Epidemics and International Cooperation in Health

1. Introduction: global health governance and epidemics – challenges and history

Readings:

- QUICK, Jonathan D. and FRYER, Bronwyn, The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It, Chapters 1 and 5.

- DAVIES, E. Sara, KAMRADT-SCOTT, Adam, and RUSHTON, Simon, Disease Diplomacy: International Norms and Global Health Security, Chapter 1.

- YOUDE, Jeremy, Global Health Governance, Chapter 1.

2 Major infection threats and lessons learned

2.1 Cholera

2.2 Spanish flu (the 1918 flu pandemic)

2.3 Typhus

2.4 AIDS

2.5 Ebola virus disease

Readings:

- QUICK and FRYER, The End of Epidemics, Chapters 2-3.

- Ruger Prah, Global Health Justice and Governance, Part I: Problems in Global Health and Governance.

- YOUDE, Global Health Governance, Chapter 8.

- World Health Organization, Managing epidemics: Key facts about major deadly diseases [http://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/managing-epidemics/en/]

3 Establishment of health-related international organisations

3.1 FAO

3.2 IBRD and IMF

3.3 UN Charter: health as human rights

3.4 WHO

Readings:

- Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization, entered into force 7 April 1948

- Ruger Prah, Global Health Justice and Governance, pp.247-267

- Paul H. Hunt and Gillian MacNaughton, “Impact Assessments, Poverty and Human Rights: A Case Study Using the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health” Health and Human Rights Working Paper Series No 6 (Paris: UNESCO, 2006).

- YOUDE, Global Health Governance, Chapters 2-4.

4 Fights against Covid-19 at national levels: test of national leadership in disease diplomacy

Readings:

- Ruger Prah, Global Health Justice and Governance, pp.335-382.

- DAVIES, et.al., Disease Diplomacy, Chapter 5.

- QUICK and FRYER, The End of Epidemics, Chapters 6-7 and 9.

- Christine Crudo Blackburn and Leslie Ruyle, “How leadership in various countries has affected COVID-19 response effectiveness” The Conversation (27 May 2020)

- Gordon Brown and Daniel Susskind, “International cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue Supplement 1, 2020, pp.64-76.

5 International collaboration efforts to fight Covid-19:

the role of UN and its specialised agencies

Readings:

- United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG), Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 (March 2020)

- United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG), A UN framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19 (April 2020).

- WHO, “Timeline of WHO’s response to COVID-19”, [https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/29-06-2020-covidtimeline].

6 International collaboration efforts to fight Covid-19: the role of regional organisations and other organisations

Readings:

- World Trade Organization, Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, Adopted on 14 November 2001

- Naomi A. Bass, “Implications of the TRIPS Agreement for Developing Countries: Pharmaceutical Patent Laws in Brazil and South Africa in the 21st Century” (2002), The George Washington International Law Review 191

- Giovannini, E., Manca, A., and Benczur, P., “Building a scientific narrative towards a more resilient EU society, Part 1: a conceptual framework”, JRC Science for Policy Report, (2017, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission).

- Ruger Prah, Global Health Justice and Governance (Oxford University Press, 2018), pp.271-308.

7 International development and health: multi-actor approach, science-policy interface, and human rights protection

Readings:

- YOUDE, Global Health Governance, Chapters 5-7.

- United Nations Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, accessible at [https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.html].

- Johanna Rick, ‘3 reasons why civil society is essential to COVID-19 recovery’ The World Economic Forum (29 May 2020)

- UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ‘The COVID-19 pandemic: a wake-up call for better cooperation at the science–policy–society interface’, UN/DESA Policy Brief #62 (April 2020).

- Seddighi, H., Seddighi, S., Salmani, I., & Sharifi Sedeh, M., ‘Public-

Private-People Partnerships (4P) for Improving the Response to COVID-19 in Iran’, Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness (2020).

- Sarah Hawkes and Kent Buse, “Searching for the Right to Health in the Sustainable Development Agenda”, International Journal of Health Policy and Management, (2016) 5(5): pp. 337-339

8 Pandemics and SDGs implementation

Readings:

- United Nations, The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020 (2020)

- WHO, World Health Statistics 2018: Monitoring health for the SDGs (2018).

- The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Staying the Course: Funding Effective UN Responses to COVID-19 While Protecting the 2030 Agenda, The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden (July 2020).

- Ana Raquel Nunes, Kelley Lee, and Tim O'Riordan,“The importance of an integrating framework for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: the example of health and well-being”, BMJ Global Health, 2016, Vol.1 Issue 3

- Paul H. Hunt, “SDGs and the importance of Formal Independent Review: An Opportunity for Health to Lead the Way” Health and Human Rights Journal (September 2015).

9 Challenges for global health governance in the 21st century

Readings:

- WHO, Preventing disease through healthy environments: a global assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks, A Prüss-Ustün, J Wolf, C Corvalán, R Bos and M Neira (2016)

- UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ‘The long-term impact of COVID-19 on poverty’, UN/DESA Policy Brief #86 (15 October 2020).

- UN Environment Programme, ‘COVID-19: Four Sustainable Development Goals that help future-proof global recovery’, (26 May 2020)

- Duncan, David Ewing. “Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: Why Didn’t the World Listen to the Coronavirus Cassandras?” (27 March 2020), Vanity Fair.

10 Student presentations

Students’ presentations based on various sources. Students are supposed to prepare up to 15 minutes presentations (sent no later than one week before classes)

Required reading:

-YOUDE, Jeremy, Global Health Governance (Polity, 2013)

-QUICK, Jonathan D. and FRYER Bronwyn The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It (St. Martin’s Press, 2018)

-DAVIES, E. Sara, KAMRADT-SCOTT, Adam, and RUSHTON, Simon,

-Disease Diplomacy: International Norms and Global Health Security (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015)

-Ruger Prah, Global Health Justice and Governance (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Supplementary literature:

-World Health Organization, Managing epidemics: Key facts about major deadly diseases [http://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/managing-epidemics/en/]

-United Nations, “Health: United Nations Sustainable Development”, [https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/]

-Sridhar, D., and Gostin, L. (2014). “World Health Organization: past, present and future”, Public Health 128, pp.117-118.

-Gostin, L.O., Sridhar, D., and Hougendobler, D. (2015). “The normative authority of the World Health Organization”, Public Health 129, pp.854-863.

-Gostin, L. (2004). “The International Health Regulations and beyond”, The Lancet Infectious Diseases 4, pp.606-607.

-Moon, Sridhar, et al. (2015) “Will Ebola change the game? Ten essential reforms before the next pandemic: The report of the Harvard-LSHTM Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola”, The Lancet, 1-18.

-Kamradt-Scott, Adam, Managing Global Health Security: The World Health Organization and Disease Outbreak Control (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)

-Elbe, Stefan, Pandemics, Pills, and Politics: Governing Global Health Security (John Hopkins University Press, 2018)

-Elbe, Stefan, Security and Global Health (Polity Press, Oxford 2010)

-Youde, Jeremy, Global Health Governance in International Society (Oxford University Press, 2018)

-Cohn, Jr. Samuel K., Epidemics: Hate and Compassion from the Plague of Athens to AIDS (Oxford University Press, 2018)

-Wren, Sherry M., and Kushner, Adam L., Operation Ebola: Surgical Care during the West African Outbreak (John Hopkins University Press, 2017)

-McKee Martin, Garner Paul, Stott Robin (eds.), International Co-operation and Health (Oxford University Press, 2001)