Redesigning systems to focus on people, not pathogens: A conversation with Dr Fifa Rahman and Dr Bill Rodriguez

Contain This: The Latest in Global Health Security

As we move from COVID-19 as a pandemic, to COVID-19 as a virus, this week’s episode asks – what did we learn about pandemic response as a global health community? In particular, what did we learn about applying a global health response in middle- and low-economically developed countries? And what can we do better next time?

Our guests this week are Dr Bill Rodriguez, the Chief Executive Officer of FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics, and Dr Fifa Rahman, the Principal Consultant at Matahari Global Solutions, and a Permanent NGO Representative on the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.

We discuss the successes of the international community during the pandemic, such as the unprecedented international coordination and the rapid development of health technologies have been vital to the pandemic response. But both guests point out that too often these measures were implemented without sufficient input from the people who are affected. We ask how we can work towards a future pandemic response that decentralises the decision making and control of the tools of global health and empowers people and communities to make decisions about their needs.

As we move from COVID as a pandemic to COVID as a virus, it’s incumbent on the global health community to take the lessons from this pandemic and strengthen our systems and processes for the next pandemic. This is the conversation is the first step in that process.

We hope you join the conversation @CentreHealthSec and follow Bill and Fifa’s work @FINDdx and @fifarahman.