In 2020, the world came face to face with a pandemic that severely impacted our daily lives. Unfortunately, challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to surface, impacting human and animal health and disrupting our ecosystem.
The interface where humans, animals, plants and the environment connect is more important than ever before, and it will continue to be more intractably entwined. While we recognize this is an inevitable consequence of the global dynamics, the implementation of the One Health approach has been adopted at a much slower rate than it should have been. The Global One Health paradigm, adopted by The Ohio State University and several institutes within the United States and around the world, is a proactive approach that allows for institutional capacity building to preemptively prepare and prevent the emergence and occurrence of biological and chemical hazards. Such a proactive approach has proven to be cost-effective and could save a significant number of human lives each year.
The world is at a pivotal point. We no longer have time to waste debating the need for a proactive Global One Health approach. Ohio State’s Global One Health initiative, with its valued partners in strategic regions, particularly the developing world, and its committed stakeholders and sponsors, look forward to strengthening and accelerating this high-impact, integrated capacity building approach.
This past year, GOHi led new research and implementation efforts that focused on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key knowledge-sharing activities included the 9th Global One Health Summer Institute and the 2020 Global One Health Day Conference, both which moved to a virtual format, as well as our online monthly webinar series.
We expanded our partnership and signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Global Health Equity and renewed our agreement with the Federal University of Paraná.
We are committed to creating a world with sustained capacity of institutional systems that support and advance health and enduring global community. Thank you for your participation in our efforts and being a valued partner in 2020.
Wishing that everyone remains safe and healthy this holiday season!
