Jeremy Konyndyk, Refugees International: Opponents of public health are winning.

The CommonHealth

Jeremy Konyndyk, President of Refugees International, is a humanitarian leader, emergency operator, and policy innovator. He joins us to share his thoughts on diverse crises. During the Turkey/Syria earthquake, donors failed to surge resources to Syrian civil groups, something that is indefensible a decade plus into Syria’s war. U.S. policy on the southern border is narrowly understood to be law enforcement versus protection of rights of individuals in flight, a disappointment not expected of the Biden administration. USAID has struggled to overcome its internal divisions to begin building an enduring emergency health security response capability. American opponents of public health and science are winning the battle for opinion and influence, with little political leadership pushing back from the opposing side. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many low- and middle-income countries rejected the West’s appeals for solidarity. The West had shown “zero solidarity” for their needs during the pandemic. With Ukraine, those countries are now responding “in kind.”