David Bell: The Corporatisation of Public Health

Over the past two years, we have witnessed how central institutions and organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other intergovernmental and NGOs can influence our governments in times of crisis.

In this episode, we dig deeper to find out what is influencing global planning for health, be it for pandemics or general health, and how some of the lesser-known influences are shaping policies like the Pandemic Preparedness Treaty.

We take a brief look at the history of global public health, its corporatisation and the shift in focus to pharmaceutical intervention and away from sanitation and infrastructure. We question the legitimacy of the growing power of the WHO and seek to understand what people can do to influence future decision making.

Our guest, David Bell is a clinical and public health physician with a PhD in population health and a background in internal medicine, modelling and epidemiology of infectious diseases. He is a board member of PANDA and leads the socio-political projects on global public health.

Previously, he was Director of the Global Health Technologies at Intellectual Ventures Global Good Fund in the USA, Programme Head for Malaria and Acute Febrile Disease at FIND in Geneva, and coordinated malaria diagnostics strategy with the World Health Organization.