Are we making the same mistakes in fighting COVID-19 as in past pandemics? Lessons from HIV show the urgent need to invest in HPSR

David Stuckler; Martin McKee; Alexander Kentikelenis

doi:10.1071/phrp3142116

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Are we making the same mistakes in fighting COVID-19 as in past pandemics? Lessons from HIV show the urgent need to invest in HPSR

David Stuckler ^A ^* , Martin McKee ^B and Alexander Kentikelenis ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Department of Social and Political Sciences, Universit Bocconi, Milan, Italy

^B London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK

^* Correspondence to: david.stuckler@unibocconi.it

Public Health Research and Practice 31, e3142116 https://doi.org/10.17061/phrp3142116

Published: 10 November 2021

2021 © Stuckler et al. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence, which allows others to redistribute, adapt and share this work non-commercially provided they attribute the work and any adapted version of it is distributed under the same Creative Commons licence terms.

Abstract

Are we repeating the mistakes of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic in our approach to combating coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)? Is the world’s emphasis on developing vaccines overshadowing investment in the health systems that can deliver them? We analyse a report on the politics of investing in health policy and systems research (HPSR) and conclude by outlining three critical actions, using the Stuckler–McKee model of social change in health. These are: exploiting a political window of opportunity; changing the conversation; and mobilising a campaign to drive the agenda. When implemented together, these actions could help accelerate investment in health systems to combat the immediate COVID-19 pandemic and prepare health systems for the next crisis.