The coronavirus pandemic affected every single area of people’s lives and humanity. It damaged business, education, and entertainment, including sports, music, and movie industries. Indeed, all of that has significantly impacted the economy of the world and countries separately. COVID-19 affected people’s workplaces, and schools, and colleges where their children study. After two years of the pandemic, society got used to it and made adjustments to live almost like before, but still has no clue when it will entirely end.
One of the main problems connected to the COVID-19 pandemic is inequality. Studies show that fifty-nine percent of New York students five years and older “have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine” (McCarthy). However, there is a massive gap between the districts of the city. As McCarthy claims in her work about New York school vaccination, in district number two, one of the wealthiest parts of the city, “eighty percent have received at least one dose.” At the same time, only thirty-eight percent of children from the twenty-third district’s schools can confirm vaccination (McCarthy). That creates a noticeable gap between different layers of society in their possibility to be healthy. Even so, almost seventy percent of Americans are already vaccinated as of June twenty-second, and nearly eighty percent got at least one dose (Carlsen et al.). The disparity in vaccination between different layers of the society reflects the general inequalities.
Pandemics demonstrate the weaknesses of the systems, especially in economics. Many economic experts stated that most of the last years’ tendencies were temporary, but that is not proven yet, instead, the movement in the opposite direction can be seen. The COVID-19 crisis is multiplied by war in Ukraine, creating genuine uncertainty in the world’s future at all levels. Over these years of the pandemic, the house owners in America have gained a lot in housing wealth. Badger and Quoctrung in their work about the pandemic housing market say that it is perfect for those with their own house, but “it’s also inseparable from the housing affordability crisis for those who don’t”. The rents rise, inflation only grows, and the availability to own real estate at least someday is smaller than ever. That creates another distance between different categories of the population.
Coronavirus as a disease has affected people of different ages differently. The ONS claims that “three-quarters of all deaths were among those aged seventy-five and over in the UK” (Cheshire-Allen and Calder). That situation not only shows the problem of ageism but also demonstrates careless systems and procedures and continuous examples of it. It shows how “frail and shaky can such a conception be as the basis for support for family carers” (Cheshire-Allen and Calder). America needs to understand the challenges and risks of caring for older people to build itself after the pandemic.
Countries’ governments spent colossal amounts of money to help businesses and companies survive lockdown. US government spent at least five trillion dollars on it (Smialek). That is another global problem of inequality that COVID-19 caused. As Smialek states in her work about the American economy during the pandemic, “businesses discovered that they were able to raise prices without losing customers. Workers saw their bills swelling, airfares climbing, and they began to ask their employers for more money” (Smialek). However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine could change the world’s interconnections even more, and it has already made gigantic moves in international in former times regular connections. Everything is unclear, and it could take a lot of time until the world understands what the future economy will look like.
Another coronavirus issue directly associated with inequality is the international migration of medical workers. Throughout the pandemic, thousands of nurses and doctors from Africa migrated to developed countries like the United States, Germany, Finland, and the United Kingdom. The problem is the lack of medical workers, due to frequent cases of infections, especially at the beginning of COVID-19. African nurses understand that many countries can value their work a lot more in terms of money than their homeland. At the same time, the amount of qualified medical workers in Africa is many times less than, for example, in Canada. According to Sinead Carbery, president of O’Grady Peyton International, “about a thousand nurses are arriving in the United States each month from African nations, the Philippines, and the Caribbean” (Nolen). That means that North American and European countries raise the importance of their citizens’ health much higher than the residents of poor countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis is still on, and even though some industries have positive developments, nations will deal with the consequences of this virus for many years more. The war in Ukraine has made the process of returning to the usual complicated and uncertain. The economic and political conditions changed a lot and will change even more if the war does not stop soon. Although COVID-19 happened, the war was not necessary, and it must be stopped as quickly as possible if humanity wants to escape the crisis.
Works Cited
Badger, Emily and Quoctrung Bui. “The Extraordinary Wealth Created by the Pandemic Housing Market”. The New York Times, Web.
Carlsen, Audrey, et al. “How are the COVID-19 Vaccine and Booster Campaigns Going in Your State?”. NPR, Web.
Cheshire-Allen, Maria, and Calder Gideon. “The Risks of Care: Justice, Family Carers, and the Pandemic.”TransformingSociety, Web.
McCarthy, Lauren. “New York City’s School Vaccination Numbers Show Deep Disparities Between Rich and Poor”. The New York Times, Web.
Nolen, Stephanie. “Rich Countries Lure Health Workers from Low-Income Nations to Fight Shortages”. The New York Times, Web.
Smialek, Jeanna. “Is America’s Economy Entering a New Normal?”. The New York Times, Web.