The Covid pandemic is an historic global challenge. Many of the health and development gains of the past four decades, realized through pointed advocacy and impassioned commitment, are threatened by the impacts of the disease on the health and livelihoods of billions. Much of the ground that had been claimed for global initiatives to tackle health inequities, including through reducing poverty and improving access to essential care, has already been lost: either directly through Covid’s elects on morbidity and mortality, or indirectly through the pandemic’s economic fallout. The ambitious targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, such as ending povertying, expanding literacy, and ending the HIV epidemic by 2030, have been distressingly deprioritised.