignore my ongoing preoccupation with advocating vaccine equity. – nor my longer lasting and well established preoccupation in support of multi-stakeholder collaboration. In the context of this latest “bump”, however, the commentary has to start with some wishful thinking about broader geopolitical issues like military alliances or trade agreements or peace treaties – issues that are less conducive to a multi-stakeholder approach. That is to say, they are more in the realm of traditional inter-governmental relations in the control of national governments, whether the policy deliberations are conducted multilaterally or unilaterally. And thus, we start here, not so coincidentally, with the commemoration of a military battle and segue from that to a commentary on the strategic positioning of major countries – nation-states, governments and all that – before it gets back to vaccine equity or multi-stakeholderism. Bear with me on this journey in search of renewed hope for these two preoccupations of mine. Continue reading “Subterranean Machinations and Franco-American Relations”
Whither COVAX? (updated with optimism)
The fluidity of the pandemic was vividly apparent last week when we all heard about the sharp and unexpected reversal of the previous US position in support of intellectual property rights at the World Trade Organization. I had just expressed my own assumption a couple of days before, that the crisis that was unfolding in India (and in South America) was wreaking havoc on the COVAX Facility and on the very premise of an equitable and global response to the pandemic. And here came another dramatic change in the policy landscape – one that has inspired me to look more optimistically on the future of the global path after all! I am a bit more optimistic about the prospects for the COVAX Facility under the circumstances, even if the waiver announcement from the White House may seem to work against the interests of a global response through the COVAX Facility. Continue reading “Whither COVAX? (updated with optimism)”
Whither COVAX?
Up until now, I have been speaking up for a global response to the pandemic – a globally defined, equitable sharing of all the tools we can possibly find by working together. The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator initiative that was launched by the WHO a year ago is the prime example of this approach. I have been especially enthusiastic about the COVAX Facility that was launched as a part of this initiative to bring countries together to pool available vaccines for a globally equitable distribution based on population. But the huge surge in India upends the formula for the equitable sharing of available vaccines. It may well be that the formula had already lost traction because of the rationale for dealing with the second and third waves of serious outbreaks in the US and Europe. For me, though, it is the Indian surge that has led me to question the whole business of how we can achieve vaccine equity. It has become far more than a question of the equitable distribution of an existing but limited supply of vaccines; it has also become a question of how to dramatically – and rapidly – expand the actual supply. Continue reading “Whither COVAX?”