MSH Statement on More Than Two Years of COVID-19 Pandemic

Arlington, VA—March 11, 2022—Today marks two years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern. While it was not the beginning of the pandemic, this was a significant date in recognizing that COVID-19 would soon disrupt lives around the world.

As the crisis continues into its third year, we mourn the more than six million lives lost to COVID-19, recognize the depth of suffering, and thank and celebrate the brave health workers on the frontlines of this fight.

COVID-19 has shown us that we have the tools and ingenuity to solve seemingly intractable problems. The unprecedented speed at which the world developed effective COVID-19 vaccines is a testament to that.

But communities and economies continue to suffer. As wealthier nations start to move on, lower-resource countries that lack an adequate supply of medical equipment, vaccines, and often the infrastructure to use them are still struggling.

This pandemic will not end anywhere until it ends everywhere. We must vaccinate the world.

Like so many other global health organizations, Management Sciences for Health has had to quickly adapt our operations in every one of the 36 countries where we work to respond to COVID-19. From helping set up checkpoints at border crossings in the early days of the pandemic to developing contact tracing software for smartphones, training health workers, and aiding governments with the introduction of vaccines and the systems necessary for distribution and post-marketing surveillance, we’ve been working with country officials and local communities in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.

In the United States, we have joined forces with the advocacy community to inform and support various pieces of global health security legislation that aim at ending this pandemic and preventing the next one while better preparing to face another global health crisis.

Related: Our Response to COVID-19

Much work remains to stop the spread of COVID-19. We are optimistic about the future and resolute in our efforts to ensure that this pandemic will not reach a third anniversary.