Outcomes from Implications of COVID-19 for Public Health and the SDGs
On Monday, 27 April, SDSN held its second virtual conference to examine the implications of COVID-19 for public health and the SDGs, making recommendations on science-based responses. Speakers also discussed successful public health interventions, looked at how to ensure responses promote health equity and reduce inequality, and explored different scenarios for ending isolation and returning to normal.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs , University Professor at Columbia University and United Nations SDG Advocate, spoke first ( slides ), giving an overview of the different responses across different countries. Sachs said that differences in outcomes were mainly a matter of strategy; that countries with successful responses shared a number of key characteristics, including intensive testing and contract tracing, isolation of infected individuals, enforcement of isolation, and wide use of face masks.
The first panel looked at comparative public health interventions against COVID-19, and many national contexts were explored. Dr. Jae-Seok Kim , Member of the COVID-19 Committee of the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine and Professor at the Hallym University College of Medicine, shared South Korea's perspective ( slides ). He contrasted Korea's experience responding to MERS in 2015, and the lessons learned to mount a stronger response to COVID-19. Dr. Srinath Reddy , head of the Public Health Foundation of India and Co-Chair of SDSN’s Health for All Network, presented the experience of India, while Dr. Patrick Aboagye , Director General of the Ghana Health Service, shared Ghana's experience. As emerging economies with high levels of inequality, both presenters shared challenges with growing primary care services to be able to cope with this challenge, despite indication that incidence may be lower in these countries. The panel closed with Dr. Antoni Plasencia , Director General of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), and Co-Chair of SDSN’s Health for All Network. He shared ( slides ) the experience of European countries, particularly Spain, highlighting the high impact of COVID-19 in Spain, and it's early impact. Plasencia said the wide spread of COVID-19 by patients who were asymptomatic was an obstacle to recognizing and addressing the crisis early, and also that the de-centralized governance structure led to inequalities in response measures across space.
Our second panel looked at the steps needed to re-open the economy while also protecting public health. Ms. Mercedes Garcia Perez , Head of Global Issues and Innovation Sector at the Delegation of the European Union to the United States of America, shared what the EU has been doing. Their priorities going forward are to ensure that testing remains widespread as people slowly begin transitions back to work and school, as well as coordinating action and lessons learned across EU member states, and making sure health system capacity is maintained long-term. Dr. Ho Kee Yum , Chairman of the Experts Committee of the COVID-19 Task Force of the Korean Medical Association, spoke after on the context of Korea. He presented several key rules for preventing community outbreak, including staying home 3-4 days if sick, maintaining distance from people, and washing hands.
A third panel explored how COVID-19 responses can promote equity and reduce inequality. Dr. Valérie Schmitt , Deputy Director of the Social Protection Department at the International Labour Organization, spoke first ( slides ). Her presentation focused on the importance of social protection in ensuring COVID-19 responses "leave no one behind," emphasizing that unemployment, health insurance, food, and housing need to be accessible to all to avoid exacerbating inequalities in a crisis. Dr. Paulo Buss , Emeritus Director of Fiocruz, shared experiences from Brazil, looking at vulnerable communities including people living in informal settlements, migrants, and people in overcrowded prisons. These populations do not have access to the same preventative measures other communities do, including clean water and sanitation for hand-washing, and housing that allows for quarantining and/or isolation.
The last panel of the day looked at global economic impacts and covered a wide variety of sectors and topics. We opened with a global perspective from Dr. Martin Muhleisen , Director of the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He presented the IMF's response, including streamlining procedures for faster lending during the emergency, as well as passing a debt-servicing standstill agreement, and helping governments with liquidity. Dr. Laurence Boone , Chief Economist at the OECD, then shared some data ( slides ) on impact, looking at steep declines in retail, trade, and construction. Boone called for greater international collaboration, especially monetary-fiscal coordination, and reallocation of resources to minimize impacts. Dr. Carlos Gadelha , Coordinator of Prospection Actions at Fiocruz, shared ( slides ) some health supply chain vulnerabilities which also affect our ability to respond, as many critical medical supplies, instruments, and devices depend on global supply chains. In particular, just 10 countries account for 88% of medical patents held, and this imbalance threatens COVID-19 response efforts in underdevelopment countries.
Dr. Phoebe Koundouri , Professor at Athens University of Economics and Business, and President-Elect of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, looked at COVID-19's impacts on the energy sector ( slides ). She called on participants to see the crisis as an opportunity to scale up investments in renewable energy as part of post-COVID-19 economic stimulus packages. She cautioned that recovery from the 2008 financial crisis was energy and carbon intensive, and that we should learn from this past and chart a new path as the economy recovers from this current challenge. Dr. Aniket Shah , Head of ESG and Sustainability Research for the Americas at UBS Group, shared a number of key messages on financial markets. He cautioned that we are living in a highly volatile time and that we have likely not yet seen the worst of the impacts on the global economy, but that if managed carefully this could be an opportunity to accelerate some of the needed financial transitions which we have been seeing, such as better engagement with stakeholders and increased attention to broader consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Closing out the session Dr. Maximo Torero Cullen , Assistant Director-General for Economic and Social Development Department at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), looked at the impacts of COVID-19 on the food sector ( slides ). Fortunately, the most affected countries to date are not those that are most food insecure, although as the pandemic progresses in the coming months this is something to monitor closely. However, some areas are experiencing high increases in food prices as a result of changes in global trade, and this has the potential to exacerbate hunger. In addition, in countries where unemployment is now high, countries where low oil prices have reduced GDP, and in countries that depend heavily on remittances for income, the situation has the potential to become critical rapidly, without an appropriate response. Solutions include improving the efficiency of trade, linking smallholder farmers to markets, using strategic reserves of grain, reducing post-harvest losses, and ensuring social safety nets for all people.
We were unable to answer all the questions from the floor, but some of our panelists were able to answer them later by email. Please see this document for some Q&A highlights!
