{
  "id": 9298750,
  "title": "SPOTLIGHT: Health policy trailblazer Precious Matsoso credits patience, faith and The Beatles",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/spotlight-health-policy-trailblazer-precious-matsoso-credits-patience",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-23T08:14:41.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Daily Maverick",
    "slug": "daily-maverick",
    "url": "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-09-23-health-policy-trailblazer-precious-matsoso-credits-patience-faith-and-the-beatles/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Precious Matsoso, a South African health policy trailblazer, has spent three decades shaping significant health policy negotiations, both in South Africa and on the global stage. Her work includes leading negotiations on the world's first pandemic treaty, which was adopted in May 2025. During this process, Matsoso dealt with intense engagements and even used her melodious church voice to sing The Beatles' \"All You Need Is Love,\" as a way to foster cooperation among delegates from 194 countries. She has been recognized by TIME magazine for her contributions, being named on both the TIME 100 Health 2026 and 100 Most Influential People in the World 2026 lists. Matsoso emphasizes the importance of equitable access to pandemic-related health products and the need to address inequities that were evident during the Covid-19 pandemic, where African countries were often pushed to the back of the queue for diagnostics, protective equipment, and medicine. The pandemic treaty aims to fix this by enabling the rapid sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential while ensuring fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}