COVID-19 and Health-SDGs: Three Opportunities for the Day After

As on some other occasions in our history, the collective shock of the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily opens the opportunity to question the status quo and promote transformations that make our societies more just, sustainable and secure. The possibility of identifying these opportunities and turning them into reforms that last over time depends on us. The response to the coronavirus pandemic can be an effective way to accelerate collective wills and processes that under normal circumstances would have languished over time. Global health is a particularly relevant example of these opportunities. The tragedy has highlighted the need to invest in a strong, better governed and intensely cooperative international health system. And that is exactly what the SDGs, directly or indirectly related to health, aim to do. This article describes three specific areas in which the 2030 Agenda contributes critically to the response to the pandemic and could reinforce the sustainable development agenda well beyond this crisis: extending universal health coverage as a basic protection mechanism against pandemic; put the pharmaceutical innovation model and access to medicines at the service of all; and make investment in health the best strategy to prevent the next crisis of this type.