People's Health Dispatch

This fortnight  Inequities in access to Covid-19 and monkeypox vaccines and medicines point to the benefits the whole world could reap from a research and development model independent of Big Pharma. The ongoing struggle for access to medicines builds upon decades of activism in every corner of the world. Health

This fortnight  Access to essential medicines remains a daunting problem for many as pharmaceutical companies from the Global North are allowed to drive the conversation, sidelining governments and patients' interests. Activists from the Delhi Network of Positive People have spent a full month protesting in front of the offices of

This fortnight   The World Health Organization declared the global monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 23 July. The reaction to the outbreak is drawing criticism as the presence of the orthopox virus caused little concern while it was limited to West and Central Africa, sparking a

This fortnight  Following the historic victory of Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez in Colombia’s presidential election, health workers and patients are looking towards a major transformation of the health system. After decades of neoliberal policies that depleted working conditions and access to care, a new vision is coming in:

This fortnight  Violence against health workers and health infrastructure continues to add to the overall burden  in regions plagued by wars and armed conflict. The Israeli occupation of Palestine is one of the cases where the effects of this are easiest to see: in 2021, Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) injured

This fortnight  It took almost two full years for the World Trade Organization to adopt a decision on its role in the Covid-19 pandemic. Once it finally did, it was not the decision the world needed: the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO did not result in a TRIPS waiver

This fortnight  Country delegates are once again meeting in Geneva, this time for the 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). For almost two years, the WTO held the TRIPS waiver proposal on its agenda, but failed to secure any significant progress. Instead, under the pressure of the

This fortnight  The World Health Organization is holding its first in-person assembly since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) will last until 28 May, bringing discussions on non-communicable diseases, health emergencies, health workforce planning, and much more. We bring an overview of the WHA

This fortnight  On International Nurses’ Day 2022, an Israeli military tribunal sentenced Palestinian nurse and health activist Shatha Odeh to 16 months of prison and a $9000 USD fine, with a 5-years suspended sentence on condition that she does not engage in provision of health services. The sentence comes 10

This fortnight  As Sri Lanka continues to face an unprecedented social and economic crisis, the public health system on the island is brought to the brink of disaster. After weeks of food and medicine shortages and power reductions, the government recently turned to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank

This fortnight  A general rollback of policies introduced to provide support and security for people during the pandemic is well underway. In South Africa, health workers employed during Covid-19 are predominately not seeing their contracts renewed. The austerity-based pandemic recovery that the government has in sight has already led to

This week  On 7 April we mark World Health Day, also referred to by health activists as People’s Health Day. The day marks the anniversary of the formation of the World Health Organization in 1948. Yet, as the People’s Health Movement’s Co-Chairs Fran Baum and Sulakshana Nandi

This fortnight  War and violence are among the most painful determinants shaping people’s health. Armed conflicts devastate both communities and human dignity. The worst consequences are suffered by those who have the least say when it comes to taking decisions about wars – women, children and other marginalized communities. This

This fortnight  News of a tentative TRIPS waiver compromise allegedly penned by a group of four countries - the US, the EU, South Africa and India - was published just around the time when the world was entering the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The text was hailed by

This fortnightAs we prepare for 8 March, International Women’s Day, women’s health around the world remains undermined by conservative policies in sexual and reproductive health and austerity measures alike. Trade unions and health movements in France have launched an international call to women health workers asking them to

This fortnight  Protests and strikes by health workers all over the world have marked the first couple of months of 2022. Reacting to long-standing issues in the health system and rampant inflation, health workers in Turkey continue to persevere in their struggle for fair working conditions in spite of being

This fortnight  Millions of people around the world have been thrown into poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic, yet big pharmaceutical companies have reported record levels of profit. Thanks to sales of the Comirnaty vaccine, in 2021 Pfizer has secured a 134% rise in revenue compared to the previous year. The

This fortnight  While the number of omicron-related cases continues to increase, health workers are taking action for better working conditions. Their strikes and protests are a result of years of unresolved issues, which, in the middle of the pandemic, became even more pressing. In Barbados, nurses are calling for better

This fortnight  The results of two recent elections - in Chile and in Honduras - have brought hope of a new life and freedom for health systems which have been burdened by a difficult history of neoliberalism and corruption. We explore what is expected from the governments of Gabriel Boric

This fortnight  Thanks to the hard work and dedication of scientists in South Africa, the world was alerted to the omicron variant at the end of November. For their respect of international public health guidance and transparency, most of southern Africa has been rewarded with travel bans by rich countries.

This fortnight  This 28 November marked three years since the passing of Amit Sengupta, one of the founders of the People’s Health Movement, whose contribution to the global health movement is difficult to express in words. Amit was thoroughly dedicated to the idea of health for all, and he

This fortnight  While Big Pharma companies have secured enormous profits through the sale of Covid-19 vaccines and rich countries proceed to administer booster shots, the whole African continent has only managed to vaccinate 10% of its population. Vaccine inequity is becoming vaccine racism, but attempts to fight it through boosting

This fortnight  The way health systems function has a lot to do with how they are financed. Although public investment in healthcare has long been recognized as the road to more equitable access, in practice, it is implemented by few countries. Instead, the most popular health financing models continue to

This fortnightBy mid-October, 60% of the population of Cuba had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The results of the vaccination campaign on this Caribbean island have surpassed those of the USA and of Australia, for example, although immunization in Cuba began later than in these high income countries. The current

This fortnight For the past year and a half, health workers in the Global South and the Global North have shouldered most of the burden of the pandemic response. They have done so in workplaces that were previously decimated by budget cuts and austerity measures, which reduced the number of