The grand convergence, Covid19, an oil soaked rag

The grand convergence: Covid19, an oil-soaked rag? Opinion  

Balkan wars of 1912/13 did not quench the political tensions in Europe (1). Tension escalated between the two hostile camps: The Triple Alliance (Italy, German and Austria-Hungary), and The Triple Entente (Britain, Russia, and France) (2). Regardless, of the war-thirsty environment, the blocks did not fight until June 28, 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophia were politically assassinated. This event was like a matchbox, which lit up the already oil-soaked rag, into unquenchable fire: World War 1, exactly 30 days after the event, July 28, 1914. 
War is hated because it is damaging, retrogressive, and disastrous to life and all socioeconomic and political systems governing human health and wellbeing. However, one may decide to peep back and realize how this international order of peaceful sovereign nation-states, was born.  The League of Nations was a product of World War 1 and the United Nations; World War 2.
It is natural that after calamity, humanity always looks back trying to diagnose and evaluate the causes, risk factors, management, and possible preventive measures of catastrophes. Disasters, in a way, forge unity of purpose. Disasters, including pandemics, give a chance of restarting anew, rebuilding, restoring, reimagining, and dreaming anew into the future.
The pandemic of Covid19 presents such an important opportunity for the rest of the world to converge for the greater good. The Lancet commission in their vision paper(3) postulates that a grand convergence whereby WHO member states make public health investment towards reduction of avertable infectious, maternal, and child deaths down to universally low levels. A grand convergence on global health means looking at public health issues from a common angle. It means capacitating a non-aligned WHO and erect a network of resilient health systems around the globe.
This conceptual mega convergence is achievable within our lifetime through the right investments into high-impact health technologies in developing drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines for infections and malignancies. The convergence is possible through the scaling-up of no-cost/low-cost population-based packages of interventions which can enable major progress in NCDs and injuries especially in low-income and middle-income countries.
This will create an equidistributional platform between countries of differing income levels and puts all nations on a development trajectory, and further reaping back the returns of health investment. 
By: Rangarirai Makuku 
The UJA of Zimbabwe 
References
1. Delis P. Violence and civilians during the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. 2018;20(6):547-63.
2. Conybeare JA, Sandler T. The Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance 1880-1914: A collective goods approach. The American Political Science Review. 1990:1197-206.
3. Jamison DT, Summers LH, Alleyne G, Arrow KJ, Berkley S, Binagwaho A, et al. Global health 2035: a world converging within a generation. The Lancet. 2013;382(9908):1898-955.