News and views from the Blavatnik School of Government community 
Rich-country governments must now donate COVID-19 vaccines immediately to vulnerable countries, contribute more to international initiatives to ensure a genuinely global rollout, and work with pharmaceutical firms to deliver more transparent, non-exclusive licensing deals. Only this level of solidarity can restore global growth. In a recent letter to her G20 […]
When the coronavirus pandemic changed everyone’s lives one year ago (March 2020), the Blavatnik School acted quickly to recreate the Master of Public Policy (MPP)’s interactive, personalised teaching style in the virtual classroom. A collaborative effort across the whole School enabled our 124 MPP students (the MPP class of 2019) […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that there are essentially two sides to handling the chaos in the health system: trust the government to fulfil his part of the social contract, and rely on solidarity and self-help. In Kyrgyzstan, COVID-19 led to a strong surge of solidarity. Thousands of volunteers got […]
South Africa is at a crossroads. It is a phrase that has so often been used to describe the myriad of challenges the country has faced over the years: the struggles against apartheid, the dawn of democracy or the scandal-ridden decade under former president Jacob Zuma. Through much of these […]
COVID-19 attacks the human body, but it is largely the body politic that defends us against it. While we wait for vaccines and treatments, we depend on health systems, governments, and the actions of others to detect the virus, control its spread, and break the chain of infection. But our […]
The devastating toll of the coronavirus pandemic has ignited a debate about the intersection of public health and national security. Once recognised as global leaders in pandemic preparedness, the United States and the United Kingdom have struggled to integrate policy responses to COVID-19 into existing security frameworks and to allocate resources accordingly. Indeed, public health spending in both countries pales in comparison to spending on counter-terrorism, even though more America lives have […]
Whether the emergency is the outbreak of a new disease or a climate-related disaster, it is critical for policymakers to ensure adequate resources are available before disaster strikes. Yet the US is often underprepared for high-risk events with a high probability, with irrational decision making and interest group politics leading […]
Some twenty years ago, Paddy Chew selflessly withstood a torrent of hate when he publicly came out as the first Singaporean HIV-positive individual. Amidst the cloud of uncertainty around the epidemiology of HIV back in 1998, Paddy implored his fellow Singaporeans to extend their compassion towards people living with HIV […]