» Julio Frenk: Empowered Who Needed to Battle Pandemics

“We’ve seen some great ideas, but we have to find ways to reclaim our industrial policy, better leverage trade agreements, and develop local capacity for food and medical responses,” Remy said. “We have to think about new economies to take our economies out of chronic debt and create viable new sectors.”

Remy emphasized that the government cannot do this alone and said she was encouraged by actions from Huawei, the Chinese firm that has invested in the UWI innovation lab.

Both Landis and Knaul recognized the role that Barbados played in serving as an isolation center to help 11 cruise ships repatriate their COVID-19-infected crews.

“The fact that a small island nation did a global public good is something the world needs to hear about,” Knaul said, noting that the ships utilized the hospital systems that are part of the UWI.

“So, this is a global debt to the Caribbean and to the UWI. It’s another reason why we might think about debt relief for the region,” Knaul said.

Felicia Knaul, Ph.D.

Written by Michael R. Malone Published on November 18, 2020 Category: University of Miami President, Faculty, Event

The University of Miami president called for increased cooperation, new powers for the World Health Organization, and transparency incentives as critical to manage and mitigate future health outbreaks.

In a virtual conversation on Nov. 17 with the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA), University of Miami President Julio Frenk detailed the University’s successful experience to return students to campus this fall, while highlighting how the pandemic has revealed a renewed respect for science and research, higher education, and the need to shift perceptions of sovereignty as they relate to public health.

“We need to give the WHO (World Health Organization) much more power to intervene and the type of tools that the World Trade Organization and other multinationals have to actually enforce the international health regulations and impose sanctions,” said Frenk, speaking with Susan Segal, president and CEO of AS/COA, the premier forum for education, dialogue, and economic advancement in the Americas. “Right now, if there’s an outbreak, there’s a strong incentive for countries to withhold information because it has huge economic implications.”

He remarked on the difference between Mexico, “which immediately declared the H1N1 virus and paid an enormous economic price” in 2009, and information on the current coronavirus that China has been slow to disclose.

Frenk said that the world’s primary health body is “a pretty good instrument,” but needs reform. The WHO’s effectiveness has been deliberately weakened by members refusing to pay their dues and undermining the finances, depriving it of enforcement powers, he said.

“This is not about giving up sovereignty, it’s about sharing sovereignty so that our common security improves—it’s a very different way of thinking,” the president told those who tuned in to the virtual event.