The Breathing Catastrophe: COVID-19 and Global Health Governance

In the second year of the pandemic, the malaise of global health governance has come to the fore at the intersection of the trajectories of global crises that have converged in 2020: the soaring inequalities, the climate disaster and the effects of a globalization that takes our breath away. COVID-19 puts into question most of the global health assumptions and reaffirms the political intuitions of the 1978 Alma Ata Declaration on primary health care, which positioned health at the centre of a public sector-led project for economic transformation and human dignity, based on human rights. The new coronavirus imposes a new sense of purpose to health policymaking, which is not yet captured in the current failed global response to the pandemic. This is also an opportunity for the international community that believes in public health and the role of public institutions, to re-imagine itself and project new creative ways to engage beyond classical models, so as to reconquer some ground for a healthier future.