Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pandemic Preparedness, WHO Involvement: Global Health Hangs In The Balance With Today's Election
Politico: The Election’s Stakes For Global Health
An agreement to set nations’ obligations when the next pandemic comes, billions in contributions to international disease control efforts, even U.S. membership in the World Health Organization: Those are the main stakes for global health in tomorrow’s election, according to health policy analysts. (Paun, 11/4)
Euronews: A Trump Win Could Reshape Global Health. Is Europe Ready To Step Up?
Between emerging diseases and pandemic threats, abortion and reproductive health, climate change, and humanitarian aid to war zones, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have wildly divergent visions for global health, with the outcome in [today's] US presidential election likely to reverberate across Europe and the world. Trump’s former administration offers a solid clue about his approach to global health. Most notably, he cut funding and started pulling the US out of the World Health Organization (WHO) and opted not to join the COVID-19 vaccine-sharing programme COVAX. (Galvin, 11/2)
Harvard Public Health: How The U.S. Election Has An Outsized Effect On Global Reproductive Health
In Nairobi, Kenya, Cate Nyambura is awaiting the outcome of the U.S. presidential election as if it could change her life—which it might. Nyambura is the director of programs at ATHENA Network, a global feminist collective that works primarily on reproductive health and rights, HIV/AIDS, and gender-based violence. “We hold our breath when the U.S. is having elections,” Nyambura says. Tuesday’s vote will have an enormous effect on how—and whether—Nyambura and countless other health workers and reproductive rights activists around the world can do their jobs. Thanks to a longstanding rule about abortion that shifts each time the White House changes political parties, every U.S. presidential election pits the American mood against other countries’ sovereignty—and the health of their women and girls. (Mungai, 11/4)
NBC News: All Eyes Are On America As An Uncertain World Awaits Critical Election Result
The “leader of the free world” always holds a huge sway over the 7.9 billion people who don’t get a vote. But this time, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are so diametrically opposed — in style, substance, policy and beyond — that the victor could shape global events for years, if not decades, to come. “This is an extremely important election for the world,” said Thomas Shannon Jr., former U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, the third-highest-ranking role in the State Department. Particularly, “because it comes at a time of debate within the American public about the purpose of American power in the world.” (Smith, 11/4)
AP: Control Of Congress Is At Stake And With It A President's Agenda
Control of Congress is at stake Tuesday, with ever-tight races for the House and Senate that will determine which party holds the majority and the power to boost or block a president’s agenda, or if the White House confronts a divided Capitol Hill. (Mascaro and Jalonick, 11/5)
