(Five-minute read) 

The outbreak of Covid-19 has the potential to cause not just millions of deaths but a global depression that will resemble a global war.

Ultimately both will be determined not by the spread of the virus in wealthy countries but how it evolves (which is almost impossible to predict ) in what is called third world countries. 

Dare I say it if no vaccine is found with such a contagious virus unimaginable devastation is becoming a very real possibility.

Sure, if the current level of disruption is manageable our way of life will return drip by drip until the virus hits ill-equipped countries when it will return with a vengeance.

Then we won’t be worried then about the potential cascading economic effects.

It could end up for lack of better terminological words like Donal Dump’s might voice it, ” It’s going to be great. Really big and really really serious.”

What can be done?

The UN is too cumbersome.

The big powers of the financial world are exhausted from a decade of fighting anemic growth.

With global debt three times, the size of the global economy coordination of any global response is unlikely in an increasingly fractured world.

Multinational institutions have little or no teeth when it comes to day to day issues.

So we the people of the world (While vaccines are in development and initial treatments are showing some signs of success, the potential human impact of the disease is immense and a cause for global concern.) need to start thinking about it now and not just muddle through, hoping to put it all back together with sticking plaster over the next few years.

Broadly speaking, the economy will cease to function. Capitalism will be suspended.

At the outset, politicians will tend to prefer maintaining the current system – even though it will have been completely broken by Covid-19.

Globalization will go into reverse.

The speed of any reversal will depend on the type of government that emerges from the crisis. There is a higher likelihood of more nationalist, protectionist, and less cosmopolitan politicians emerging in countries traumatized by the virus.

The world is mired in the worst disaster of our times.

Unpalatable as it may sound, we must anticipate the even bigger problems of climate danger.

I fear they will be unimaginably catastrophic in countries with fragile infrastructures, economies, and medical services.

Of the 195 countries in the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that virtually all have confirmed cases.

Despite compelling evidence of this danger, the climate crisis, too many, still feels futuristic.

The much-needed stimulus packages that governments are readying to revive their economies and lessen the suffering must ameliorate rather than aggravate the even more deadly climate crisis.  

Should COVID-19 cases skyrocket in regions of extreme poverty, conflict zones and refugee camps the effects will be deadly and will jeopardize decades of global health progress and efforts to eradicate poverty for generations to come.

It is in these very places that the coronavirus can infect not thousands, but millions of people.

According to the World Bank, 10% of the world’s population lives on less than $1.90 a day. That’s 700 million or 7 billion fingers that can buy a bar of soap.

How we respond to this pandemic will reshape humankind.

No one is safe until we’re all safe

There are few times in collective memory that call us to a united human

community as now.

Our duty calls us to stop the third wave. 

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.