We all know when a thunderstorm, flood, earthquake, or a tsunami devastates, but in March 2020, the world was jolted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, governments, health organizations, and health experts were struggling to understand this global unprecedented health crisis where people were suffering and dying. The world was shocked and was caught in the spell of this sudden health emergency. As of May 2022, the pandemic has caused more than 528 million cases and 6.28 million deaths, but COVID-19 and its effects are still far from over, and have negatively impacted many integral parts of our society.
Rise in Unemployment and Poverty
COVID–19 has caused a devastating loss of life worldwide and has uprooted the health, social, and financial stability of families. The loss of jobs and shut down of many micro, small, and medium sized enterprises due to the COVID-19 lockdowns has put millions in financial crisis. Many of the informal economy workers have been displaced and have lost their jobs, as the COVID-19 pandemic imposed unprecedented challenges to a population that was living paycheck to paycheck. According to a CBPP (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) report, in 2020, tens of millions of people lost their jobs. Within one month, between March 2020 and April 2020, the unemployment rate in the US spiked from 4.4% to 14.7%, a level not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
According to the World Economic Forum, as a result of COVID-19, 97 million more people are living on less than $1.90 a day, increasing the global poverty rate from 7.8% to 9.1%, and 163 million more are living on less than $5.50 a day. Globally, 3-4 years of progress toward ending extreme poverty have been reversed simply due to this pandemic.
Food Crisis
Food Insecurity has always been an established crisis, but it was only increased as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the US Department of Agriculture, before the pandemic, about 35 million Americans experienced food insecurity, but after the COVID pandemic hit, many sources believe this number to have at least doubled. This is particularly an issue among families with kids; before the COVID-19 pandemic, many disadvantaged kids were able to rely on school lunches as their primary meal in a day, but after the pandemic, many were not, as schools shut down for an extended period of time.
Supply Chain Shocks
The pandemic caused several disruptions in the supply chain of goods in the manufacturing and other sectors. The pandemic’s initial shock caused much uncertainty for what the future will hold, and ranged on extremes of sudden demand, and low supply. This led to shortages of key goods and products, primarily household essentials, which were always a necessity.
Governments across the world attempted to introduce relief measures to mitigate some of these effects, such as by child tax credit, stimulus payments, and paycheck protection program, and were moderately successful.
Although COVID-19 is yet to formally leave us, we can safely say that we may be past the worst. However, we are still dealing with numerous side-effects, such as rising costs of goods with annual inflation rates in the U.S. exceeding 8.3% as of April 2022, energy prices increasing by 30.3%, and food prices jumping by 9.4%, the most since April 1981, just to name a few. Overall, COVID-19 has been terrible for everyone, particularly those who were affected by it, but it has also resulted in many people being excluded who otherwise may not have, and has resulted in those who were already excluded to be even further left behind. It is important that we work to provide aid, tools, knowledge, and ability, to help them to bounce back from this time of crisis.
