A COVID Charter, A Better World

More about the book

We stand at a pivotal moment in history, reminiscent of the transformative impacts of plague, slavery, imperialism, capitalism, and climate change. The current pandemic highlights the deep inequalities dividing the world, revealing the limitations of our health systems. COVID-19 serves as a critical emergency that prompts us to rethink how we reconstruct our societies, environments, cultures, and economies in its aftermath. To address this, we must scrutinize public policy, particularly in healthcare. The author emphasizes the need for a COVID Charter, drawing on case studies from the US, Britain, Mexico, and Colombia to illustrate how different nations are responding to the pandemic while also considering global dynamics. The book critiques neoliberalism, advocating for a shift away from market-based healthcare towards viewing health as a universal public good. The crisis of COVID-19 is portrayed as a further indictment of neoliberal reasoning. The chapters culminate in the proposal of the COVID Charter, which is informed by various international human rights documents, aiming to expand and deepen human rights as part of a broader movement against neoliberalism.