For too long, we have allowed a cycle of panic and neglect when it comes to pandemics: we ramp up efforts when there is a serious threat, then quickly forget about them when the threat subsides.
These words from the World Health Organization are now all too familiar. And the WHO added: “There is a very real threat of a rapidly moving, highly lethal pandemic of a respiratory pathogen killing 50 to 80 million people and wiping out nearly 5 per cent of the world’s economy.”
More than a million people have already died of coronavirus and the World Bank has forecast a 5.2 per cent reduction in global GDP for 2020. COVID-19 has produced the worst-case economic impact, with so far only a fraction of the worst-case death toll.