Spotlight

François Picard is pleased to welcome Lawrence Gostin, author and director of the WHO Center on Global Health Law. His analysis highlights the legal and ethical dilemmas surrounding a cruise ship carrying suspected hantavirus cases off the coast of Cape Verde. Drawing direct parallels with the traumatic memory of cruise ships stranded during the Covid-19 pandemic, Gostin argues that the international community has already learned, at enormous human cost, the dangers of confining passengers at sea without adequate medical care or disembarkation plans. ]

François Picard is pleased to welcome Merijn Tinga, a biologist, artist and activist affectionately known as the Plastic Soup Surfer. He joins us, not only as a scientist or activist, but as someone who spends hours a day on the water, experiencing directly the forces we so often abstract away. From the surfboard, everything becomes clear: "You become one with the wind, with the waves… you have one focus." And yet back on land, "you're immersed by this throwaway culture". ]

François Picard welcomes Jozef Síkela, European commissioner for international partnerships. He says global health is at a crossroads. The Covid-19 pandemic showed that such crises are not isolated events, but systemic shocks with far-reaching economic and social consequences. Today, a convergence of pressures is adding to the strain: climate change is driving new diseases, funding is declining, and global health governance is fragmented. He says prevention must replace reaction as the organising principle of global health. ]