Building resilient health systems in the wake of Covid-19

Since early 2020, approximately 3.5 crore cases and 4.6 lakh deaths have been reported in India. For several weeks more than 400,000 individuals tested positive and more than 4,000 people died daily at the peak of the second wave. As with everywhere, these figures are almost certainly underestimated.

The crisis is also a reminder of several hard truths about public health in India. Access to COVID-19 data and transparent decision making have proved barriers to an effective epidemic response in the country. The public health system has historically been woefully underfunded—government spending on health has been less than 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) and only increased marginally in recent years.

This town hall discussion is about how to re-imagine national and global health priorities toward protecting the health and preventing future health crises.

Joining the discussion are M.R. Rangaswamy, Founder, Indiaspora, Dr Devi Shetty, Founder & Chairman, Narayana Health, Dr Amita Gupta, Co-Chair, John Hopkins India Institute, Dr Rajendra S Shukla, Sr. Policy Advisory, India Primary Health Support Initiative, JHU, Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, Founder, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy. The discussion is being moderated by Vikram Chandra, Founder, Editorji.