Resilient Health Systems and Pandemic Preparedness
Covid learnings
One aspect of health systems is this and a number of recent publications on the Covid pandemic discuss this.
The most comprehensive publication in this set is our Online Book: Learning from Tamil Nadu s Response to COVID 19 Pandemic: Lessons for the Right to Health Agenda: This was the report of a health activist organized research study by this Arogya Iyyakkam Resource Collective- e-Resources. The report was widely disseminated both in civil society and with key government officers. This had a significant influence on program implementation in Tamil Nadu. It is also a comprehensive review of the entire program.
Another peer review publication emanating from this same study was Discourses around Stigma and Denial in the COVID-19 Pandemic- EPW, Jan 2022, ( S Krithi, Kalpana Karunakaran, J Jeyalydia, R Parthesarathy, T Sundararaman).
Most of the studies done in this period related to the theme of learning from the pandemic for building resilient health systems and pandemic preparedness. Our earlist paper on this theme was “Health systems preparedness for COVID‐19 pandemic” published in the Indian J Public Health as early as June 2020. A shorter version of this was published even earlier : “ Is India’s Public Health System Ready to face the pandemic India in Transition” : by Centre for Advanced Studies in India: U. Penn, as part of its (Ref: Special COVID-19 Series; April 09, 2020.
Another widely cited study which was one of the early studies drawing lessons for building resilient health systems was “Pandemic Resilience and Health Systems Preparedness: Lessons from COVID-19 for the Twenty-First Century.” Sundararaman, T., V. R. Muraleedharan, and Alok Ranjan. Journal of Social and Economic Development , 2021.
Other resources related to the theme of resilient health systems and pandemic preparedness that we share are : Good public health logistics for resilient health systems during the pandemic: Lessons from Tamil Nadu (Adithyan, G. S.2021) in Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, the paper “Emerging Good Practices and Lessons Learnt to Maintain Essential Health Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic” in WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health and the book ‘COVID-19: A View from the Margins’ by Dr. Yogesh Jain and Sarah Nabia which explores the deep-seated inequities in India’s health and social systems exposed by the pandemic. Through stories and reflections from 37 contributors, the book examines the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on marginalized communities, emphasizing the need for more resilient and equitable systems in the future.
Two studies related to the theme of health systems resilience relate to the pandemic in rural areas- both published in Review of Agrarian Studies- one in 2021 “Covid-19 in Rural Areas: A Policy Brief,” Sundararaman, T., and Murugan, Ganapathy , and “Challenges to India’s Rural Healthcare System in the Context of Covid-19.” Sundararaman and Alok Ranjan.
One paper “Learning from the Nipah virus outbreak to inform the COVID-19 response in Kerala“ T. Sundararaman, Rakhal Gaitonde and was part of a collection that discussed how learning occurs and was part of a collection discussing how to build systems where learning occurs (Eds: Sheikh K, Abimbola S, editors. Learning health systems: pathways to progress. Flagship report of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021.)
On vaccination for covid 19 much has been written. We share a detailed article on the policy decisions in this regard published in Frontline as a cover story and an interview in Times of India. The Frontline cover story was titled : “Vaccination against Covid 19- Challenge and an Opportunity,” critically examines readiness and the challenges in India to undertake universal vaccination. The interview is captioned Face-Off in Times of India, May 14, where we argue for vaccination of the entire adult population as an universal and free public programme.
The other theme explored was mortality estimates. This is discussed in an interview, with Sanjiv Sankaran in Times of India May 13, 2022 captioned “Why WHO estimate of death in India is correct “
A more detailed explanatory position paper for public understanding of the Excess Mortality Controversy was shared widely on 13th May 2022 with civil society and officers.