On May 1, 2019, the leaders of Germany’s two conservative parties, the CDU and the CSU, pledged to stick together after a year of public discord, then 7 days later on May 8, 2019, at a “top-class congress”, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group met in the Bundestag with invited guests to discuss the topic “Strengthening global health – implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goal”.
In attendance was German Chancellor Angela Merkel, WHO‘s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and members of the Global Health subcommittee represented by Gates Foundation, Christian Drosten, Wellcome Trust’s Jeremy Farrar and the 2017 founder of the Center for Global Health Prof. Dr. Clarissa Prazeres da Costa. [1, 2, 3, 4] [NOTES]
Germany has taken on a pioneering lead role in “developing a strategy for global health, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is working on an action plan.”
“With its G20 presidency, Germany has put global health on the international agenda.”…”I think it’s fair to say that Germany is one of WHO’s greatest supporters and best friends.” Tedros said. Tedros will present the Global Health The Plan to Nations General Assembly in September 2019!
At the meeting Ilona Kickbusch warned of “thinking in national units or in delimited sectors”, but rather “No one should be left behind” and that “Health ministers in the 21st century always have international responsibilities.” Today, health policy can no longer be separated from climate policy: “The health of people can no longer be understood separately from the health of the planet.”
Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn “cited vaccine fatigue in Germany with a view to the re-spread of measles. He recalled that the WHO ranks opponents of vaccination among the ten biggest risks to global health. That is why he is campaigning for compulsory vaccination…”
“Spahn is also focusing on digitization. He said smartphones and health apps can be used to reach people who have never been reachable in traditional ways for healthcare services.”
The Center for Global Health was founded in 2017 by Prof. Andrea Winkler and Prof. Clarissa Prazeres da Costa. Their “goal is that research results are quickly translated into meaningful and effective political measures. This is the only way we can achieve the goals for sustainable development of the United Nations, to which the Federal Republic of Germany has also committed itself.” “Due to the increasing interconnectedness of our world, health has also become an issue that needs to be viewed globally.” [4]