The disease outbreaks know no borders. When disease cross borders national security is threatened. The year 2020 has come up with the most deadliest disease (pandemic) of the century. It came from one of the meat markets in China. The killer virus known as the Novel Corona Virus emerged from China’s Wuhan city had reached to every corner of the world and especially had done significant damage in Europe and America.
The health system of the advanced countries had failed miserably. The para Medical staff and doctors doing their best to stop this pandemic and the local administration is busy in the disposal of the bodies but it seems like these efforts are not good enough. The world economy is in recession and millions of people had lost their jobs from all over the world.
This pandemic had bring the poor and the rich together because no one is safe from this killer virus. The happiness on the faces of the people is now been replaced by fear and starvation. The streets and the markets are full of people suffering due to the shortage of food. The effects of the virus are so devastating that every country around the world is suffering from it and desperate to get out of it. The so called global village is under the siege. People can’t come out of their houses. They can’t travel around and even can’t do their businesses.
In this difficult time advanced countries like US, UK, France and Germany are in deep trouble not in just fighting with the disease but to handle it’s impact on social and economic fields. In this situation, third world countries like Pakistan are in even deep trouble. Over the years Pakistan had faced many economic challenges and country is already struggling with the foreign dept. In this situation, it is very difficult for us to sustain under the siege as most of population is already in a deep economic and social crisis due to the situation of the country.
The government is unable to feed everyone in their houses for a long time because they don’t have enough resources to do so. Also people don’t have enough to just sit at homes and eat for a long period of time on their own because most of them belong to working class and without work don’t have anything left in their pockets.
So in a way the situation is very critical and therefore it is impossible for any state or department to handle it alone. That’s where health diplomacy should come in. Health diplomacy Is a better way to deal the current situation it’ brings governments, non state actors to find out the solution. It will be better to deal with being putting combine efforts instead of individually fighting. Global Health Diplomacy (GHD) is the practice by which governments and non-state actors attempt to coordinate global policy solutions to improve global health.
In the time of crisis political, Social and economic partners must come and join together under the health diplomacy to combat this pandemic. They should come together to find an effective mechanism and provide resources to make sure the implementation of it. The primary aim of the stakeholders should be to serve the people in difficult times because when people ail, so does the economy and moreover the right to health is matter of social justice and when populations are affected by crisis the right to health is also compromised.
Moreover, the use of soft power is mandatory to handle a global crisis. It’s perfect example is the situation created between two of the world’s most powerful nations after the outbreak. The president of the United States went on call it a Chinese Virus which in diplomatic terms is a big thing to do. But China after gaining success against Covid-19 is now sharing it’s experience with other countries to help them in the fight against the pandemic.
They are helping other countries by giving them the instruments and knowledge. In the bigger pictures they are using the soft power for the bigger purposes in the coming years. After having the most number of cases, the United States has significantly change it’s attitude towards China. They’re hopeful that they along with china will be successful against this pandemic and will continue to work with China on this issue. This shows the importance of soft power and working together under the umbrella of health diplomacy.
Here are Some of the efforts to establish a mechanism that could prove effective against Covid-19:
01.Health sector alone cannot combat this challenge Covid -19 economic, social, and political partners must join in for fostering partnerships across sectors to fight this virus. This include work force, funds, technology and a better communication system.
2. Until it gets over States must keep Covid-19 as part of foreign policy affairs and must communicate with other States in this regard.
3. Consistently monitoring the updates regarding the spread, medicine, facilities precautions. This will surely keep everyone updated to the situation and could act accordingly.
4. Global diplomats should be engaged in the business. Global health diplomacy should be the priority and adding some of the specialists of the medical field will also be helpful in understanding the complex matters.
5. States should cooperate with world health organization to make a strategy to combat covid-19 pandemic.
The experience of WHO in this regard is surely going to help them a lot in this difficult time.Apart from this, the government should also focus on the internal structure as well. They’ll have to make sure that everything is under control.
For this purpose they should provide doctors with enough instruments because in this outbreak doctors are our front line soldiers. Government should provide them with best protection kits, testing kits and medicines.
They should also provide the extra staff for the help of the already existing staff. Effective measures should be taken to train them well and prepared them to fight against Covid-19. Awareness campaigns should be started at a massive scale to make the people aware of the situation.
The Writer is a Student of MSC International Relation
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