The Covid-19 pandemic has punctured 20 years of progress toward the United Nations sustainable development goals, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation noted in its fourth annual Goalkeepers Report.
It was noted that due to the pandemic, extreme poverty has increased by 7 percent and for vaccine coverage, a good proxy measure for how health systems are functioning is dropping to levels last seen in the 1990s, setting the world back about 25 years in 25 weeks.
It was also noted that economic damage from the pandemic is reinforcing inequalities as Covid-19 has had a disproportionate impact on women, racial and ethnic minority communities, and people living in extreme poverty.
‘The response to the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us some of the best of humanity – path-breaking innovation, heroic acts by frontline workers, and ordinary people doing the best they can for their families, neighbours, and communities’, the foundation noted.
‘This is a shared global crisis that demands a shared global response’.
The report made it clear that no single country will be able to meet this challenge alone and that any attempts by one country to protect itself while neglecting others will only prolong the hardships caused by the pandemic.
‘Our report highlights actions the world can take to turn things around. Researchers are very close to developing safe, effective [Covid-19] vaccines, but breakthrough science must be met by breakthrough generosity’, the foundation stated.
‘We need leaders in government and the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that everyone, regardless of where they live, can access these vaccines. And we are hopeful that will happen’.
Bill and Melinda Gates began donating money to public health more than 20 years ago after reading a story about how hundreds of thousands of children living in poverty were dying of diarrhoea, something that was easily treatable in the United States.
Source: Gates Foundation
Photo source: Nam-ho Park