Guest column

Fifa Rahman/ Felivita Hikuam/ Nyasha ChingoreMunazvo/ Gisa Dang

THE COVID-19 pandemic is a bleak reminder of the enduring inequity in global public health.

Despite early warnings, the global response does not take into account the racial inequality underpinning health outcomes, nor that diagnostic tools such as pulse oximeters are not accurate on non-white skin.

Glaringly, global north responses to COVID-19 have not been the most efficacious nor the most effective. For example, the United Kingdom, the United States and Sweden have failed to adequately protect their populations, while global south countries such as Rwanda and Taiwan quickly instituted systems and deployed technologies to respond effectively.

Yet in the global health security index, the United States and the United Kingdom were ranked first and second in the world for pandemic preparedness. This underscores the need to decolonise and redefine global health by addressing existing power imbalances within global health structures and debates.

The white global north perspective is innate in global health, yet only recently has the impact of race and whiteness on global health governance, hiring, and programming come into focus. Why do white-dominated organisations “believe that we know how to solve the health problems of people in other countries”? Why do they remain “so clearly neo-colonialist”?

We can’t solve this by solely hiring more black, indigenous and people of colour. We need to recognise that there is intersectionality of oppression and inclusion. Rather than focusing mainly on tokenistic diversity hires, we need to tackle “how the structures and operations of our organisations are part of white supremacist culture”.

Covert racism affects global health deliverables and decision-making. White people are seen as reliable to