There is nothing more pragmatic than a strategy based on the best public health evidence available – evidence that has been collected over the last 150 years. It is only the lack of political will that makes it look idealistic and unattainable: if the public health leaders of the nineteenth century had been as timid we would not enjoy the health we have today in Europe. Indeed, making heath accessible to a large proportion of the world’s population and ensuring our common human security in health at the same time seems like one of the best deals around between idealism and realpolitik.