- [Narrator] Every month,
the global economy is losing $500 billion due
to the ripple effects of COVID-19.
By the end of 2021,
projection show a cumulative loss
of $12 trillion or more.
It hasn't been this bad since the end of World War II,
a conflict that in part grew out
of another infamous global economic crisis,
The Great Depression.
Almost a century later,
the COVID-19 pandemic has created a cascading crisis
with impacts far beyond the realm of public health.
There's a term for this.
Mutually exacerbating catastrophes,
and it's happening right now on a global scale.
So how can the vicious cycle be stopped?
Mutually exacerbating catastrophes.
It's the idea that disasters end up creating
and then cementing crisis after crisis.
A pandemic feeds into a recession,
feeds into income inequality,
feeds into civil unrest,
and on and on.
A ripple in one sector in one country is felt globally
but it is not felt proportionally.
Just as COVID-19 has been more lethal
to patients with preexisting conditions,
The disease has been disproportionately devastating
to lower income economies and people.
And despite their best efforts to respond,
limited resources means a more limited effect.
For example,
2020 wiped out the sustained economic gains
of several low income African nations,
widening the vast wealth gap between high income countries
and low and middle income countries.
And that in turn impacts the response.
- [Vishal] G20 countries spent over 20% of GDP
in their emergency measures,
whereas developing countries spent about 3%.
You're already cutting back
on what your government's able to do,
even at the time you're being asked to do more
and that you're needed even more
to sort of mount a response for your people.
- [Narrator] The economic and societal ripples from COVID
won't fully get addressed without a multilateral response
to a singular disease.
The pandemic is every country's fight.
So global cooperation is paramount.
Fighting the virus requires treatment and solid diagnostics
in the short term and vaccination in the medium.
- [Vishal] We could be living in a world
where we're able to get the virus under better control
through medical countermeasures.
Governments are able to protect their people
and that the temporary problems stay temporary
rather than become forever problems.
- [Narrator] Think of it as the inverse
of mutually exacerbating catastrophes.
Empowering public health networks
empowers communities, particularly women,
which can lead to better outcomes
for environmental justice,
disenfranchised minorities,
and so much more.
Yes, COVID-19 can create ripples outside of public health,
but the right response to it can have societal ripples
that go far beyond the virus.
The fight against poverty and disease is measured every year
by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
in the Goalkeepers report.
But progress has almost entirely regressed.
So the foundation's 2020 Goalkeepers report
analyzes the damage the pandemic has done and is doing,
and advocates for a collaborative response.
- [Vishal] I would like to think that we can come back
in a way that recognizes the interconnectedness
and gives us a blueprint on how we tackle
some other global problems in a way
that we might not have been able to do before.