Before the outbreak of COVID-19, several health experts had already warned the international community about a potential pandemic. However, the virus has shown how poorly prepared countries were to face such a global health issue. Lack of medication and hospitals, contradiction in prescribing medicines, vaccine hesitancy, and many other issues have emerged from the pandemic. What has COVID-19 revealed about global development’s biggest gaps?
“The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed several critical gaps in global development. The lack of an effective governance mechanism to address the inconsolable health inequity is one of the most significant gaps. The disparate death rate of the elderly and the disruption to the care and treatment of chronic non-communicable disease stand out as critical gaps. The lack of universal access to healthcare is glaring. The healthcare systems in various counties, including developed countries, struggle to cope with the crisis. There is an unprecedented, avoidable death rate of healthcare workers primarily due to the lack of access to relatively inexpensive PPE kits which is an outcome of the lack of a robust discourse on human security. Tragically, there is continuing unfair focus on border security. UN Secretary generals have called for a ceasefire in the context of a raging epidemic that has been ignored by the international community. The COVID pandemic, a health crisis, has snowballed into a global humanitarian crisis. The moral failure by private sectors and industries to provide a clear vision and leadership in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic is glaring. The state remains in the realm of the COVID-19 response with all its shortcomings. The scientific communities’ capacity to develop a vaccine in such a short time is a human triumph in the face of an adversary. However, vaccine inequity may further exacerbate health inequity. The UN security council, the UN General Assembly, various UN specialised agencies, international civil society, elected representatives and the academic community must provide leadership in developing a discourse that leads to an effective governance mechanism to address the inconsolable health inequity.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has evidenced how unprepared the world, in general, was to face a pandemic like the one we are living in. Global development has shown gaps in several important areas, even in developed nations. People with little access to healthcare have been shown to have increased mortality and morbidity, such as in Brazil, the country currently worst hit by the pandemic at the time of writing. The most important aspect for addressing these gaps is to identify them in each corresponding country and to start preparing for the next pandemic from now. It is not a question as to whether there’ll be another pandemic, but rather when it will be.”
“In Burundi, where I am currently, there is an awakening of awareness about the disease and its health and socioeconomic effects on the population. It was always believed that the Government was turning a deaf ear to this global pandemic because there was no fierce fight waged for the prevention and fight against COVID-19. The awakening of consciousness is particularly noticeable at the level of religious denominations where we are currently observing sessions of the mobilization and sensitization of men of the faith to the fight against COVID-19 at a time when this impact group had been ignored. Considering the propagation of various rumors and thus the prevention of their followers from observing the preventive measures as proclaimed by the Ministry has affected public health. After the detrimental effects of this approach were observed in the different religious denominations, and with the involvement of this impact group in the fight, now things are changing and all the measures are being observed by all. My recommendation is that in all public decisions this group should not be forgotten as it constitutes an unbeatable force in approaching the community and in raising awareness among everyone.”
“One of the main gaps that the pandemic has made visible has been the deficit of health systems in most countries. Because health systems have been subject, at least in the Americas, to economic, commercial, and political interests, relegating its ends, its purposes, and the bioethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, and social justice. In addition, the priority of health, both physical and mental, in the lives of people, its direct relationship with human rights and the dignity of the human being has been evidenced.”
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