The State Department released its America First Global Health Strategy, focusing on making the nation “safer,” “stronger,” and “more prosperous.”
According to a fact sheet, the Global Health Strategy “will make America more prosperous by promoting American health innovation around the world and protecting our economy from infectious disease outbreaks and promoting American Health Innovation Around the World.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement published in the strategy that the United States “must keep what is good about our health foreign assistance programs while rapidly fixing what is broken – and this strategy lays out a plan to do just that.” He explained that the strategy “uses global health diplomacy and foreign assistance to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.” The plan details what Rubio described as “a vision to end the inefficiencies, waste, and dependency of our current system.”
“In its place, we cast a positive vision for a future where we stop outbreaks before they reach our shores, enter strong bilateral agreements that promote our national interests while saving millions of lives, and help promote and export American health innovation around the world,” he said, celebrating the United States as “world’s health leader and the most generous nation in the world.”
The health strategy aims to keep Americans safe by supporting a “global surveillance system that can detect an outbreak within seven days,” working with both international relationships and local governments to “respond promptly.” Furthermore, the strategy will “utilize our health foreign assistance to advance U.S. priorities and move countries towards resilient and durable local health systems.” Instead of foreign assistance being perceived as aid, it will serve as a “strategic mechanism further our bilateral interests around the world.”
