Boundaries between academic disciplines are always artificial creations intended to facilitate analysis, given our limitations. But as the economist Albert Hirschman once argued, there are times when it is incumbent on us to trespass them. The ongoing battle against COVID-19 and its economic fallout is such a time.
The industrial meat system is out of control. Not only does it contribute to the destruction of the climate, biodiversity, soil, and forests, but it also poses a direct threat to human health. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) warnings about zoonotic diseases – caused by pathogens that are transmitted from animals to humans – were largely ignored.
Japan’s parliament is scheduled to confirm Yoshihide Suga this week as the country’s new prime minister. He will replace Shinzo Abe, who announced his resignation last month for health reasons, after almost eight years in office. Japanese and international observers are now asking whether the Abe government’s economic-policy course (dubbed “Abenomics”) will change significantly under Suga, and if so, how. The answer will have important geopolitical implications.
The pandemic that United States (US) President Donald Trump has handled so disastrously – over 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 are expected in the US by Election Day – is persuading an unprecedented number of voters to cast their ballot by mail rather than expose themselves at the polls.
Last year, a child died of pneumonia every 39 seconds, on average. A form of acute respiratory infection, pneumonia is detectable, treatable, and preventable. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) – which protect against the bacteria that cause pneumonia and meningitis (a life-threatening brain infection) – have existed since 2000.
The United Nations (UN) turns 75 this autumn, and if this were a normal year, many of the world’s leaders would gather in New York City to celebrate this milestone and open the annual meeting of the General Assembly. But this year is anything but normal.
The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare the importance of access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. As we all know now, hand washing is one of the best frontline defenses against the virus.
Today’s unprecedented COVID-19 crisis has prompted billions of people to work, socialise, and consume digitally. This shift creates a historic opportunity to unlock the potential of digitalisation to finance more inclusive, sustainable development. Digitalisation is transforming every aspect of finance.
Despite taking a serious hit from COVID-19 lockdowns, China’s economy has proved resilient. It has not, however, fully bounced back: some activities, especially in the service sector, simply cannot be revived. Yet, unlike most of the world, China seems unlikely to become mired in a long recession, not least because of its rapid digital transformation.
The next few months will tell us a lot about the shape of the coming global recovery. Despite ebullient stock markets, uncertainty about COVID-19 remains pervasive. Regardless of the pandemic’s course, therefore, the world’s struggle with the virus so far is likely to affect growth, employment, and politics for a very long time. Let’s start with the possible good news.
When COVID-19 first appeared, strict quarantine requirements and short, tight lockdowns would have been a small price to pay to keep it at bay. Now that the pandemic has infected over 26 million people in 213 countries and territories, we need to find new ways to control it that are not just effective, but also efficient. To avoid inflicting more pain than necessary, we should target stay-at-home orders as precisely as possible to those who are most likely to pose a risk to others.
In 1960, the Nobel laureate economist Ronald H Coase introduced the “problem of social cost”: human activities often have negative externalities, so individual rights cannot be absolute. Institutions must intervene. There is no better example of this dynamic than the COVID-19 crisis.
