Search Results for: covid-19

Weijun Yu and Jessica Keralis The global public health community is grappling with COVID-2019, a respiratory disease outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus originating from Wuhan, China in late December 2019.[1] A number of countries implemented citizenship-based travel restrictions in late January and early February as an initial response to the outbreak, barring entry to foreign nationals who had previously been in China to prevent the importation of the virus.[2] By…

Continue reading “Controlling COVID-19: The Folly of International Travel Restrictions”

Lisa Forman As a graduate student in the early 2000s coming to grips with the meaning and interpretation of the right to health, few publications had as great an impact on me as the Harvard Law School and Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center’s 1993 “Interdisciplinary Discussion on Economic and Social Rights and the Right to Health.”[1] It captured a discussion between multiple heavy hitters of the field, including Jonathan Mann, then…

Continue reading “The Evolution of the Right to Health in the Shadow of COVID-19”

Pierre Somse and Patrick M. Eba Almost 40 years ago, the Central African Republic, like other countries in Africa and around the world, was confronted with the HIV pandemic that would shake the human, social, and economic foundations of entire societies. Since the beginning of that epidemic, more than 32 million people have died of HIV-related illnesses globally.[1] The HIV epidemic was first presented as a disease of homosexuals, then…

Continue reading “Lessons from HIV to Guide COVID-19 Responses in the Central African Republic”

Swarupa Deb In this Viewpoint I draw attention to the distresses faced by the transgender community in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. I acknowledge the direct health risks of COVID-19 as well as related perils arising from discrimination. I also raise concerns not just about the lack of healthcare facilities, but also about the lack of dialogue and inclusion of transgender people regarding their healthcare. Transgender people in India are…

Continue reading “Living on the Edge: COVID-19 Adds to Distress and Discrimination of Indian Transgender Communities”

Tenu Avafia, Boyan Konstantinov, Kene Esom, Judit Rius Sanjuan, and Rebecca Schleifer The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world has and will continue to have an incredibly disruptive impact on many lives. As of 24 March 2020, at least 334,981 people have been infected and 14,652 have died across 174 countries.[1] Beyond these already tragic and growing consequences, COVID-19 will also have a major impact on the…

Continue reading “A Rights-Based Response to COVID-19: Lessons Learned from HIV and TB Epidemics”

Joseph J. Amon The world is increasingly focused on COVID-19. By March 23, 2020, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 332,935 people had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in 190 countries and territories around the world and 14,510 had died.[1] In the United States, 35,530 people have been diagnosed with the disease and 473 people have died.[2] These numbers are likely an underestimate, due to the lack of availability of…

Continue reading “COVID-19 and Detention: Respecting Human Rights”

BOOK REVIEW David Patterson Global Health Law and Policy: Ensuring Justice for a Healthier World, edited by Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier (Oxford University Press, 2024) Global Health Law and Policy: Ensuring Justice for a Healthier World is an up-to-date, comprehensive, and accessible overview of global health law, policy, and governance. The editors, Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier, have provided the reader with a sound foundation…

Continue reading “To Achieve a Healthier World, Global Health Law and Policy Must Be Grounded in Human Rights”