Peter Sands, on how we prevent the next global pandemic (EP.01)

Peter Sands is the Executive Director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, a multilateral organization that invests $4 billion a year to combat these three epidemics — and this year, too, COVID-19.   To put that in perspective, the Global Fund serves as the single largest provider of external health financing for all the low- and middle-income countries in the world. A significant proportion of these resources go toward equipping health systems to respond to crises exactly like this one. And yet, as we discuss, much of the world has been found unprepared for COVID-19— while the political wrangling between the United States and other key leaders jeopardizes any type of coordinated response.

Peter and I cover a lot of ground in this episode — from the uneven impact of COVID-19 around the world, to the complications it poses for existing global health campaigns like those against TB and malaria. We also discuss why the private sector should be incentivized to invest in pandemic preparedness, and how Peter’s past as CEO of Standard Chartered Bank has informed his response to questions about the pandemic’s economic costs.  

Links of interest: For more on the Global Fund, check out: https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/ Peter’s post, “When Finance Fails: Why Economists Didn’t See a Coronavirus Collapse Coming”:: https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/blog/2020-03-25-when-finance-fails-why-economists-didnt-see-a-coronavirus-collapse-coming/ Peter’s editorial on the necessary parallels between the 2008 financial crisis and today’s public health crisis, and how we must invest robustly in global health security: https://www.ft.com/content/c8eae26c-6204-11ea-abcc-910c5b38d9ed

Want to learn more about the show? Check out civic-rx.org.