Speech by Dian Blandina at European Parliament at Brussels

WHO-Watcher and PHM member Dian Maria Blandina made a powerful presentation at the European Parliament during an event organized by the Left parties in the Parliament – Stories from the COVID frontline: Workers’ rights and privatization of health services. “The ideology I’m speaking of here is what’s known as Neoliberalism. In public health we define neoliberalism as the vigorous promotion of markets combined with a reduction in governance… Low govt prioritization and underfunding over the last 25 years have eroded basic public health functions. Even in countries with social security organizations, testing and contact tracing had to be contracted out to for-profit providers. This has prevented authorities to have comprehensive and timely knowledge of the virus’ spread.”