Abstract
AbstractThe response to COVID-19 demonstrates an inclusive and dispersed form of global health security that is less reliant on the UN Security Council or the World Health Organization (WHO). While WHO remains central to fighting the pandemic, the dispersed global health security addressing the crisis is inclusive of the wider UN system, civil society, and epistemic communities in global health. As part of the special issue on “The United Nations at Seventy-Five: Looking Back to Look Forward,” this essay argues that instead of facing crisis or criticism like WHO, this inclusive and dispersed form of global health security provides mechanisms of resilience and support to the UN at the height of global political tensions surrounding COVID-19.
Highlights
Civil society and the epistemic community elevate a health concern to the level of a threat to global health security and work as a constant check on how institutions are performing, providing guidance and expertise, and acting as supporters when they are threatened by member state interests
With COVID, the epistemic community and civil society attempted to blunt Trump’s threat to the World Health Organization (WHO); have constantly monitored domestic and international responses; and have provided expertise or direct assistance to those suffering from the wider consequences of the outbreak
Global health security has never just been about the high-profile calls to action from WHO or the UN Security Council (UNSC); rather, it involves a diffuse system of governance that rests on the wider UN system, civil society, and the epistemic community of research and advocacy
Summary
The response to COVID- has shown this shift in four areas: ( ) a supported WHO; ( ) a civil society and epistemic community of global health research and expertise; ( ) obsolescence of the UNSC; and ( ) timely inclusion of UN programs. No global health outbreak would be deemed a health emergency or pandemic without civil society, activists, the epistemic community, and whistleblowers providing the initial alarm and response.
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