Global Health Security
A Blueprint for the Future
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- £36.99
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- £36.99
Publisher Description
With lessons learned from COVID-19, a world-leading expert on pandemic preparedness proposes a pragmatic plan urgently needed for the future of global health security.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how unprepared the world was for such an event, as even the most sophisticated public health systems failed to cope. We must have far more investment and preparation, along with better detection, warning, and coordination within and across national boundaries. In an age of global pandemics, no country can achieve public health on its own. Health security planning is paramount.
Lawrence O. Gostin has spent three decades designing resilient health systems and governance that take account of our interconnected world, as a close advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and many public health agencies globally. Global Health Security addresses the borderless dangers societies now face, including infectious diseases and bioterrorism, and examines the political, environmental, and socioeconomic factors exacerbating these threats. Weak governance, ineffective health systems, and lack of preparedness are key sources of risk, and all of them came to the fore during the COVID-19 crisis, even—sometimes especially—in wealthy countries like the United States. But the solution is not just to improve national health policy, which can only react after the threat is realized at home. Gostin further proposes robust international institutions, tools for effective cross-border risk communication and action, and research programs targeting the global dimension of public health.
Creating these systems will require not only sustained financial investment but also shared values of cooperation, collective responsibility, and equity. Gostin has witnessed the triumph of these values in national and international forums and has a clear plan to tackle the challenges ahead. Global Health Security therefore offers pragmatic solutions that address the failures of the recent past, while looking toward what we know is coming. Nothing could be more important to the future health of nations.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gostin (Global Health Law), director of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, puts his expertise to good use in this comprehensive and detailed blueprint for responding to global health crises. Gostin casts a wide net, addressing the overuse of antibiotics, climate change, and the lack of universal health coverage. The overall picture is a frightening one, and Gostin covers both obvious consequences—such as that overprescribed antibiotics cause resistant forms of bacteria—and collateral ones, such as that "without effective antibiotics, cesarean sections could become too dangerous to perform." His prescriptions are sound, such as adequately funding research, creating a robust system for global health governance, and ensuring healthy conditions for animals intended as part of the human food chain. Gostin goes further to explain how lessons from Covid-19 can remake society to be better prepared for future health threats, for example by redesigning cities (with more green space and bike lanes) and reimagining education (studying further how remote schooling effects learning). His survey is not intended for the lay reader, but rather policymakers, scholars, advocates, and students of public health who are more likely to delve into tables detailing international biosecurity norms. Specialist readers will find this to be a thoughtful road map.
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