Statement from José Luis Castro, President and CEO of Vital Strategies, on the election of Former Vice President Joe Biden as the next President of the United States
Vital Strategies joins public health organizations, scientists and humanitarian organizations around the world to congratulate Vice President Joe Biden, the winner of the U.S. presidential election.
As public health practitioners, we have witnessed the undermining of science and the lack of a serious effort to address and control COVID-19. This is while all of our lives have been upended, and hundreds of thousands of people have died, including thousands more each day.
A new administration offers a new beginning.
Joe Biden’s victory occurs at a perilous time for the U.S. and the world. A pandemic is raging. Racism is embedded in our institutions. Our relationships with other countries are strained. A large percentage of people in the U.S. do not trust science or the media.
In the coming weeks and months, we will join other public health leaders in calling on the new administration to prioritize public health. In an immediate act, the U.S. must rejoin the World Health Organization. We must strengthen the U.S.’s capacity to respond to existing and new health challenges, to build economies around health, to put equity at the center of its response, and to increase global cooperation as we continue to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and work toward recovery. We are less safe as a country and as a world until then.