In the last nine months, COVID-19 has proved to be unlike any other outbreak the world has seen in the past century. Its impact is beyond health and is expected to last years – if not more. We saw first-hand how ill-prepared we were to deal with the pandemic. Even countries like USA and […]
Category: International development
There are two pandemics, but why do we keep forgetting the underlying one?
The pervasive poverty pandemic is a major threat to health and survival. History books and fiction frequently feature the tight links between poverty and health, but this ‘common knowledge’ is consistently ignored in political responses to public health challenges. Given the firmly established relationship between poverty and health inequalities, explained by the “inequitable distribution of […]
Economic Warfare is Fuelling a Pandemic: US Sanctions to Iran during COVID-19
In March 2020, to the dismay of the public health community, the US government imposed a series of fresh economic sanctions on entities trading with Iran. This is only six days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak “a global pandemic”. While sanctions can have negative effects on population health in times of relative stability, they pose a serious threat to global health […]
The COVID-19 tracking apps ecosystem unraveled: critical issues for global health
In March and April 2020, an ecosystem of tracing apps suddenly emerged, presenting digital solutions as indispensable for winning the battle against Covid-19. A few months later, the techno-optimism has subsided drastically, ranging from a perception that apps are problematic surveillance tools (Russia, Bahrain and Kuwait) or ineffective (Singapore, France and Iceland) to the […]
COVID-19 and the Future of Global Health Research Partnerships
Those of us working in global health research, like many others, have seen our work change dramatically in the past eight weeks. Travel, both the privilege and bane of our industry, has halted indefinitely. Our work moves exclusively online. Surveys abound! Many of us are fortunate. Our work can transition online. Most of us […]
Political and economic determinants of health: the case of COVID-19 outcomes in Iran under sanctions
The world is living through an unprecedented evolutionary time that will affect how multilateralism and international relations work. More than ever, the direct effect of foreign policy on the health of citizens is highlighted, but perhaps no more so than in the case of Iran. While the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected […]