Building Global and National Health Infrastructure in the Wake of Covid w/ Dr. Joyce Elders, Dr. Tim Gopeesingh and Maria Merry Baker

A Story Club: Global Politics S2 E2
streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm IST
repeated Friday on the UNC Network in Trinidad and Tobago 6pm AST

Welcome to Season 2 Episode 2 of A Story Club: Global Politics & Cultures brought to you by Bulletproof Podcast Formula

My name is Dr. Kirk Meighoo and I'm the public relations officer of the United National Congress, the official Opposition Party in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

This is a unique venture, streaming simulataneously from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Dehra Dun in India, and San Franciso in the United States.

We speak with people around the world, trying to understand different issues and problems relevant to my own country, Trinidad and Tobago, and also to people in sometimes very similar and sometimes very different situations, cultures, histories, politics, sociology, etc.

The goal is to learn from each other, build networks, widen our perspectives, and work for solutions in our distinctive contexts.

Today’s episode is titled, "Building Global and National Health Infrastructure in the Wake of Covid."

"The only way that the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic can be stopped, is by re-thinking the solution. We must have modern health care systems in every country. This means infrastructure for public health, and for medical care delivery at modern standards, to all populations. One model for this is the U.S. Hill-Burton Act (“Hospital Survey and Construction Act of 1946,”) whose principle was to state how many hospital beds per 1,000 residents must be in each locality (at that time, 4.5), and deploy accordingly to build them, including modern equipment and staff.

Look at instances of our ability to do this today. The 1,000-bed Huoshenshan hospital was built in 12 days in Wuhan in 2020. In the U.S., multiple field hospitals were built in record time last Spring by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We must do this simultaneously around the world.

This means that all countries must work together to accomplish this. We must put aside tensions and conflicts for the time being.

There are new strains of the SARS CoV2 that are showing up, that are more aggressive, and more transmissible. These can make vaccines obsolete... Thus, our response to the pandemic seen in these terms is a question of existential importance to the human species. It requires the cooperation of all major industrialized nations."

This is a quote from a statement by the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, for the Global Health Summit in Rome, May 21, 2021, and for general circulation, which we will be discussing more in-depth on today's episode.

This week, I am so pleased and honoured to have as our guests

Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General, professor emerita of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, pediatrician

Dr. Tim Gopeesingh, former Cabinet Minister in the Govt of Trinidad and Tobago, former Clinical Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies, gynecologic oncologist

Marcia Merry Baker, Economics Co-Editor of the EIR News Service