On Dr. Tedros
Dr. Tedros came to U of M.
(Virtually that is).
Thanks to the Gilbert S. OMenn & Martha A. Darling Health Policy Fund, The Ford School of Public Policy and the School of Public Health, hosted the Secretary-General of The World Health Organization.
He was in conversation with the School of Public Health Dean, F. Dubois Bowman.
Did you know Dr. Tedros’ relationship with U of M goes way back? In his lecture on global perspectives on public health, he called this virtual moment a “homecoming”.
What a time to be a Wolverine.
I’ll be sure to embed the virtual discussion below, but in case you don’t have an hour to spare I wanted to share some key takeaways and some favorite moments.
(I am forever grateful when public service giants take the time out of their day to speak to regular degular students— It reminds you that no matter how far you get into your career, it is always important to pay it forward).
“Health is a political choice.” Dr. Tedros opened his discussion to highlight the ways in which responding to a pandemic unleashes a groundswell of complicated and loaded political choices:
What level of restrictions should be put in place while protecting freedom? How should we distribute scarce resources?
Many of these conversations were happening way before the pandemic began. (“If a community can’t distribute primary health care services and resources in normal times, how can they be expected to do so during a pandemic?”)
“No country can vaccine itself out of this pandemic without the rest of the world.” Dr. Tedros shared his concern for the fact that a disproportionately higher percentage of vaccines has gone to the high and upper-middle-income countries while other nations are far behind.
He also called for a stronger and better financing system for global and domestic responses to health crises and preparedness, including global governance that is accountable— voluntary mechanisms simply do not work. Nations need to be legally bound to health preparedness and global cooperation.
The impacts of politicizing this pandemic have left communties wrought with inequity and disparaging consequences.
Watch the full conversation below!
cover image by https://unsplash.com/@markuswinkler