To reduce the spread of COVID-19 and prevent COVID-19 related deaths, AHF has called upon the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to have an immediate meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). AHF’s stance is that the UNSC must be more proactive in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The UNSC has been under justified scrutiny for its slow and diminutive response to one of the greatest crises in modern-day history.
“What we’re dealing with is analogous to what can easily be considered a third world war—and as the UN’s principal crisis management body, it’s imperative for the Security Council to meet and draft a plan that will lead to real action and change to stop the pandemic,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein. “COVID-19 is a common enemy to every citizen on the planet—but we have unfortunately proven that even under the most dire circumstances, we have been unable to unite to fight it. That must change, and the Council must lead the process.”
To name just a few of the Council’s shortcomings in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has taken more than three months for Council members with veto power to agree on a resolution, and it has held only a few meetings on the pandemic. COVID-19 has become another mishandled crisis by the UNSC, joining the Syrian civil war and the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Council successfully added urgency to the global response during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and we are hoping that under pressure they will do the same for COVID-19.