The Impact of COVID-19 on the Global Economy

Written By : Kim Borwick  

Americans are taking necessary precautions for their health and the health of others within their communities, adapting their behaviors in an attempt to flatten the curve. Second only to health concerns are Americans’ worries over their individual finances — including job security, health care costs and retirement savings — and fear for the national economy.

The $2 trillion CARES Act has enacted policy to mitigate the crisis to a degree, but experts predict that it will be months before the economy is back on track.

The immediate impact of COVID-19 has been swift and crippling to the economy.

With 41 states and Washington, D.C., having already issued shelter-in-place orders, governors of states in the Midwest and the South have dug in their heels, refusing to issue statewide orders for fear of devastating their economies.

The dilemma facing leaders is the paradox of taking measures to contain the virus as a way to sustain the economy.

If, as Dr. Anthony Fauci has urged, the federal government imposes a nationwide stay-at-home order to prevent further spread of the coronavirus, the pause will have an immediate effect on the economy. And if Dr. Fauci’s and other health experts’ advice is dismissed, we will likely see thousands more cases of COVID-19.

This will only prolong the economic fallout caused by the virus, a point Bill Gates argued in The Washington Post.

“Until the case numbers start to go down across America — which could take 10 weeks or more — no one can continue business as usual or relax the shutdown. Any confusion about this point will only extend the economic pain, raise the odds that the virus will return, and cause more deaths,” Gates wrote on March 31, 2020.