As the world enters its third year of reluctant coexistence with coronavirus, global health systems are straining under the impact of the hyper-infectious Omicron variant. But, even as countries continue to battle the pandemic, their leaders are thinking about ways to shape a society that will be better prepared for the next health emergency.
They are considering not only how to deliver a more agile response to future emerging pathogens but also how to tackle the health inequalities so brutally exposed in the past two years — in the rich world, as well as the global south.
Vaccination remains a yawning divide between the west and the developing world. While just under 60 per cent of the global population has received at least one vaccine dose, the figure for people in low-income countries is only 9.5 per cent, according to research organisation Our World in Data.