COVID-19 helped make the case for global health diplomacy

The ease in which billions of people travel makes public health a security issue as major health events require coordination beyond national borders. If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that major health events require coordination beyond national borders. The pandemic, and others that will follow, has changed our understanding of health. Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), emerging infectious diseases and bioterrorism, are now clearly understood as direct threats to security.The ease with which billions of people travel, along with the emerging global threat of climate change makes global public health security a priority issue — stronger partnerships between nations and coordination between domestic ministries more important than ever. The pandemic exposed various weaknesses of global partnerships. Geopolitics, nationalism and national wealth status discrimination took the lead over multilateral cooperation. But setting the global health agenda has often been politicised. Health has also commonly taken a backseat to economic relations and security discussions which are seen as more pressing in diplomatic meetings. Global health diplomacy is what links health and international relations to address health security. It was this diplomacy that delivered political commitments from many corners of the world to push for COVID-19 medicines and essentials, the development of new partnerships and initiatives, and the creation of COVAX — the global scheme to vaccinate people in lower-income countries — and ACT-Accelerator, dubbed “the fastest, most coordinated and successful global effort in history to develop tools to fight a disease”. Applying interdisciplinary knowledge and skills surrounding health threats can provide robust strategies to create better policies.This article was published in 360info.org's Special report: COVID Diplomacy Edited by Tasha Wibawa, 360info and Karthik Nachiappan, National University of Singapore in Melbourne. Available at https://newshub.360info.org/wire?item=6b7417d2-5ddc-4c0c-bea3-9c478e9b669