UN Warns: Inequality Could Spark the Next Pandemic What Needs to Change

(Photograph : Unsplash)

Pandemics

I have worked in a small health South Asian city several years ago. I was assisting a non-profit organization in establishing rapid tests of infectious diseases.

The best thing that I found was not the medical equipment but the people and conditions. The clinic operated on unreliable power supply. Health workers were not being paid on a regular basis. Even when a family was ill, many of them could not afford to lose a day of work. There was no safety net.

It was quite an eye-opener: pandemic does not happen just because of a new virus. They propagate and multiply due to the existing cracks within the society inequality on income, healthcare, and opportunity.

Thus, when the United Nations (UNAIDS Global Council on Inequality, AIDS, and Pandemics) published a report in which the risk of pandemics was attributed to inequality, it immediately became clear to me.

What the UN Report Says

The message is obvious: inequality aggravates the outbreak of pandemics. When certain individuals or nations are left behind, then they are all in a situation of being vulnerable.

Main takeaways

Inequality promotes pandemics, and vice versa.
The COVID-19 exposure of health access gaps in the world has not been sealed yet.
The answer: equal access to medicine and health technology, write-offs of poor nations in debt, and social safety systems investment.

Where the Report Fails and the Missing

Big-picture perspective: It does not focus on hospitals or vaccines, but encompasses the economics, the society and equity the entire system that defines health.
Equity first: The alert that inequality is not something that happens but something chosen by politicians drives home. We can change, when we desire.
Practical suggestions: Ideas such as debt restructuring, domestic production and sharing technology are shifting the discussion to reality.

What Could Be Improved

Lack of "how-to." The report tells about how to do it in real communities.
Cultural Inequality is not just a financial, it about sex, race, and unpaid labor. These deserve more focus.
Absence of local voices: Community response to the pandemic is some of the best, not governmental. This to be increased in the future.

Next what will Happen (2025-2027)

We should have to increase the production and developement of vaccines and medicines.
There will be increased regional manufacturing centres, particularly in the developing areas.
Relief of debts on health objectives.
Financial support can be given to the countries provided they invest in better health systems.

Global health inequity in agreements.

The next generation of pandemic treaties could also contain provisions on equitable access and an IP waiver.
Both prevention and not only crisis.
Additional nations will invest in the construction of healthier and social protection systems rather than responding to the situation at the last minute.

In case such changes occur, the world can stop wondering When the next pandemic will occur? to How shall we prevent its being hurt first to the weakest?

3 Things have to do Now

should Know about how inequality affect job.

Organizations: Evaluate the influence of income, gender, or locality on you.

Individuals: See where your community is deficient? - and do something small to correct it.
Equality to preparedness plans.
check the supplies and laboratories.
think of social realities into consider : job insecurity, debt and more.
Prepare a list and check that consists of local , financial safety amounts, and support local workers.
Contend in favor of structural change.
Discuss inequality as a health hazard and not as a social problem.
The support policies which assist the poorer regions to produce their own medicines and protect the weak families.

Final Thoughts

There will always be times when pandemics challenge societies but inequality will determine the extent to which they strike. Creating a more inclusive, fairer world is not only the right move to make, but it is wise, in case we want to avert the next global health crisis.

Disclosure: This is my discursive analysis and experience. It is informational purpose only.

UN Warns: Inequality Could Spark the Next Pandemic What Needs to Change