World Health Summit fails to address underlying Pandemics, NCDs cause – Speciesism
The 2023 United Nations World Health Organization World Health Summit in Berlin October 15 to 17 had the theme “A Defining Year For Global Health Action”. There were 63 Sessions, 370 Speakers – 52% women and 48% men – and 3,100 participants from 106 Countries. Topics focused on included: One Health and the International Pandemic Accord. Vegan International participated in the three-day Conference and had the following take away.
One Health. The World Health Summit discussed the One Health Joint Plan of Action advocated by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), World Health Organization (WHO), and World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). The goal of One Health is to prevent future pandemics and promote sustainable health.
One Health aims to address complex health risks with a resilient health system at the global, regional and national levels, reduce risks from emerging or re-emerging zoonotic epidemics and pandemics, control and eliminate endemic zoonotic, neglected tropical and vector-borne diseases, address food safety risks and antimicrobial resistance, and includes environmental issues.
There is no way to prevent zoonotic pandemics while exploiting other species – which is the underlying cause of zoonotic pandemics. There is more involved than concern about the health of some privileged animals. It does not make any sense to vaccinate some members of some species against illness while exploiting other species by eating them, wearing them, or exploiting them in any other way for the perceived benefit of humans. This simply does not make any sense, and will not end zoonotic pandemics.
Further, the non-communicable diseases of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, anti-microbial resistance, obesity, and even suicide are responsible for more human deaths than pandemics. NCDs are directly related to the meat and dairy based diet – eating the flesh of other sentient beings, and drinking the milk of Mothers of other species.
It is a gross injustice for outrageous amounts of money to be spent on the preventable NCDs while other innocent humans suffer Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). A small fraction of what is spent in the developed nations on the meat and dairy caused NCDs could completely eliminate NTDs from the Earth.
Vaccinating some animals, and caring for the health of some privileged animals, while recklessly and sadistically exploiting other sentient animals is not the solution to pandemics. Completely eliminating speciesism – the abuse and exploitation of members of other species – is the only solution, and this is ignored as if it does not exist.
International Pandemic Accord. The 194 countries that comprise the World Health Organization are struggling to complete a Pandemic Accord by April 2024. The Accord would comprise lessons learned from the pandemic, advance policies, prevention measures, and preparedness. Member states have agreed that the new wide-reaching pandemic accord should be legally binding.
A new pact is a priority and a ‘generational commitment that we will not go back to the cycle of panic and neglect’ according to WHO’s Dr. Tedros. However, it seems like that is exactly what will happen if the underlying cause of zoonotic pandemics, speciesism, is not addressed. There is no mention anywhere of speciesism, although it is the single underlying cause of zoonotic pandemics. It is impossible to prevent future pandemics without eliminating this underlying cause.
This year’s Summit was held during the ongoing Israeli – Palestinian conflict which was impossible to ignore. Berlin, the World Health Summit host city, includes a Palestinian diaspora neighborhood where I was staying by chance since the Conference Hotel was fully booked for the Speakers.
In this neighborhood, a diminutive man who had family in Gaza verbally expressed his opinion regarding the genocide. Several tall, muscular German Police roughed up and eventually subdued the chained man. At least 20 Police escorted him into one of several police vans, and took him to an undisclosed location for assumed further ‘persuasion’. Later that evening I heard German Police sirens sounding exactly like WWII movies which may have been related to more genocide protestors.
One of the Palestinian shops in Berlin featured the hanging deceased bodies of sentient beings. Only the back view of the bottom half of their bodies remained. Their slender legs and exposed buttocks had an uncanny similarity to human legs and buttocks. The big difference between them and the humans who own /exploit them is that there will be no genocide protests for them or little concern on their behalf.
The origins of the genocide in Palestine go back more than 75 years to World War II. Genocide in general goes back even further, and genocide between the species is further entrenched, and seems never to end despite the zoonotic pandemics, and the injustice of the diet related, expensive and preventable Non-Communicable Diseases of the affluent humans that exist simultaneously with the treatable and preventable Neglected Tropical Diseases of the less affluent ones.
While attending the World Health Summit, I had the pleasure of meeting some residents of Baku who were living in Berlin. They were anxious to disclose facts about the United States oil companies’ exploitation of Azerbaijan. There seems to be no end to injustice in the world!
There is a relationship between the genocide and exploitation of anyone of any species and money, land, power and ultimate self-destruction. While the nations are involved in trying to prevent future zoonotic pandemics, eliminate the Non-Communicable Diseases, species extinction, habitat destruction, global warming, pollution and planetary destruction, no attention is paid to redirecting the primary underlying focus to purely altruistic goals and fully changing the trajectory that Planet Earth is currently on to one which will benefit all inhabitants of the planet and the Earth itself.
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