The problem of equity in health care is always urgent in the context of an ever-expanding cultural diversity, taking into account the process of globalization and international communication only superficially. Progress and technologization were supposed to equalize the world, improving it to an impeccable degree. But in the end, technologies and their development spectrum rather only alienated people from each other. One might even get the impression that the global model of world perception, which has been so popular over the past few decades, has been exhausted. The world situation is such that large states are increasingly moving away from close cooperation with each other throughout the 21st century, and the autonomy of major powers that are not in mutually beneficial communication is only growing. Consequently, these countries, which are engaged in competition in the sphere of economic and political influence, have less time and resources to solve the problems of the third world countries.
Against the background of economic rivalry, the life of an individual person gradually ceased to be perceived as a primary value. Thus, many third world countries may still receive less humanitarian aid. It should be noted that this problem often applies to marginalized segments of the population in the countries of the first world. The current tragic situation has a chance to be revised in the context of a global pandemic.
As a result of the shock experienced by the entire world community, it becomes obvious that nations are not able to completely separate and live autonomously and independently from each other. Many countries that are not economic giants have found themselves in situations of real economic pressure. It is clear that developing countries still face extreme challenges in the areas of health and social services. Scientists emphasize that the outlined widespread crisis economic processes and the following social inequality are only at risk of increasing. At the same time, in those countries where such social problems were previously unclear, the crisis situation inflicted an unexpected double blow on state and medical infrastructures. At the same time, it is not difficult to assume that the pandemic problem only aggravates the situation with massively widespread diseases already existing in many countries, while health systems are losing control over them.
The official position of the international powers in relation to the current global crisis was the declared tactics of solidarity. This term requires consideration in ethical criteria and in terms of its real relation to the provision of assistance internationally. The chosen policy is the principle of rational medical justice, that is, limited due to economic considerations. Theorists believe that strategies for achieving full balance are impossible, while the lack of global equality in receiving medical care is demonstrated by statistics. Looking at the big data, it should be mentioned that of the three hundred vaccine test launches, most are in the United States and China, while the smallest are in Africa (Johnson, 2020). Based on these measurements, it is clear that the principle of relative solidarity only emphasizes the existence of inequality on the global scale.
Moreover, speaking of large international organizations for the protection of health in recent years, only one of them has only one African country, South Africa (Johnson, 2020). This only emphasizes a problem of actual inequity in global healthcare system and calls for an immediate response. Global support during a pandemic is still not reaching those in need on a continent-wide scale. At the same time, the principle of rational solidarity at the moment practically excludes these countries from the dialogue on the international support system. The system of solidarity is thus demonstrated as extremely relative and proceeding primarily from the urgent needs of influential countries.
It follows from the article that European states are striving to unite in international organizations for the protection of health care, which cumulate the forces of doctors and the whole society in the fight against the pandemic. Also in 2020, several transnational funds were organized, the money received from which will go to help weaker health systems. This money is spent on training and improving the skills of doctors, as well as organizing communities that can counteract disease in any way possible. It is logical to assume that for the most part such measures are required if the health care system of a particular state is not able to ensure proper control over the disease. Thus, through such funds, the problem of inequality in health care around the world can be really addressed.
Countries can also team up with large companies and international organizations for a collaborative strategy to provide equal levels of assistance to all countries or sectors of society in need. The largest of these, the General Health Security Agenda, includes a community from 31 countries (Johnson, 2020). At the same time, they are in collaboration with large companies, thus complementing and enhancing financial mutual influence. Based on this, we can conclude that financial support and the concentration of such a large amount of energy may be enough to develop solutions that can truly help the maximum number of people. That being said, it is interesting to note the ethical delivery of the claims of such global organizations to provide assistance. The UNICEF statement calls on this support not to be seen as help, but as a true collaboration for the overall health of the world’s population (Johnson, 2020). It can be concluded that this statement implies that countries with fewer resources should, however, strive to adopt the proposed innovations as much as possible and cooperate in their implementation.
Speaking about assistance to states in crisis, it is important not only to distribute medical supplies and humanitarian aid, which is absolutely necessary. An extremely effective element in the fight against the epidemic is also awareness of it, the ability to maximally protect oneself and the loved ones. To truly move closer to overcoming today’s health problems requires a global network of scientists, legislators, governments.
It is true that the funding provided by transnational organizations and individual states is valuable at the moment. However, based on all of the above, one can conclude that states still need to reconsider many political priorities in order to unite in a more effective consolidation. Only in this way will the system of global connections really live up to its name, creating a situation in which the best minds in the world will not compete in creating a vaccine, but will cooperate with each other in its development. Thus, tackling the global inequality in health care delivery requires a concerted effort and scaling up of support, although at this time this seems to be disadvantageous or impossible.
Work Cited
Johnson, Stephanie B. (2020). Advancing global health equity in the COVID-19 response: Beyond solidarity. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 703-707. doi: 10.1007/s11673-020-10008-9