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Indonesia’s critical role in reforming global health system
Building global system resilience is a priority that must be taken into account in our attempt to reform the global health architecture.
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A woman receives a booster dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Jakarta on January 12. (AFP/Adek Berry)
The COVID-19 pandemic has caught almost all countries off guard, leaving each and every single one to battle it out — or so go the common media headlines. Many have consciously likened this pandemic to a war, which is rather inaccurate.
Traditionally, when a war was perceived to be won, a celebration awaited and victors marched in a cheery parade. And they will live happily ever after. Battling a virus is a completely different game.
The thing with this pandemic is that it leaves behind so many "what ifs" and "should haves" in our minds. What if we had been better prepared? Would we have responded faster and would more help have been readily available?
Deaths could have been prevented and globally, economic wheels would have been bent just a little bit, instead of collapsed and stopped.
However, survivors — not victors — must move on. It is time to pick up the takeaways and pool forces and resources to build a stronger collaboration globally as apparently, not one single country was able to handle a pandemic of this scale alone.
Survivors like us must sensibly use the opportunity. It is well timed for Indonesia with its turn to assume the Group of 20 presidency to raise and bring an important and critical agenda onto the table to be discussed and resolved in the upcoming summit.
There are number of issues that need to be highlighted, addressed and resolved, particularly in the to-date global health architecture over which many critics have voiced their concerns, particularly about the belated response to act in the COVID-19 pre-pandemic days and ways to prevent outbreaks of this massive scale.
