AHF Calls on G20 to Usher in a New Era of Global Public Health

Amid a global resurgence of COVID-19 cases, the G20 is set to meet virtually under the presidency of Saudi Arabia on Nov. 21-22. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) calls on the G20 to step up funding of efforts designed to mitigate the most dire aspects of the pandemic, such as teetering healthcare systems, hunger, homelessness and displacement. It should also strengthen and ensure compliance with International Health Regulations, and commit to equitable distribution of safe and affordable COVID-19 vaccines in developing and hardest hit countries.

One thing has become perfectly clear, a new Global Public Health Convention is now a necessity—one that brings nations together to fund and enforce a minimum set of evidence-based principles of public health promotion, sanitary measures, disease prevention and pandemic preparedness. Even though we remain in the throes of a deadly pandemic, the world must be ready for the next novel disease outbreak or the reemergence of existing outbreaks to pandemic levels.

“What AHF and many public health experts have warned about for years has now come to fruition – entire societies can and will be brought to their knees by deadly infectious diseases if governments continue to put public health on the backburner,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein. “There has been enough talk, the time has come for action—the G20 must put public health first and chart a course towards a new Global Public Health Convention that will help ensure safety and security for everyone, both rich and poor.”

Even under the impact of this coronavirus pandemic, G20 members represent the most powerful economies in the world. We can strengthen our core capacities and address the limitations of prior global campaigns, but this time there must be funding and enforcement.

We urge the G20 to recognize that a new, legally-binding Global Public Health Convention that emphasizes funding and enforcement is needed in this new decade—current efforts are simply not sufficient. Without funding, we lose resources. Without enforcement, we lose compliance.

Global pandemic preparedness was the central demand from the C20 to the G20. There can be no end to outbreaks like COVID-19 without altering the sanitary, social and political conditions from which these diseases advance. We need a new Global Public Health Convention right now.

For more information, please contact Ged Kenslea at gedk@aidshealth.org or (323) 791-5526

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.4 million people in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.

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