The China-UK Global Health Support Programme: looking for new roles and partnerships in changing times.

China's engagement in global affairs has changed substantially in the 2010s. One aspect of the country's global reorientation has been its increased interest in, and willingness to play a role in, global health. In the early 2010s, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) initiated a collaboration with the Chinese government on a programme to support the country to play a greater and more effective global role in health and explore how the UK and China could work together on issues of key concern and contribute to improved global development outcomes. The programme worked with key Chinese agencies to carry out capacity building, support analysis of China's approaches to engagement in global health governance and assistance, and provide support to government decision making. It also trialled several small-scale interventions in third countries through which Chinese agencies gained experience of working on health programmes overseas. The article reports on the main findings of an evaluation commissioned by DFID to learn from the programme. The programme provided support at a key time in China's global reorientation; however, there is a need for continued development of capacity and systems for China to play the role envisaged by the country's leadership. There is also a need for continued exploration on the part of China and partners of how to effectively collaborate to support improved global outcomes.

The COVID-19 pandemic: diverse contexts; different epidemics-how and why?

It is very exceptional that a new disease becomes a true pandemic. Since its emergence in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, has spread to nearly all countries of the world in only a few months. However, in different countries, the COVID-19 epidemic takes variable shapes and forms in how it affects communities. Until now, the insights gained on COVID-19 have been largely dominated by the COVID-19 epidemics and the lockdowns in China, Europe and the USA. But this variety of global trajectories is little described, analysed or understood. In only a few months, an enormous amount of scientific evidence on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 has been uncovered (knowns). But important knowledge gaps remain (unknowns). Learning from the variety of ways the COVID-19 epidemic is unfolding across the globe can potentially contribute to solving the COVID-19 puzzle. This paper tries to make sense of this variability-by exploring the important role that context plays in these different COVID-19 epidemics; by comparing COVID-19 epidemics with other respiratory diseases, including other coronaviruses that circulate continuously; and by highlighting the critical unknowns and uncertainties that remain. These unknowns and uncertainties require a deeper understanding of the variable trajectories of COVID-19. Unravelling them will be important for discerning potential future scenarios, such as the first wave in virgin territories still untouched by COVID-19 and for future waves elsewhere.