Despite having only one ICU doctor and very limited health care resources, Bhutan, a landlocked country of 785,000 people bordered by India and China, experienced only 21 deaths during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her Excellency Dechen Wangmo, MPH ’07, minister of health for Bhutan and a Yale School of Public Health alumna, credits the country’s remarkably low death rate to a rapid prevention and containment response and a sense of solidarity among Bhutan’s citizens and the government.
Wangmo, who recently completed a term as president of the World Health Assembly, visited Yale last week as an invited guest of the Yale Institute for Global Health. She spoke about Bhutan’s public health system, pandemic response, and engagement with Yale during a special lecture on Sept. 21.
In Bhutan, wearing a mask was not a political statement, washing our hands was not a political statement — it was public health.
Her Excellency Dechen Wangmo, MPH '07Bhutan Minister of Health
“We managed to vaccinate 94% of our population in four days,” Wangmo said during her address in Winslow Auditorium. “In Bhutan, wearing a mask was not a political statement, washing our hands was not a political statement — it was public health … The prick on your arm was not vaccination but a sense of solidarity, a responsibility toward your country, toward your neighbor, toward your loved ones.”
Wangmo acknowledged that Bhutan’s approach was easier to implement for a small nation than for larger countries and she noted how critical it was to institute the preventive and containment measures given the country’s significantly limited health care resources.
Currently, Bhutan has a severe shortage of health care professionals and does not have a medical school. Students often attend medical schools in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, but the number of seats is limited. Wangmo believes schools in the United States offer another opportunity for Bhutan’s students. “We need to invest, as a country, in the capacity and the competency of our own people,” Wangmo said. “That is why we want to work with the Yale School of Public Health.”
Wangmo also said that lessons learned during the pandemic have amplified the larger issue of global health, the need for health equity, and the need for building resilience in health systems.
She said it was “an honor and a privilege” to be invited to return to Yale to speak and called upon students in the audience to learn about and make an impact on global health.
“To realize what we want to achieve globally, conversation must happen in institutions,” Wangmo said. “Conversation must happen in rooms, in colleges, in universities. We often hear the words ‘leave no one behind.’ I think we have the responsibility to detangle this tagline, really understand the reality, make a difference, and start touching lives. Unless we do that, we will not achieve our collective aspiration to save lives.”
Wangmo was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Association of Yale Alumni in Public Health in 2021. This award recognizes the contributions and achievements of YSPH alumni who have had distinguished careers in public health.
A year earlier in 2020, in recognition of her outstanding service to Bhutan, Wangmo was honored with the Red Scarf, one of the country's highest honors for Bhutanese civilians.
Wangmo is also a founder of the Bhutan Cancer Society, a CSO working for the well-being of cancer patients in Bhutan, and a founding chairperson for Lhaksam, an HIV-positive network in Bhutan.