7 World Health Day
This is a UN agreed day inspired by the World Health Organisation. This year it is pointing to the different impacts of Covid-19 around the world, and the way in which it has highlighted differences in health and access to health services. In many cases the differences reflect where people are born, raised, live, work and grow old. These disparities are preventable. The WHO is calling on world leaders to ensure that everyone has living and working conditions conducive to good health. It urges leaders to monitor health inequalities and ensure people can access quality health services when they need them. (Even if the altruistic sense that the current system is ‘unfair’ does not inspire them, perhaps they should reflect that until every country addresses an illness like Covid-19, there is a real risk that it could linger and mutate in countries without adequate health care, and create a new pandemic) For more information visit https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2021
Lord, we are very fortunate to live in a high-income country with a National Health Service accessible to all of us, offering high quality treatment and medicines. Most people in the world are not in that position. Some world leaders appear to be genuinely interested in promoting world-wide health improvements, while others sadly do not. Inspire them all to focus on the inequalities in the world, including in healthcare, and work to address them
