The President of Bolivia stated on May 15 that only a global common effort can effectively fight the COVID-19 pandemic. His statement indicates what most national leaders must recognize: that international collaboration between developed nations, with the express aim of preventing mass death in the developing nations is urgently necessary. But limited as President Arce’s declaration is essentially to a global vaccination effort, it leaves the only solution to the ongoing waves of pandemic deaths still not mentioned, let alone launched. That is the arduous project of building, as rapidly as humanly possible, a modern system of hospitals, clinics, and trained public health workforces in every nation on Earth. The vast majority of nations now don’t have such a modern health system and are devastated, both in human lives and economic destruction, by this pandemic.The Schiller Institute’s Committee for the Coincidence of Oppositions, initiated in 2020 by Helga Zepp-LaRouche and former U.S. Surgeon-General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, urges and demands this project be launched now, and that the Global Health Summit in Rome May 21 discuss it and call for it. Such an undertaking must begin with a summit of major powers, such as the UN Security Council P5 heads of state and government summit repeatedly proposed by Russian President Putin. We must “stop the next pandemic,” yes, but the “next pandemic” is COVID2021, still spreading out its wave of deaths, and COVID2022. Nations with advanced disease monitoring and treatment capabilities and workforces can save their populations. Consider: The United States in the very serious 1957 influenza pandemic took no unusual mitigation measures, not even extensive vaccination—yet had only half the number of deaths per population as the rest of the world at that time. Why? Because it had built up its then-modern hospital/clinic system to 6.5 beds per 1,000 population all over the country. Today it has shut them down, and has only 2.7 beds/1,000 people. Why is the necessity to build hospitals and labs, train healthcare workforces, recruit youth, train public health monitors in every country not being discussed? Decades of neglect have driven the very idea out of public discussion of the pandemic. The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites is determined to reverse this. Helga Zepp-LaRouche said on May 15: "We need a huge effort, in as many countries as possible, to organize to be published our Committee’s ‘Global Health Security’ statement. In Asia, Africa, Ibero-America, they know that our program is what they need. We should organize a steamroller to get massive circulation in publications, in blogs, through social media, etc. “We should have a team of people from the Task Force this week doing nothing but brainstorming how to get the statement published—and immediately organizing to do so. We should do this in all countries where we have members. We should contact former Health Ministers, and former members of governments generally, and many who have made positive statements about our proposals and initiatives. “We have a major problem internationally,” she said "a mismatch between the quality of our conferences and much of our published material, and, on the other hand, the numbers of people who are really listening and watching…. We have top speakers from governments and institutions who are grateful to speak on our platform, giving them access and visibility that is crucial, and not otherwise available. We open up potentials as on the Rogue Money platform for the [May 8 Schiller Institute] Conference. But the outreach is not adequate. “We need the biggest mobilization with our world health system statement. Anyone who has been open to our ideas…. We should get 20-50 publications of the statement in the coming days.”
