Sánchez defends the universal right to health against those who “invoke national priorities”

Eduardo González The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, defended the universal right to health on Monday “against those who today invoke national priorities to exclude” and asserted that the defense of global health is “at the very heart” of Spain’s foreign policy, “because there is a pandemic that no one wants to stop, and that is the pandemic of selfishness.” “Caring for those who cannot care for themselves is not an act of charity, but the very essence that makes us human beings,” Sánchez affirmed in Geneva during his address to the 79th World Health Assembly, the first by a Prime Minister of Spain before the supreme decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO). “No society deserves to call itself civilized if it abandons its own when they fall, and that is why, faced with those who today invoke national priorities to exclude, many of us understood long ago that the true priority of every country, of every state, is to protect the health of its citizens, without exceptions or conditions,” he continued, referring to the conditions imposed by Vox on the PP in their governing agreements in several autonomous communities. “Those who divide society into first- and second-class citizens are not strengthening their country, but rather weakening it,” he warned. “Forty years ago, when Spain began its transition to democracy, it opted for universal and free public healthcare, ultimately making health a right, and that decision transformed our country: in barely a generation, infant mortality has plummeted, we have gained more than a decade of life expectancy, Spain now leads the European Union in longevity along with countries like Italy and Sweden, and, for the first time in its history, we have surpassed 84 years of life expectancy,” he asserted. “That progress never happens by inertia; it requires political will,” he added. For this reason, the Prime Minister warned against those who want to turn health into a business, “breaking the most basic social contract of any democratic system,” and against the decline in international funding for global health, which has been reduced by around 30 percent in the last two years alone. “I don’t want to live in a world where twelve people accumulate more wealth than half the world’s population, while a mother doesn’t know if she will be able to feed her children,” he warned. “If we don’t act, 14 million people could die before 2030 from preventable causes, including 4.5 million children under five,” Pedro Sánchez asserted. These deaths would occur “not because we don’t know how to save them, because we do, but because some have decided not to.” “The greatest risk to global health is no longer a lack of science, but a lack of awareness: in just a few months, the same country that has cut some $18 billion from global health and development aid has spent more than $29 billion on a war whose humanitarian and geopolitical consequences will also be devastating,” he noted, in an implicit reference to the United States. Faced with this situation, he asserted, the Spanish government has placed global health at the “very heart” of its foreign policy. “In these times, defending common sense has become a form of rebellion, because there is a pandemic that no one wants to stop, and that is the pandemic of selfishness. That is the pandemic that is truly affecting our societies, and that one is also contagious,” he declared. Therefore, the Prime Minister invoked the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and reiterated that no country can be saved alone. “Protecting others is the best way to protect ourselves,” he affirmed. In this context, Pedro Sánchez called for strengthening international capacities to respond to future health crises, for advancing the Pandemic Treaty agreed upon in 2025, and for reforming the international financial architecture to guarantee stronger and more equitable healthcare systems. He also warned that 3.4 billion people live in countries that allocate more resources to debt repayment than to healthcare or education, and asserted that investing in global health is investing in the security of countries and their citizens, but also in social justice. Hantavirus Regarding the recent hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius (a Dutch vessel that had sailed from Argentina and was initially bound for Cape Verde after passing through South Africa, carrying approximately 150 people of 23 different nationalities, including 14 Spanish citizens), Sánchez recalled that the World Health Organization had requested Spain's assistance in receiving the vessel in the Canary Islands, in accordance with International Law and humanitarian principles. "There are still those who believe that International Law is like an à la carte menu, that obligations are therefore optional, and that solidarity depends on convenience," he warned. "Spain responded to that call, and that decision allowed for the evacuation of more than 120 people, the early detection of cases, and treatment before it was too late," he continued. "But there was a second consequence, at least as important, and that is that when one country acts responsibly, others respond in the same way. It's a kind of contagion of that solidarity," he added. Tedros Adhanom and Mónica García During the opening session of the Assembly, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom, thanked Spain for its commitment to strengthening multilateralism in health and defending resilient and equitable public health systems. “I want to thank President Pedro Sánchez and Minister Mónica García for their outstanding leadership in responding to the hantavirus crisis.” Later, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, chaired and participated in the high-level meeting “The Role of Primary Health Care in Protecting Equity for a Stronger Global Health Ecosystem: Advancing Cooperation between Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean,” sponsored and chaired by Spain along with members of the Pan American Health Organization and WHO Europe. The meeting brought together politicians and institutional representatives from both regions to exchange experiences, identify common challenges, and explore ways to structure cooperation on health systems. During her address, Mónica García emphasized that “primary care is a driver of equity and the foundation of universal health coverage and resilient, equitable health systems,” and represents “an essential function of the global health architecture.” “The resilience of health systems depends not only on the capacity to respond to health emergencies, but begins in health centers, in neighborhoods, in the capillary network that allows us to reach the people who need it most,” she continued. The dialogue also addressed new avenues for funding and international cooperation to promote structural reforms in health systems, as well as the potential creation of a permanent interregional mechanism for knowledge exchange and joint learning between Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

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