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Global Health Connections
November 2021

The Need for Immediate and Cross-Sectoral Climate Action

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) is over, and the world's leaders have returned home—but the work must continue. Here's how several Bay Area Global Health Alliance members are bringing attention to the need for bold and immediate action to address climate change.

Britt Wray, Human and Planetary Health fellow at Stanford University, describes how young people worldwide are experiencing climate anxiety as they witness their governments failing to take decisive action.
Naomi Beyeler from UCSF and Renzo R. Guinto brought attention to the needs of another at-risk population by discussing the urgency of financing health sector adaptation to climate change in LMICs.
Dr. Vanessa Kerry, CEO of Seed Global Health, and Pooja Yerramilli discussed the interconnectedness of climate change and pandemics in an op-ed, stating that "any ambitious, multilateral response to climate adaptation must include the health workers."
To ensure that gender justice and climate justice go hand-in-hand, Global Fund for Women stressed that the effects of climate change are not gender-neutral and outlined gender-inclusive actions in a list of 50 climate solutions.
UCGHI's Planetary Health Center of Expertise was featured in a mosaic video to promote the São Paulo Declaration for Planetary Health. The October 2021 declaration was published in The Lancet and has been signed by over 300 organizations from more than 48 countries.

US to Host Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment Conference

US Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken announced that the United States will host the Seventh Replenishment Conference of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria in 2022. The Alliance applauds this decision, which came together with help from member Friends of the Global Fight. The Global Fund is an international partnership that invests more than $4 billion per year and which works with local experts in more than 100 countries to accelerate the end of the AIDS, TB and malaria epidemics. Read more here and here.

Pfizer Antiviral Pill Reduces Risk of COVID
Hospitalization

Pfizer announced strong results midway through the clinical trial of its new antiviral pill—an independent committee monitoring the trial recommended it be stopped early, thanks to the impressive results. Pfizer says the pill, administered over five days soon after symptom onset, was shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent. The company has already started manufacturing the medication. Learn more here.

Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) causes around 700,000 deaths each year. That number is expected to grow exponentially by 2050, causing millions of deaths each year. In support of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021, the “Spread Awareness, Stop Resistance” campaign calls on all stakeholders to increase AMR awareness. Alliance members are responding to the call through the following actions:

Global Health Council, focusing on the role of policymakers, promoted a recent discussion on developing cross-sectoral AMR policies that consider climate change's effects on AMR. Read more here.
L.E.K. hosted a session with Merck for Mothers and others about AMR's impact in the Asia Pacific region. Watch here.
Pfizer has made expanding the drug-resistant treatment portfolio a priority by increasing awareness of the issue, investing in the AMR Action Fund (along with Merck and others) and acquiring privately-held Amplyx Pharmaceuticals.
PATH has listed AMR as a strategic priority in its PATH Strategy 2025 report.
Merck shared guidance and encouraged industry leaders to invest in new developments—stressing the importance of collective action. Read more here.
UK Science & Innovation Network shared the UK government’s five-year action plan to address this issue, testing new models to evaluate antimicrobials. Read more here.

Reimagining Public Health 3.0

Karen DeSalvo, chief health officer, Google, called for a relaunch of the 2016 Public Health 3.0 framework in a recent article in the American Journal of Public Health. As the pandemic laid bare "long-standing health disparities and social inequities," DeSalvo imagines an updated framework that better addresses the ongoing equity challenges and mitigates the structural issues perpetuating inequities. "Now is the time to relaunch the Public Health 3.0 vision—combining existing, consensus-based principles with new tools, policy strategies and political momentum to renovate the field's foundations and achieve health for all," she wrote. Read more here.

Insights Dialogue: Online Resources to Improve Health Behavior

On November 2, 2021, Sabin Vaccine Institute's Boost Community, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance and the Alliance for Advancing Health Online launched the Insights Dialogue platform—a new site focused on sharing evidence and how-tos with vaccine program implementers, public health communicators, behavior change scientists and other stakeholders. During this live engagement, a panel of experts (including representatives from UNICEF and Upswell) discussed two of the case studies featured on the Insights Dialogue platform. Learn more here.

WHO Chatbots Conference: Tech Meets Human-Centered Design

PATH, Stanford, UNICEF and the Alliance's Sara Anderson were among the panelists in an October 27 webinar hosted by the WHO called "Building Best-in-Class Chatbots During COVID-19." The speakers discussed using user data and analytics to inform the chatbot experience. In addition, they explored how designing digital products using human-centered design (HCD) shifts the focus to people. Anderson invited the audience to consider the possibilities of human-centered design in health care tech. "HCD empowers end users as equal participants and democratizes the process from the outset," she said. Watch the recording here (requires registration).

A Framework for Digital Health Equity

"Focusing on Digital Health Equity" is the subject of a Journal of the American Medical Association article by UCSF professors Robert Wachter, Courtney Lyles and Urmimala Sarkar. Their research examined the rapidly changing digital health care landscape in light of the glaring social inequities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study's multilevel recommendations aim to improve equity in our evolving digital health environment. They write, "Achieving digital health equity entails not only ensuring access to digital infrastructure but also designing digital health solutions with the broad range of end users in mind, implementing them in ways that address the unique needs of patients who require health-related safety-net services and evaluating their effects across a range of populations and health systems." Read the article here.

Welcome to Our Newest Members

We are happy to extend a warm welcome to our newest Bay Area Global Health Alliance members: Antara International, the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Tiba Foundation and the University of the Pacific. The Alliance's 60 members are working together to promote equity and innovation in global health. Read more.

Members in the media

Equalize Health's Krista Donaldson Receives 2021 Elevate Prize and $5M [Yahoo Finance]
Merck Will Allow Drugmakers in Other Countries to Make Its COVID-19 Pill [NPR]
Stanford: Health Problems Tied to Global Warming on the Rise [AP]
Pfizer's COVID Vaccine for Children Ages 5–11 Recommended by CDC [NPR]
PATH: World Faces Shortage of Syringes as COVID Vaccine Doses Rise [AP]
Merck: Britain Approves COVID-19 Pill in World First [Reuters]
UNICEF & WHO Launch New Polio Vaccination Campaign in Afghanistan [Al Jazeera]
UNICEF to Directly Fund Afghan Teachers, Bypassing Taliban Authorities [Reuters]
PHI's California Bridge Caregivers Trailblaze Solutions for Those Dealing with Addiction [KQED]
Zenysis: Why Unlock Aid Is Pitching USAID on a 'Darpa for Development' [Devex Pro]
UC Berkeley: When Are Masks Most Useful? COVID Cases Offer Hints [Nature]
Facebook's Evolution into 'Meta' Has Potential to Revolutionize Healthcare [Forbes]
UNICEF: 10,000 Children Killed or Maimed in Yemen Since 2016 [Deutsche Welle]
Zipline to Commence Delivery of Medical Supplies by Drones in Kaduna [Sun Nigeria]
Pathfinder International Trains Nigerian Journalists in Digital Technology [Vanguard]
Ipas: Is It Okay for My 11-Year-Old to Be on Social Media? [Gulf News]
UC Davis: New Coronavirus, Likely from Dogs, Infects People in Malaysia & Haiti [NPR]
UC Berkeley: George Floyd's Autopsy & the Structural Gaslighting of America (Opinion) [Scientific American]
Mastercard Foundation: Major Philanthropic Foundations That Aren't the Gates Foundation [Devex]
UC Berkeley: Evidence Shows That, Yes, Masks Prevent COVID-19 – And Surgical Masks Are the Way to Go [The Conversation]
UCSF: Monica Gandhi Is SF's Outlier COVID Expert. Her View on It: 'I'm Not Saying Anything Crazy.' [SF Chronicle]
UNICEF: ACT-A Launches New Plan amid Persistent Challenges [Devex]
Mastercard Foundation: Equal Vaccine Access Isn't Charity, It's Our Best Tool (Opinion) [Devex]

More member news

ICYMI

"We need to really think about what our role as US advocates, UK advocates and implementers is in allyship to our LMIC partners, as they develop what decolonizing looks like," said Elisha Dunn-Georgiou, President & CEO of Global Health Council in a recent policy briefing sponsored by the Alliance, the Georgia Global Health Alliance, the Washington Global Health Alliance and the Triangle Global Health Consortium. Watch the briefing here.

The CSIS Global Health Policy Center hosted Emily Bass, veteran AIDS activist, historian and journalist, and author of To End a Plague: America's Fight to Defeat AIDS in Africa. She was joined in conversation by Jennifer Kates, SVP and director of Global Health & HIV Policy at KFF; Chris Collins, president & CEO, Friends of the Global Fight; and Ben Plumley, senior advisor at the Alliance  and host of the A Shot in the Arm and Vax Up podcasts. Watch the recording here.

Alliance member Upswell hosted a webinar on content strategy for public health on November 10. Attendees were given the tools to develop engaging, useful and impactful social media content that people want to share. “On social media … your reach is earned through your engagement," said Sarah Francis, co-founder of Upswell. "It's earned through how you're communicating and having a conversation with your community." Watch the recording here.