Pandemic taught us that nobody is safe until everyone is safe: Bharati Pawar

Gandhinagar: Union minister Dr Bharati Pawar said here on Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic taught people that no one is safe until everyone is safe.

The Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare also said that India's G20 Presidency has revolved around the philosophy of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' - the world is one family.

She was addressing the G20 Deputies' Meeting that commenced here on Thursday ahead of the G20 Health Ministers' Meeting starting Friday.

"India's G20 Presidency has revolved around the philosophy of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' - the world is one family. Nowhere is this more important than in the field of global health as the pandemic taught us that no one is safe until everyone is safe," an official release quoted her saying in her inaugural address.

Dr V K Paul, Member (Health) of NITI Aayog, was also present at the meeting that is underway at the Mahatma Mandir convention centre in Gandhinagar as part of India's G20 presidency.

Union minister Pawar underlined the crucial deliberations that have been taking place in the Health Working Groups of India's G20 Presidency.

Noting that the first priority addressing Health Emergencies Prevention Preparedness and Response (HEPPR) has been a core priority in every G20 Health Working Group since inception, she said, "The Indian G20 Presidency has put special focus on the critical threats of One Health, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and climate change."

"The second priority on addressing the need to ensure equitable access to affordable medical countermeasures highlights the need to establish a global MCM (medical countermeasures) coordination platform that envisions the establishment of research and development, and manufacturing networks across the globe," she said.

This will enable access to quality and affordable vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, the minister noted.

On the development and use of digital health innovations and solutions which is the third health priority under India's G20 Presidency, Pawar said the Global Initiative for Digital Health (GIDH) has been envisaged to have a convergent approach that breaks the silos and ensures that existing and ongoing digital health efforts can be made accessible under one umbrella.

"The crucial task of ensuring all the hard work and incredible efforts during the Indian G20 presidency comes to fulfilment today. The declaration that you will be finalising today will be the culmination of deep and informed discussion that has taken place over three working group meetings and countless bilateral and multilateral meetings," she added.

Pawar said that addressing inequality in access to healthcare is at the core of all our efforts under this G20 presidency.

"The three priorities and their related deliverables have the potential to make global healthcare services more accessible and affordable, especially for people in vulnerable situations and those in low-and middle-income countries," she added.

Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant said the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in rapid development of ad hoc global mechanisms to address the imperative need to prevent the pandemic from worsening and to plan for future pandemics.

"This, however, led to considerable duplication of efforts and fragmentation. Therefore, India's G20 Presidency since the beginning emphasized the need for convergence of efforts in the HEPPR space as a major priority to aid in creating a converged and agile global health architecture," he said.

Pant added that India's G20 Health Working Groups and the 14 co-branded events arranged alongside covered the pressing health concerns in the world. He also noted that the discussions in the last three Health Working Groups got us closer to our mutual goal of building a convergent global health architecture.

The statement said that members of the Troika from Indonesia and Brazil commended the Indian Presidency for prioritising the key health challenges in the world today. They recommended collaboration on adopting a multi-sectoral approach and investing in better health systems.