- We look back on our activities in 2020, a year marked by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and that saw debates we have been working on for almost two decades become the centre of attention
Over the summer months we had the opportunity to look back on our activity over the last year. It was, of course, a year marked by Covid-19 and its rapid and deadly spread across the world. As an organisation, it forced us to adapt our activities and the focus of our work.
For us, however, it was nothing new. The pandemic brought to the table debates we have been talking about for years. From the outset, the development of, and access to, vaccines and other resources, took up much of our time. The enormous public investment in R&D for these products and the magnitude of the pandemic makes it incumbent on us to work to make these discoveries global public goods and reach everyone, a complicated task due to the barriers generated by patents and intellectual property legislation.
On the other hand, the collapse of our health system -one of the best in the world- revealed the urgent need to reinforce it with human and economic resources, and the importance of universal health care such as that which existed in Spain before 2012 and which, despite attempts in 2018, still falls short of providing care to all migrants.
The coronavirus also affected the fight against other pandemics, such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and the collapse of health systems in the countries hit hardest and the diversion of resources towards Covid-19 could in fact lead to a regression after the incredible progress made in recent years, with a terrible cost of human life.
2020 was, perhaps, the most difficult year ever for Salud por Derecho. However, we are now even more certain that the work we have now been doing for 16 years is more important than ever.
This is our 2020 report. Help us tackle the challenges of 2021 and the coming years. There’s lots to do!
