Health equity and its determinants

Overview

This is the second World Health Day to fall during the COVID-19 pandemic – the world’s worst peacetime health crisis in a century. It comes amidst gruelling and painful times for the world’s people who are dealing with the impacts of the pandemic, including those working in the health sector.

The cost of COVID-19 is so high that it demands we do things differently: that we commit to building a fairer and healthier world by taking health equity much more seriously than before – and meet head-on the social and economic factors that cause health inequities.

This is WHO's call to action on World Health Day – and in the year-long campaign that WHO is launching to mark the day.