I’ve traveled to a lot of different countries, and getting a closer look at these various impoverished communities greatly changed my thinking about health. It’s easy to assume that a health problem in another country has nothing to do with us or the rest of the world. But global health taught me that it is not really the case.

Diseases spread, and the world is more connected than ever. An outbreak in one place
can reach another place very rapidly and through many different ways, like we all learned during the Covid-19 pandemic. So helping other countries prevent and control disease isn’t just charity towards those in the country of origin, but also helps prevent the spread and keep other countries around the world healthy.

That’s part of why programs like Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, exist. Gavi helps get
vaccines to lower-income countries that otherwise couldn’t afford them. According to
KFF, Gavi has provided around $29 billion to support immunization in low- and middle-
income countries since 2000, and the U.S. has been one of its biggest supporters. That
funding helps reach kids who would otherwise be left out, which is exactly the vaccine
equity issue I wrote about with my family’s polio story.

The article also got me thinking about how fragile this kind of support can be. Global
health funding depends on political decisions, and when that funding shrinks, the people
who lose out are usually the ones with the least to begin with. A disease that was
almost under control can come back if the effort behind controlling it stops.

What I keep landing on is that global health is kind of like a shared responsibility. We’re
all part of the same connected world, so a child going unvaccinated in another country
isn’t only their problem, but the rest of the worlds as well. Helping prevent disease
over in other countries is also a way of protecting people in the United States and elsewhere.

It would be nice if we did it purely because it’s the right thing to do, but even if you only care about self-interest, the results still says helping others is smart.

Article to find more information from: The U.S. Government and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — KFF