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Doing It

 Building better for current and future pandemics seems reasonable, and doable. 

Yet managing pandemics also seemed reasonable and doable during the decades of funded planning in the United States. Funding supported to thwart bioterrorism, by the way. 


So the main lesson learned from these first years of a fresh pandemic should incorporate a way to circumvent false assurances and reliance on planners. 


And how do we move on from planning? Doing. 


If the World Health Organization recommends building better and getting sustainable development back on track, do so. Don’t continue to plan, just do. And do it with LMIC partnership in their place and space. 


Let’s energize this doable move with COVID vaccine and therapeutics.


  1. When the vaccines, therapeutics and supplies are delivered to countries, particularly low and middle income (LMIC) countries, are they delivered to credentialed labor supply? How is the labor credentialing assured across borders? How is labor regulated in these countries and what is global health doing to support labor regulation infrastructure? 

  2. When the vaccines, therapeutic and supply costs are calculated, how much infrastructure funding is accompanied? How is follow up funding holding the LMIC delivery accountable? 

  3. When the vaccines, therapeutics and supplies are asked for, what guidelines and recommendations across borders are being followed? It appears that countries are delivering therapeutics without much structure to evidence based science, and it appears that countries are delivering therapeutics without much accountability to the care delivery. What is global health doing to tie their resource support to accountable care? 

  4. When the vaccines, therapeutics and supplies are delivered, how are LMIC accounting for proper storage, handling and administration? How is global health supporting these assurances? How are philanthropic partners building the storage and  facilities so that subsequent medical homes can be designed? 

  5. When the vaccines, therapeutics and supplies are delivered, how is global health assessing the secondary follow up from mass vaccination or mass dispensing sites? In essence, how is global health calculating necessary costs and then delivering necessary resources to support primary care and medical home models after initial mass public health delivery? 

  6. What opportunities has global health taken to coordinate donated staffing and expertise alongside the resource delivery? If industry partners are going to be in LMIC for COVID pandemic-related activity, how are global health and host countries taking advantage of cross-training and education attainment?

  7. How has rapid, fast-track epidemiology training been conducted in these areas, and how has epidemiological development been tracked for future health and./or pandemic response?  Has global health come to consensus on epidemiologist credentials, training, ratios per population or center/laboratory requirements for LMIC? Has this funding been estimated and asked for, alongside the resource roll-out for the current pandemic?



We needn’t await decades of emergency preparedness planning, nor universal healthcare planning. Instead of assuming a build out seems reasonable and doable one day, let’s just get it done, with country leadership in their place and in their space. 


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