David Bell

“Doing good” on a global scale has never been so popular, and never more profitable. The public-private partnerships that now dominate the global public health industry have generously overperformed since early 2020, enriching private and corporate donors alike.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) ongoing pandemic treaty negotiations hold promise to lock in this edifying upwards shift of wealth, enabling a repetitive regime of lockdowns, border closures and coerced vaccination to continue the impoverishment and subjugation of those less fortunate.

This new paradigm is made possible because those who work for the WHO, international agencies and private foundations, who formerly advocated for the betterment of the world’s disadvantaged billions, no longer do. Core principles of public health policy – community empowerment, equality, and poverty reduction – have been exchanged for public health-for-profit. No heroic fight or defense, just complicity and rapidly expanding career opportunities.