Resilience : health security beyond borders

Abstract

There is a vital need to rethink human centric health resilience beyond borders. Inequities are being perpetuated and accentuated in the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Inequalities – economic and health related – within and between countries are again increasing. Although complex, necessary policy change for building a resilient human and health security centric global health system demands: • A new definition of global health security;1 • A new perspective and policy paradigm pivoting from individual public health to global health security; based on: • First and foremost, equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics to infectious as well as chronic diseases – also anticipating the next pandemic; • Second, comprehensive and coordinated national and regional universal health care and health care coverage. The EU, and regional blocs such as the AU in Africa, have key roles to play in rethinking and enacting a renewed global health security for the 21st Century.