Lessons From Our 9/11 Moment Of Global Public Health

Context: While our current generation has achieved the zenith in healthcare, key lessons from the 9/11 moment of global public health (Covid-19 pandemic) are still needed to be adhered to.

Millennial achievements in public healthcare

• Life expectancy doubled over last 50 years.
• Today, there is one doctor for every 650, a ratio which exceeds the threshold recommended by World Health Organization (WHO).

Lessons from Covid-19 pandemic era

• Strengthen global cooperation in public health:
  • Institutions of cooperation such as WHO need to be strengthened and empowered.
  • At national level: Cooperation among states and centre is essential for the success of lockdown, containment strategies and overcoming vaccination challenges like hesitancy and pricing issues.
• Develop credible platforms for information sharing: To ensure that vested interests do not creep into public psyche, especially important in today’s post-truth world.
• Re-imagine drug approval processes: Develop faster and safer trails and approval processes.
• Focus on health economics and bioethics: Address questions like -
  • Can life-saving drugs be differentially priced for developed and developing countries?
  • What should be the pecking order for a vaccine roll-out?
• Adopt military approach in healthcare: Consider developing a core and reserve force of paramedics, nurses and even doctors, far in excess of ‘peacetime’ needs (as in military).
  • Reprioritise public spending: India spends eight times more on defence than healthcare, while the US’s healthcare spends around 50 times that of India’s.
• Modernize healthcare practices:
  • Adopt new technologies: Use artificial intelligence to detect patterns and provide diagnosis using the copious information stored in medical devices and databases.
  • Medical personnel need to be trained: To effectively utilize these technologies, enabling them to attend to a far greater number of patients far more effectively.
• Bring in humility in thinking: Covid-19 pandemic proved that nature could bring us to our knees, despite having warned in the past through SARS and Ebola breakouts.

Conclusion: Once we get past the widespread suffering caused by covid pandemic, we must learn and emerge stronger with a public health system that can withstand future shocks of any kind.