News Outlets Examine Global Political, Financial Responses To COVID-19 Pandemic

The Atlantic: The Pandemic’s Geopolitical Aftershocks Are Coming
“With most European countries confident that they are past the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, their attention is turning to the chance of its resurgence once society returns to some semblance of normal. But beyond the epidemiological challenges lies a slowly amassing threat that is not pathological in nature, but economic, political, and military. This is the geopolitical second wave, and its power is already starting to concern Western leaders…” (McTague, 5/18).

Bloomberg: Vaccine Nationalism Puts Global Advocate on Covid Front Line
“As the coronavirus spreads around the world and the death toll tops 300,000, it’s sparking a race for a vaccine that could leave poorer nations behind. Seth Berkley saw it coming. ‘The natural instinct of political leaders is to protect their own populations,’ said Berkley, chief executive officer of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, an international organization that aims to improve access to inoculations against deadly diseases. ‘Of course that’s what they should do, but they need to understand part of that is making sure the world is protected’…” (Paton, 5/16).

Devex: Who leads the response against COVID-19 in aid organizations?
“The coronavirus has disrupted the aid industry. Donors and aid organizations are finding ways to effectively respond to the crisis, which has now affected over 200 countries and territories, with over 4.5 million confirmed cases and over 300,000 deaths globally. Aid organizations have adopted different structures and set-ups in response to the pandemic…” (Ravelo, 5/18).

Devex: NGOs say most COVID-19 funding is stuck in multilateral system
“The U.K. government must increase humanitarian funding to front-line NGOs to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, politicians and aid leaders insisted Friday — saying that less than 2% of funding committed under the Global Humanitarian Response Plan has so far made it to NGOs…” (Worley, 5/15).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

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