Dr. Vanessa Kerry, cofounder of Seed Global Health, and Pooja Wagh, a director at MIT Solve, explain how smart investments in local solutions can boost health security and scale up the pandemic response.

Covid-19 has changed our world. The widespread risk of contagion has challenged our way of existing, profoundly altered service delivery, and proven how deeply health security is integrated into every aspect of our lives.

This pandemic has also highlighted the urgency of human-centric innovations in global health and the need for those solutions to be driven by the communities they serve. The virus has exposed—and preyed—on existing social and racial inequities that have left many communities without adequate healthcare and vulnerable to disease. These issues precede Covid-19, but exacerbate its effects. If