COVID-19 in Karnataka: Strengthening primary health care & action on social determinants of health

On invitation by Societal Action Group of Experts to Combat COVID Calamity in Karnataka (SAGE), I joined few other speakers in this webinar event. In my talk I focused mainly on strengthening primary health care and social determinants of health. Given a wider audience, I anchor my presentation within a wider systemic view of public health and health systems, a perspective often lost in framing most recommendations.

A lot of the background to framing the talk this way has to do with over-reliance on charismatic doctors for pandemic preparedness at multiple levels, especially at national and state levels. See for example the 3rd wave preparedness expert committee constituted by Government of Karnataka with Devi Shetty, founder of a corporate hospital chain as its Chair. A reading of their interim report submitted demonstrates the total lack of the system focus, or the social focus nor the public health focus.

See the full thread of my rapid assessment of the Karnataka government’s high level expert committee report headed by Devi Shetty

If you’d rather read the full Twitter thread in one place, see https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1409115020710100992.html

Presentation made to SAGE group

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