Dr. Raj Panjabi Warns of an Impending “Viral Apartheid” If We Don’t Change Our COVID-19 Approach

As nations around the world scramble to bring coronavirus outbreaks under control, Dr. Raj Panjabi is worried that the world’s poor populations will be excluded from accessing treatments and prevention measures, a scenario he calls “viral apartheid.” “I don’t use that term lightly,” said Panjabi, speaking with TIME Senior Writer Alice Park during a TIME 100 Talks discussion on May 28. “The idea that a group of people—whether it’s the vaccines, the test or treatments—will get access to those vital life-saving tools, and that those will likely be the rich nations and the powerful within those nations, and the poor within those nations and the poorer nations in the world will get excluded from that, is in fact the story of every pandemic that has happened in humanity.” Panjabi, CEO and founder of Last Mile Health, has spent a career batting just those sorts of issues. His organization trains community health workers in essential medical services, like providing vaccines and neonatal care, in order to bridge the “last mile” to remote communities in countries like Liberia, where Last Mile Health has been working for the past 10 years. As Panjabi tells TIME, that sort of community-based health infrastructure can both save lives and help to address the economic portion of the coronavirus crisis. For instance, countries can hire unemployed workers to be contact tracers, a tactic that can mitigate the heal...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 TIME100 Talks Source Type: news