health

The collapse of Gaza’s hospitals and healthcare system, coupled with the catastrophic living conditions, is resulting in babies dying of preventable causes, Oxfam warned today.  Newborns up to three months old are dying of diarrhoea, hypothermia, dehydration and infection as mothers have little to no medical support and are living in appalling conditions without water, sanitation, heat or food.  

Max Lawson, Oxfam International's Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, said: "The G7 had failed the Global South here in Hiroshima.  They failed to cancel debts, and they failed to find what is really required to end the huge increase in hunger worldwide. They can find untold billions to fight the war but can’t even provide half of what is needed by the UN for the most critical humanitarian crises."

Rich and poor countries alike have exacerbated an explosion of economic inequality since the outbreak of the pandemic from 2020, reveals new research by Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI). 

“People have become complacent about COVID-19. Our global (health) funds are fast running out of money. Vaccine inequity is getting worse,” said former UK prime minister Gordon Brown today. 

Responding to early reports of G7 leaders agreeing a 'Carbis Bay Declaration' to end future pandemics faster, Oxfam's Health Policy Manager Anna Marriott said: "It's welcome that G7 leaders are planning measures to end future pandemics faster, but the lack of urgent action to end the current crisis is unforgiveable."

The coronavirus crisis has exposed our collective frailty and the inability of our deeply unequal economy to work for all. Yet it has also shown us the vital importance of government action to protect our health and livelihoods, and to create a more equal and sustainable world. 

As 2020 draws to a close, the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic shows no sign of abating. Our analysis shows that none of the social protection support to those who are unemployed, elderly people, children and families provided in low- and middle-income countries has been adequate to meet basic needs.

New Oxfam research shows that over a third of the world’s population has had no public money to cope with the effects of the pandemic. A new report “Shelter from the Storm” reviewed government programs used to inject additional money to help people and found none of them were adequate to meet everyone’s needs.

The coronavirus pandemic has swept across a world unprepared to fight it. Only one in six countries assessed for the CRI Index 2020 were spending enough on health, and in more than 100 countries at least one in three workers had no labour protection such as sick pay.

New research by Oxfam and partners reveals that while COVID-19 and the related containment efforts have caused increases in women’s – and men’s – unpaid care workloads, women are still doing the bulk of this work. Care work is essential to the healthy functioning of our societies and economies. It must be at the heart of a feminist COVID-19 recovery.