has the formal community been coping with the current health situation in terms of social and political perspectives.
i need a serious answer please.
Answers
Answer:
The presence of highly infectious diseases which have become pandemics, such as COVID-19, create serious health and economic problems because of various global social and environmental transformations which have occurred as a result of economic development. As a consequence of economic development, the world’s population has become increasingly urbanized and concentrated in large cities and as well, the global level of human population has risen manifold since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The density of human populations is greater than ever. In addition, the mobility of humans in all geographical dimensions has increased tremendously. These factors facilitate the outbreak of new infectious diseases and their spread. This is especially evident in the case of the corona viruses, such as different strains of influenza and more recently, COVID-19. The incidence of COVID-19 basically involves an environmental health issue because its occurrence depends on the state of the surrounds of individuals.
Developments in the nature of economic activity exacerbate the problem of controlling new infectious diseases which are transmitted as a result of human contact and presence. Increased economic specialization and greater division of labour accompanied by the expansion of markets and growing economic globalization increase the risk that individuals will come into contact with sources that facilitate the occurrence of highly contagious diseases such as influenza and COVID-19. The adverse economic consequences of new forms or types of these diseases can be severe given the high degree of interdependence in economic activity in modern economies. For example, the absence of workers from work due to such infections, or the risks of these infections, can disrupt production at the workplace level. As well, supply chains are liable to be broken or disrupted by these pandemics, and in addition, they usually have negative effects on the aggregate demand for commodities. This is evident from the COVID-19 outbreak which has resulted in a major worldwide economic depression. A useful coverage of the worldwide economic effects of COVID-19 is available in Fernandes (2020).
There is now a very large volume of literature on the economics of COVID-19 and it is growing at a rapid rate. A relatively comprehensive review of this literature (as at June 2020) is available in Brodeur et al. (2020) and a very useful overview of the economic issues raised at an early stage by COVID-19 is available in Baldwin and Weder di Mauro (2020). So this literature will not be reviewed here again.
The objective of this article is to provide my own insights into economic issues raised by COVID-19. It is important to assess the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to the historical context, impact and nature of previous pandemics. Therefore, initially, this article provides a selected brief overview of the history and nature of a variety of pandemics and compares these to the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, choice problems involving available hospital capacity and the prioritization of admissions of those with COVID-19 are considered. Then attention turns to considering social choice and economic trade-offs between the incidence of COVID-19 infections and the level of economic activity. This is followed up by a critical discussion of the desirability of isolating social groups in order to control the incidence of COVID-19 and possibly reduce economic losses from the pandemic. Particular attention is paid to the views of Acemoglu et al. (2020) in that regard. The important issue of the extent to which individuals should be permitted freedom in relation to the control of COVID-19 is investigated and brief notes follow on the factors that are likely to hinder economic recovery from COVID-19.