The Copernican Shift in Global Health

Santiago Alcázar

Global Health Programme Working Paper N° 3

The Graduate Institute, Geneva - Global Health Programme

Geneva – Switzerland

Available online PDF [15p.] at: http://bit.ly/acGcGu

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Ambassador Celso Amorim, Brazil’s foreign minister, made it even clearer when he addressed the 60th World Health Assembly (WHA). He had been invited by his colleague, Brazil’s health minister, José Gomes Temporão, to deliver Brazil’s speech at the plenary session of the World Health Assembly. Symbols are always important. The presence of the Minister of External Relations at the 60th WHA was a strong symbol of the confluence of Brazil’s foreign policy and health policy. In his speech, the ambassador recalled his government’s decision to issue the compulsory licence for Efavirenz. In the context of our two clusters – the economy and trade cluster, and the social cluster – he said that many, in Brazil as well as abroad, had expressed concern over the possible negative impact on the flow of international investment into Brazil. Following the direction of Brazil’s foreign policy, Ambassador Amorim assured everyone that not a single economic or trade consideration can be used to hinder measures in favour of public health. This is exactly the situation pictured, on the one hand, by the old Ptolemaic view that the economy and trade cluster has to be strengthened for its own purpose, and on the other, by the new Copernican view, championed by the ambassador, in which the social cluster occupies centre stage and is served by the economy and trade cluster.
It is in this same vein, perhaps inspired by the spirit of Geneva, that WHO Director-General Doctor Margaret Chan decided to immerse herself in the question of intellectual property and public health, and to bring the debate to the organization where it has profound implications. At the closing session of the 60th WHA, Doctor Chan would say engagingly and with enthusiasm :
“I am fully committed to this process [the IGWG] and have noted your desire to move forward faster. We must make a tremendous effort… We know our incentive : the prevention of large numbers of needless deaths and suffering.”
This also is a sign of change in the organization; and it is one reminiscent of a Copernican shift.