Let's stop the profit pandemic

Less than two years ago, expressions such as “flatten the curve”, “contact tracking”, “social distancing” and many others related to the covid-19 pandemic became part of our lexicon and became part of the everyday communication.

People everywhere learned more about epidemiology, virology, and immunology than they ever imagined.

Yet despite increased attention to public health, few can name the world's leading cause of death.

This is no accident.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) - especially heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes - cause more than 40 million deaths a year, put pressure on health systems, and carry significant social and economic costs. However, they do not attract remotely the same attention as infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, even though they are largely preventable.

We have long known that alcohol, tobacco, and diets high in fat, sodium, and sugars increase the incidence of NCDs.

And despite some progress in recent years (especially in reducing tobacco use), these risk factors do not receive the attention they deserve in discussions around the world.

That's in part because the companies that make, advertise, and sell these products have a huge impact on how NCDs are perceived by the public.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) do not attract remotely the same attention as infectious diseases, even though they are largely preventable

Tobacco companies, liquor companies and ultra-processed foods have long downplayed the public health effects of their products. And since the pandemic began, they have used Covid-19-related marketing campaigns and corporate social responsibility initiatives to further distract attention.

A study conducted in 18 countries between March and July 2020 compiled more than 280 examples of the ways in which Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Nestlé and PepsiCo took advantage of the public health emergency to promote unhealthy products to vulnerable populations. In Brazil, Nestlé and Danone donated ultra-processed food to a government program that provides food to low-income residents. Coca-Cola provided its sugary drinks in food packages in South Africa. And Colombian food manufacturer Alpina touted high-sugar yogurt as essential for boosting the immune system.

Similarly, according to a recent report, tobacco companies used corporate social responsibility activities related to the pandemic to reach out to high-ranking government officials and repair their public image.

In a bold example, Philip Morris International donated respirators to hospitals in Greece and Ukraine.

The inconsistency of a system working side-by-side with some of the biggest NCD drivers as it tries to respond to COVID-19 should lead to widespread outrage, but those activities have largely gone unnoticed and have generated no comment.

It is true that in some cases companies play a role by delivering goods or services that governments do not provide, but the inability of the State to cover these shortcomings should not be an excuse for companies to hide the damage they cause. When big tobacco companies or ultra-processed food producers influence governments with donations of food or medical equipment and other social initiatives, public health efforts to combat NCDs are rendered useless.

The World Health Organization recently documented the contribution of corporations to health problems and increasing inequality around the world.

Addressing the NCD pandemic must strictly regulate its influence on policymaking.

Governments must fulfill their obligation to protect citizens against the harmful activities of third parties (including tobacco companies and multinational companies producing ultra-processed foods and beverages).

Failure to control these corporate activities implies violating the fundamental human right to health of its citizens.

If tobacco were a virus, we would have long ago called it a pandemic and the world would have used all its resources to stop it.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General

The experience with Big Tobacco provides examples of ways in which the international community can deal with private sector interference in public health. Following the adoption of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which entered into force in 2005, governments around the world recognized that the private sector had engaged in concerted activities to undermine and weaken efforts to control tobacco use. Some countries took steps to address the problem.

In light of the tactics used by corporations during the pandemic, we must adopt legal measures to avoid the normalization of activities that, disguised as displays of social responsibility, offer short-term benefits to communities at the expense of their public health. Governments must not only ensure that the public is aware of the harms caused by tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods, they must also put in place measures to limit the interactions of policymakers with those industries.

As WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently said, “If tobacco were a virus, we would have long ago called it a pandemic and the world would have devoted all its resources to curbing it.

Instead, we have a multi-billion dollar business that profits from death and disease. "

Your comment applies equally to other products that contribute to NCDs.

Governments must take strong action to counter the role of the private sector in undermining public health.

Even when corporations offer to help a community, authorities must ensure that assistance does not solve problems by creating new ones.

Andrés Constantin

, Associate with the Healthy Families Initiative, is Acting Deputy Director of the O'Neill Institute's Master of Health Law programs and Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2021. Spanish translation by Ant-Translation

FUTURE PLANET can follow on

.