global pandemic essay

How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

Students can share how they navigated life during the coronavirus pandemic in a full-length essay or an optional supplement.

Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays

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Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic.

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many – a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them – and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic – and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

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I Thought We’d Learned Nothing From the Pandemic. I Wasn’t Seeing the Full Picture

M y first home had a back door that opened to a concrete patio with a giant crack down the middle. When my sister and I played, I made sure to stay on the same side of the divide as her, just in case. The 1988 film The Land Before Time was one of the first movies I ever saw, and the image of the earth splintering into pieces planted its roots in my brain. I believed that, even in my own backyard, I could easily become the tiny Triceratops separated from her family, on the other side of the chasm, as everything crumbled into chaos.

Some 30 years later, I marvel at the eerie, unexpected ways that cartoonish nightmare came to life – not just for me and my family, but for all of us. The landscape was already covered in fissures well before COVID-19 made its way across the planet, but the pandemic applied pressure, and the cracks broke wide open, separating us from each other physically and ideologically. Under the weight of the crisis, we scattered and landed on such different patches of earth we could barely see each other’s faces, even when we squinted. We disagreed viciously with each other, about how to respond, but also about what was true.

Recently, someone asked me if we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, and my first thought was a flat no. Nothing. There was a time when I thought it would be the very thing to draw us together and catapult us – as a capital “S” Society – into a kinder future. It’s surreal to remember those early days when people rallied together, sewing masks for health care workers during critical shortages and gathering on balconies in cities from Dallas to New York City to clap and sing songs like “Yellow Submarine.” It felt like a giant lightning bolt shot across the sky, and for one breath, we all saw something that had been hidden in the dark – the inherent vulnerability in being human or maybe our inescapable connectedness .

More from TIME

Read More: The Family Time the Pandemic Stole

But it turns out, it was just a flash. The goodwill vanished as quickly as it appeared. A couple of years later, people feel lied to, abandoned, and all on their own. I’ve felt my own curiosity shrinking, my willingness to reach out waning , my ability to keep my hands open dwindling. I look out across the landscape and see selfishness and rage, burnt earth and so many dead bodies. Game over. We lost. And if we’ve already lost, why try?

Still, the question kept nagging me. I wondered, am I seeing the full picture? What happens when we focus not on the collective society but at one face, one story at a time? I’m not asking for a bow to minimize the suffering – a pretty flourish to put on top and make the whole thing “worth it.” Yuck. That’s not what we need. But I wondered about deep, quiet growth. The kind we feel in our bodies, relationships, homes, places of work, neighborhoods.

Like a walkie-talkie message sent to my allies on the ground, I posted a call on my Instagram. What do you see? What do you hear? What feels possible? Is there life out here? Sprouting up among the rubble? I heard human voices calling back – reports of life, personal and specific. I heard one story at a time – stories of grief and distrust, fury and disappointment. Also gratitude. Discovery. Determination.

Among the most prevalent were the stories of self-revelation. Almost as if machines were given the chance to live as humans, people described blossoming into fuller selves. They listened to their bodies’ cues, recognized their desires and comforts, tuned into their gut instincts, and honored the intuition they hadn’t realized belonged to them. Alex, a writer and fellow disabled parent, found the freedom to explore a fuller version of herself in the privacy the pandemic provided. “The way I dress, the way I love, and the way I carry myself have both shrunk and expanded,” she shared. “I don’t love myself very well with an audience.” Without the daily ritual of trying to pass as “normal” in public, Tamar, a queer mom in the Netherlands, realized she’s autistic. “I think the pandemic helped me to recognize the mask,” she wrote. “Not that unmasking is easy now. But at least I know it’s there.” In a time of widespread suffering that none of us could solve on our own, many tended to our internal wounds and misalignments, large and small, and found clarity.

Read More: A Tool for Staying Grounded in This Era of Constant Uncertainty

I wonder if this flourishing of self-awareness is at least partially responsible for the life alterations people pursued. The pandemic broke open our personal notions of work and pushed us to reevaluate things like time and money. Lucy, a disabled writer in the U.K., made the hard decision to leave her job as a journalist covering Westminster to write freelance about her beloved disability community. “This work feels important in a way nothing else has ever felt,” she wrote. “I don’t think I’d have realized this was what I should be doing without the pandemic.” And she wasn’t alone – many people changed jobs , moved, learned new skills and hobbies, became politically engaged.

Perhaps more than any other shifts, people described a significant reassessment of their relationships. They set boundaries, said no, had challenging conversations. They also reconnected, fell in love, and learned to trust. Jeanne, a quilter in Indiana, got to know relatives she wouldn’t have connected with if lockdowns hadn’t prompted weekly family Zooms. “We are all over the map as regards to our belief systems,” she emphasized, “but it is possible to love people you don’t see eye to eye with on every issue.” Anna, an anti-violence advocate in Maine, learned she could trust her new marriage: “Life was not a honeymoon. But we still chose to turn to each other with kindness and curiosity.” So many bonds forged and broken, strengthened and strained.

Instead of relying on default relationships or institutional structures, widespread recalibrations allowed for going off script and fortifying smaller communities. Mara from Idyllwild, Calif., described the tangible plan for care enacted in her town. “We started a mutual-aid group at the beginning of the pandemic,” she wrote, “and it grew so quickly before we knew it we were feeding 400 of the 4000 residents.” She didn’t pretend the conditions were ideal. In fact, she expressed immense frustration with our collective response to the pandemic. Even so, the local group rallied and continues to offer assistance to their community with help from donations and volunteers (many of whom were originally on the receiving end of support). “I’ve learned that people thrive when they feel their connection to others,” she wrote. Clare, a teacher from the U.K., voiced similar conviction as she described a giant scarf she’s woven out of ribbons, each representing a single person. The scarf is “a collection of stories, moments and wisdom we are sharing with each other,” she wrote. It now stretches well over 1,000 feet.

A few hours into reading the comments, I lay back on my bed, phone held against my chest. The room was quiet, but my internal world was lighting up with firefly flickers. What felt different? Surely part of it was receiving personal accounts of deep-rooted growth. And also, there was something to the mere act of asking and listening. Maybe it connected me to humans before battle cries. Maybe it was the chance to be in conversation with others who were also trying to understand – what is happening to us? Underneath it all, an undeniable thread remained; I saw people peering into the mess and narrating their findings onto the shared frequency. Every comment was like a flare into the sky. I’m here! And if the sky is full of flares, we aren’t alone.

I recognized my own pandemic discoveries – some minor, others massive. Like washing off thick eyeliner and mascara every night is more effort than it’s worth; I can transform the mundane into the magical with a bedsheet, a movie projector, and twinkle lights; my paralyzed body can mother an infant in ways I’d never seen modeled for me. I remembered disappointing, bewildering conversations within my own family of origin and our imperfect attempts to remain close while also seeing things so differently. I realized that every time I get the weekly invite to my virtual “Find the Mumsies” call, with a tiny group of moms living hundreds of miles apart, I’m being welcomed into a pocket of unexpected community. Even though we’ve never been in one room all together, I’ve felt an uncommon kind of solace in their now-familiar faces.

Hope is a slippery thing. I desperately want to hold onto it, but everywhere I look there are real, weighty reasons to despair. The pandemic marks a stretch on the timeline that tangles with a teetering democracy, a deteriorating planet , the loss of human rights that once felt unshakable . When the world is falling apart Land Before Time style, it can feel trite, sniffing out the beauty – useless, firing off flares to anyone looking for signs of life. But, while I’m under no delusions that if we just keep trudging forward we’ll find our own oasis of waterfalls and grassy meadows glistening in the sunshine beneath a heavenly chorus, I wonder if trivializing small acts of beauty, connection, and hope actually cuts us off from resources essential to our survival. The group of abandoned dinosaurs were keeping each other alive and making each other laugh well before they made it to their fantasy ending.

Read More: How Ice Cream Became My Own Personal Act of Resistance

After the monarch butterfly went on the endangered-species list, my friend and fellow writer Hannah Soyer sent me wildflower seeds to plant in my yard. A simple act of big hope – that I will actually plant them, that they will grow, that a monarch butterfly will receive nourishment from whatever blossoms are able to push their way through the dirt. There are so many ways that could fail. But maybe the outcome wasn’t exactly the point. Maybe hope is the dogged insistence – the stubborn defiance – to continue cultivating moments of beauty regardless. There is value in the planting apart from the harvest.

I can’t point out a single collective lesson from the pandemic. It’s hard to see any great “we.” Still, I see the faces in my moms’ group, making pancakes for their kids and popping on between strings of meetings while we try to figure out how to raise these small people in this chaotic world. I think of my friends on Instagram tending to the selves they discovered when no one was watching and the scarf of ribbons stretching the length of more than three football fields. I remember my family of three, holding hands on the way up the ramp to the library. These bits of growth and rings of support might not be loud or right on the surface, but that’s not the same thing as nothing. If we only cared about the bottom-line defeats or sweeping successes of the big picture, we’d never plant flowers at all.

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Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

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The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

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COVID-19 photo essay: We’re all in this together

About the author, department of global communications.

The United Nations Department of Global Communications (DGC) promotes global awareness and understanding of the work of the United Nations.

23 June 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic has  demonstrated the interconnected nature of our world – and that no one is safe until everyone is safe.  Only by acting in solidarity can communities save lives and overcome the devastating socio-economic impacts of the virus.  In partnership with the United Nations, people around the world are showing acts of humanity, inspiring hope for a better future. 

Everyone can do something    

Rauf Salem, a volunteer, instructs children on the right way to wash their hands, in Sana'a, Yemen.  Simple measures, such as maintaining physical distance, washing hands frequently and wearing a mask are imperative if the fight against COVID-19 is to be won.  Photo: UNICEF/UNI341697

Creating hope

Venezuelan refugee Juan Batista Ramos, 69, plays guitar in front of a mural he painted at the Tancredo Neves temporary shelter in Boa Vista, Brazil to help lift COVID-19 quarantine blues.  “Now, everywhere you look you will see a landscape to remind us that there is beauty in the world,” he says.  Ramos is among the many artists around the world using the power of culture to inspire hope and solidarity during the pandemic.  Photo: UNHCR/Allana Ferreira

Inclusive solutions

Wendy Schellemans, an education assistant at the Royal Woluwe Institute in Brussels, models a transparent face mask designed to help the hard of hearing.  The United Nations and partners are working to ensure that responses to COVID-19 leave no one behind.  Photo courtesy of Royal Woluwe Institute

Humanity at its best

Maryna, a community worker at the Arts Centre for Children and Youth in Chasiv Yar village, Ukraine, makes face masks on a sewing machine donated by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and civil society partner, Proliska.  She is among the many people around the world who are voluntarily addressing the shortage of masks on the market. Photo: UNHCR/Artem Hetman

Keep future leaders learning

A mother helps her daughter Ange, 8, take classes on television at home in Man, Côte d'Ivoire.  Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, caregivers and educators have responded in stride and have been instrumental in finding ways to keep children learning.  In Côte d'Ivoire, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) partnered with the Ministry of Education on a ‘school at home’ initiative, which includes taping lessons to be aired on national TV and radio.  Ange says: “I like to study at home.  My mum is a teacher and helps me a lot.  Of course, I miss my friends, but I can sleep a bit longer in the morning.  Later I want to become a lawyer or judge."  Photo: UNICEF/UNI320749

Global solidarity

People in Nigeria’s Lagos State simulate sneezing into their elbows during a coronavirus prevention campaign.  Many African countries do not have strong health care systems.  “Global solidarity with Africa is an imperative – now and for recovering better,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.  “Ending the pandemic in Africa is essential for ending it across the world.” Photo: UNICEF Nigeria/2020/Ojo

A new way of working

Henri Abued Manzano, a tour guide at the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Vienna, speaks from his apartment.  COVID-19 upended the way people work, but they can be creative while in quarantine.  “We quickly decided that if visitors can’t come to us, we will have to come to them,” says Johanna Kleinert, Chief of the UNIS Visitors Service in Vienna.  Photo courtesy of Kevin Kühn

Life goes on

Hundreds of millions of babies are expected to be born during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Fionn, son of Chloe O'Doherty and her husband Patrick, is among them.  The couple says: “It's all over.  We did it.  Brought life into the world at a time when everything is so uncertain.  The relief and love are palpable.  Nothing else matters.”  Photo: UNICEF/UNI321984/Bopape

Putting meals on the table

Sudanese refugee Halima, in Tripoli, Libya, says food assistance is making her life better.  COVID-19 is exacerbating the existing hunger crisis.  Globally, 6 million more people could be pushed into extreme poverty unless the international community acts now.  United Nations aid agencies are appealing for more funding to reach vulnerable populations.  Photo: UNHCR

Supporting the frontlines

The United Nations Air Service, run by the World Food Programme (WFP), distributes protective gear donated by the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Group, in Somalia. The United Nations is using its supply chain capacity to rapidly move badly needed personal protective equipment, such as medical masks, gloves, gowns and face-shields to the frontline of the battle against COVID-19. Photo: WFP/Jama Hassan  

S7-Episode 2: Bringing Health to the World

“You see, we're not doing this work to make ourselves feel better. That sort of conventional notion of what a do-gooder is. We're doing this work because we are totally convinced that it's not necessary in today's wealthy world for so many people to be experiencing discomfort, for so many people to be experiencing hardship, for so many people to have their lives and their livelihoods imperiled.”

Dr. David Nabarro has dedicated his life to global health. After a long career that’s taken him from the horrors of war torn Iraq, to the devastating aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami, he is still spurred to action by the tremendous inequalities in global access to medical care.

“The thing that keeps me awake most at night is the rampant inequities in our world…We see an awful lot of needless suffering.”

:: David Nabarro interviewed by Melissa Fleming

Brazilian ballet pirouettes during pandemic

Ballet Manguinhos, named for its favela in Rio de Janeiro, returns to the stage after a long absence during the COVID-19 pandemic. It counts 250 children and teenagers from the favela as its performers. The ballet group provides social support in a community where poverty, hunger and teen pregnancy are constant issues.

Radio journalist gives the facts on COVID-19 in Uzbekistan

The pandemic has put many people to the test, and journalists are no exception. Coronavirus has waged war not only against people's lives and well-being but has also spawned countless hoaxes and scientific falsehoods.

Reimagining the global economy: Building back better in a post-COVID-19 world

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November 17, 2020

The COVID-19 global pandemic has produced a human and economic crisis unlike any in recent memory. The global economy is experiencing its deepest recession since World War II, disrupting economic activity, travel, supply chains, and more. Governments have responded with lockdown measures and stimulus plans, but the extent of these actions has been unequal across countries. Within countries, the most vulnerable populations have been disproportionately affected, both in regard to job loss and the spread of the virus.

The implications of the crisis going forward are vast. Notwithstanding the recent announcement of vaccines, much is unknown about how the pandemic will spread in the short term and beyond, as well as what will be its lasting effects. What is clear, however, is that the time is ripe for change and policy reform. The hope is that decisionmakers can rise to the challenge in the medium term to tackle the COVID-19 virus and related challenges that the pandemic has exacerbated—be it the climate crisis, rising inequality, job insecurity, or international cooperation.

In this collection of 12 essays, leading scholars affiliated with the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings present new ideas that are forward-looking, policy-focused, and that will guide policies and shape debates in a post-COVID-19 world.

Sustainable Development Goals

Authors: Homi Kharas , John W. McArthur

Some have questioned whether the pandemic has put attaining the already ambitious 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) out of reach, and whether they should be scaled back and deprioritized. In this essay, Homi Kharas and John McArthur argue that the SDGs remain as relevant as ever and that the goals can in fact provide a handrail for recovery policy.

Continue reading

Leadership at the local level

Authors: Anthony F. Pipa , Max Bouchet

The pandemic has revealed the importance of good leadership at the local level. In this essay, Anthony F. Pipa and Max Bouchet explore the role that global cities can have in driving a sustainable recovery.

Multilateralism

Authors: Kemal Derviş

Given the global nature of the pandemic,  there have been  calls for greater international cooperation. In this essay, Kemal Derviş examines the state of  multilateralism  and presents lessons of caution as its future is reimagined.

Rebooting the climate agenda

Authors: Amar Bhattacharya

Shared recognition of the   climate agenda is central to global cooperation.  In this essay, Amar Bhattacharya explores  how   international action   can  pursue  a   recovery  that produces sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth.  

The international monetary and financial system

Authors: Brahima Sangafowa Coulibaly , Eswar Prasad

The pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in the international financial system and the need to improve the financial safety net for emerging and developing countries. In this essay, Brahima Coulibaly and Eswar Prasad make the case for an international monetary and financial system that is fit for purpose to help countries better withstand shocks like a global pandemic.

The future of global supply chains

Authors: David Dollar

International trade has slowed, and existing trade challenges, including automation, new data flows, and the rise of protectionism, could accelerate post-COVID. In this essay, David Dollar discusses these challenges, the future of global supply chains, and the implications for international trade.

The global productivity slump

Authors: Alistair Dieppe , M. Ayhan Kose

COVID-19 could further accelerate the fall in global productivity, which has been slowing since the global financial crisis. Evidence from other recent pandemics such as SARS and Ebola show their negative impact on investment growth and productivity. In this essay, Alistair Dieppe and Ayhan Kose argue that policy approaches to boost productivity must be country-specific and well-targeted.

Dislocation of labor markets

Authors: Marcela Escobari , Eduardo Levy Yeyati

Throughout the world, the health and economic costs of the pandemic have been felt harder by less well-off populations. On the jobs front, the pandemic is affecting labor markets differently across and within advanced and developing countries as low-wage, high-contact jobs are disproportionally affected. In this essay, Marcela Escobari and Eduardo Levy Yeyati explore the future of work and policies for formalizing and broadening labor protections to bolster resiliency.

Tackling the inequality pandemic

Authors: Zia Qureshi

Technology, globalization, and weakening redistribution policies are leading to rising inequality in many countries. To tackle inequality, Zia Qureshi discusses policies to better harness technology for fostering inclusive economic growth.

The human costs of the pandemic

Authors: Carol Graham

Evidence suggests that the poor have been suffering higher emotional costs during the pandemic. In this essay, Carol Graham offers a look into well-being measurement and strategies to combat the effects of the lockdowns.

The complexity of managing COVID-19

Authors: Alaka M. Basu , Kaushik Basu , Jose Maria U. Tapia

From strict lockdowns to ensuring sufficient supplies of personal protective equipment to sending students home from school, governments around the world have enacted varying measures to respond to the virus. In this essay, Alaka M. Basu, Kaushik Basu, and Jose Maria U. Tapia examine how governments in emerging markets have managed the crisis so far, as they design governance strategies that both reduce the spread of infection and avoid prohibiting economic activity.

Global education

Authors: Emiliana Vegas , Rebecca Winthrop

COVID-19 disrupted education systems everywhere and has accelerated education inequality as seen through what service governments could provide: At one point during the pandemic, 1 in 4 low-income countries was able to provide remote education, while 9 in 10 high-income countries were able to. In this essay, Emiliana Vegas and Rebecca Winthrop present an aspirational vision for transforming education systems to better serve all children.

Global Trade Sustainable Development Goals

Global Economy and Development

Eswar Prasad, Caroline Smiltneks

April 14, 2024

Robin Brooks

April 11, 2024

The Brookings Institution, Washington DC

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Covid 19 Essay in English

Essay on Covid -19: In a very short amount of time, coronavirus has spread globally. It has had an enormous impact on people's lives, economy, and societies all around the world, affecting every country. Governments have had to take severe measures to try and contain the pandemic. The virus has altered our way of life in many ways, including its effects on our health and our economy. Here are a few sample essays on ‘CoronaVirus’.

100 Words Essay on Covid 19

200 words essay on covid 19, 500 words essay on covid 19.

COVID-19 or Corona Virus is a novel coronavirus that was first identified in 2019. It is similar to other coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, but it is more contagious and has caused more severe respiratory illness in people who have been infected. The novel coronavirus became a global pandemic in a very short period of time. It has affected lives, economies and societies across the world, leaving no country untouched. The virus has caused governments to take drastic measures to try and contain it. From health implications to economic and social ramifications, COVID-19 impacted every part of our lives. It has been more than 2 years since the pandemic hit and the world is still recovering from its effects.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the world has been impacted in a number of ways. For one, the global economy has taken a hit as businesses have been forced to close their doors. This has led to widespread job losses and an increase in poverty levels around the world. Additionally, countries have had to impose strict travel restrictions in an attempt to contain the virus, which has resulted in a decrease in tourism and international trade. Furthermore, the pandemic has put immense pressure on healthcare systems globally, as hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients suffering from the virus. Lastly, the outbreak has led to a general feeling of anxiety and uncertainty, as people are fearful of contracting the disease.

My Experience of COVID-19

I still remember how abruptly colleges and schools shut down in March 2020. I was a college student at that time and I was under the impression that everything would go back to normal in a few weeks. I could not have been more wrong. The situation only got worse every week and the government had to impose a lockdown. There were so many restrictions in place. For example, we had to wear face masks whenever we left the house, and we could only go out for essential errands. Restaurants and shops were only allowed to operate at take-out capacity, and many businesses were shut down.

In the current scenario, coronavirus is dominating all aspects of our lives. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc upon people’s lives, altering the way we live and work in a very short amount of time. It has revolutionised how we think about health care, education, and even social interaction. This virus has had long-term implications on our society, including its impact on mental health, economic stability, and global politics. But we as individuals can help to mitigate these effects by taking personal responsibility to protect themselves and those around them from infection.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Education

The outbreak of coronavirus has had a significant impact on education systems around the world. In China, where the virus originated, all schools and universities were closed for several weeks in an effort to contain the spread of the disease. Many other countries have followed suit, either closing schools altogether or suspending classes for a period of time.

This has resulted in a major disruption to the education of millions of students. Some have been able to continue their studies online, but many have not had access to the internet or have not been able to afford the costs associated with it. This has led to a widening of the digital divide between those who can afford to continue their education online and those who cannot.

The closure of schools has also had a negative impact on the mental health of many students. With no face-to-face contact with friends and teachers, some students have felt isolated and anxious. This has been compounded by the worry and uncertainty surrounding the virus itself.

The situation with coronavirus has improved and schools have been reopened but students are still catching up with the gap of 2 years that the pandemic created. In the meantime, governments and educational institutions are working together to find ways to support students and ensure that they are able to continue their education despite these difficult circumstances.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Economy

The outbreak of the coronavirus has had a significant impact on the global economy. The virus, which originated in China, has spread to over two hundred countries, resulting in widespread panic and a decrease in global trade. As a result of the outbreak, many businesses have been forced to close their doors, leading to a rise in unemployment. In addition, the stock market has taken a severe hit.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Health

The effects that coronavirus has on one's health are still being studied and researched as the virus continues to spread throughout the world. However, some of the potential effects on health that have been observed thus far include respiratory problems, fever, and coughing. In severe cases, pneumonia, kidney failure, and death can occur. It is important for people who think they may have been exposed to the virus to seek medical attention immediately so that they can be treated properly and avoid any serious complications. There is no specific cure or treatment for coronavirus at this time, but there are ways to help ease symptoms and prevent the virus from spreading.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

• Construction
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Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary. 

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

GIS officer work on various GIS software to conduct a study and gather spatial and non-spatial information. GIS experts update the GIS data and maintain it. The databases include aerial or satellite imagery, latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and manually digitized images of maps. In a career as GIS expert, one is responsible for creating online and mobile maps.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Database Architect

If you are intrigued by the programming world and are interested in developing communications networks then a career as database architect may be a good option for you. Data architect roles and responsibilities include building design models for data communication networks. Wide Area Networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), and intranets are included in the database networks. It is expected that database architects will have in-depth knowledge of a company's business to develop a network to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. Stay tuned as we look at the larger picture and give you more information on what is db architecture, why you should pursue database architecture, what to expect from such a degree and what your job opportunities will be after graduation. Here, we will be discussing how to become a data architect. Students can visit NIT Trichy , IIT Kharagpur , JMI New Delhi . 

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Product manager.

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Operations Manager

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Stock Analyst

Individuals who opt for a career as a stock analyst examine the company's investments makes decisions and keep track of financial securities. The nature of such investments will differ from one business to the next. Individuals in the stock analyst career use data mining to forecast a company's profits and revenues, advise clients on whether to buy or sell, participate in seminars, and discussing financial matters with executives and evaluate annual reports.

A Researcher is a professional who is responsible for collecting data and information by reviewing the literature and conducting experiments and surveys. He or she uses various methodological processes to provide accurate data and information that is utilised by academicians and other industry professionals. Here, we will discuss what is a researcher, the researcher's salary, types of researchers.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Safety Manager

A Safety Manager is a professional responsible for employee’s safety at work. He or she plans, implements and oversees the company’s employee safety. A Safety Manager ensures compliance and adherence to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines.

Conservation Architect

A Conservation Architect is a professional responsible for conserving and restoring buildings or monuments having a historic value. He or she applies techniques to document and stabilise the object’s state without any further damage. A Conservation Architect restores the monuments and heritage buildings to bring them back to their original state.

Structural Engineer

A Structural Engineer designs buildings, bridges, and other related structures. He or she analyzes the structures and makes sure the structures are strong enough to be used by the people. A career as a Structural Engineer requires working in the construction process. It comes under the civil engineering discipline. A Structure Engineer creates structural models with the help of computer-aided design software. 

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Field Surveyor

Are you searching for a Field Surveyor Job Description? A Field Surveyor is a professional responsible for conducting field surveys for various places or geographical conditions. He or she collects the required data and information as per the instructions given by senior officials. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Pathologist

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Veterinary Doctor

Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

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The pandemic cost 7 million lives, but talks to prevent a repeat stall

In late 2021, as the world reeled from the arrival of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus , representatives of almost 200 countries met — some online, some in-person in Geneva — hoping to forestall a future worldwide outbreak by developing the first-ever global pandemic accord.

The deadline for a deal? May 2024.

The costs of not reaching one? Incalculable, experts say. An unknown future pathogen could have far more devastating consequences than SARS-CoV-2, which cost some 7 million lives and trillions of dollars in economic losses.

But even as negotiators pack in extra hours, the goal of clinching a legally binding pact by next month is far from certain — despite a new draft document being delivered in recent days. The main sticking point involves access to vital information about new threats that may emerge — and to the vaccines and medicines that could contain that threat.

“It’s the most momentous time in global health security since 1948,” when the World Health Organization was established, said Lawrence O. Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.

The backdrop to today’s negotiations is starkly different from the years after World War II when countries united around principles guaranteeing universal human rights and protecting public health. The unifying fear of covid has been replaced by worries about repeating the injustices that tainted the response to the pandemic, deepening rifts between the Global North and the Global South.

“The trauma of the covid-19 pandemic has seeped into the negotiations,” said Ellen 't Hoen, a lawyer and public health advocate who specializes in intellectual property policies. Representatives of the WHO’s 194 member countries, she said, are looking backward rather than forward.

The reasons are clear. A paper published in October 2022 in the journal Nature showed that by the end of 2021, nearly 50 percent of the global population had received two doses of coronavirus vaccine but that huge disparities existed between high-income countries, where coverage was close to 75 percent, and many low-income countries, where less than 2 percent of the population had received two doses. At the same time, South Africa, where the omicron variant was identified, felt punished by travel bans instead of being praised for its scientists’ epidemiological acumen and openness.

“We felt like we were beggars when it came to vaccine availability,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recalled at a global financial summit in 2023. “We felt like life in the Northern Hemisphere is much more important than life in the Global South.”

The United States has signaled its support for a legally binding agreement, including leveraging its purchasing power to expand access to medicines around the world. But the United States, like many European Union countries, is the object of mistrust because it is the seat of the powerful pharmaceutical industry, which is reluctant to relax control over manufacturing know-how.

The chief point of contention involves pathogen access and benefit sharing. In many ways, the story of the fraught pandemic accord negotiations is the story of Henrietta Lacks — the African American patient whose cancer cells were used in research for years without her family’s knowledge — retold on a global stage. Who gets to use — and profit from — samples and scientific information, which often come from disadvantaged groups?

High-income countries want guarantees that samples and genetic data about any new pathogen will be quickly shared to allow for the development of tests, vaccines and treatments. Developing nations, where pathogens such as AIDS, Ebola and MERS emerged in recent decades, want guarantees of benefits, such as equal access to vaccines and collaboration with local scientists.

Almost 20 years ago, the Indonesian government forced those contrasting priorities to the forefront by refusing to share bird flu samples. WHO member states responded by creating the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework , or PIP, under which key manufacturers agree to supply 10 percent of flu vaccines they make to the WHO for distribution.

No such agreement exists for other pathogens with pandemic potential.

“The PIP Framework provides us with good guidance for what an access and benefits sharing instrument could look like, but there are areas where the pandemic agreement could improve,” said Alexandra L. Phelan, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who co-authored a piece in the journal Nature in February calling for a “science-for-science mechanism” to ensure vaccine equity in the next pandemic.

A new agreement, Phelan said, could include an obligation to share genetic sequence data and factor in public health risks when determining how medical products are shared during an emergency. Unlike in earlier outbreaks, no need exists today to wait for a pathogen sample to arrive by mail in a test tube; work on vaccines and treatments can begin based on genetic sequencing attached to an email.

Even as negotiators wrestle over those points, the venture is being roiled by misinformation on social media, including hostility toward the WHO and assertions that any international agreement would threaten the sovereignty of nations — claims that WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has condemned as “utterly, completely, categorically false.” The final agreement, Tedros said in early April, won’t give the WHO power to impose lockdowns or mask mandates in individual countries.

Underlying it all is “a lack of trust,” said 't Hoen, who, like Phelan, is one of the outside experts approved by member states to provide input to the negotiations although they do not take part in the closed-door talks. Some describe lingering in the cafeteria, waiting for the opportunity to glean information or offer counsel to country representatives when they emerge in need of refreshment.

“This is a pretty nontransparent process,” said Phelan, with “a lot of grumpy and unhappy people.”

The stymied talks prompted former British prime minister Gordon Brown, who serves as WHO ambassador for global health financing, to write a letter in March to the 194 WHO member states urging them to collaborate for the common good. The letter was signed by many former presidents and prime ministers, along with experts in global health and finance.

But signing on is less politically palatable for current political leaders now that so many people have moved on from the pandemic, choosing to ignore the not-if-but-when warnings that public health officials are airing again today, just as they did before the novel coronavirus was identified more than four years ago in China.

“The global leadership is absent,” said Nina Schwalbe, principal of the global health think tank Spark Street Advisors, another expert approved to provide input to the negotiations.

And in many ways, the coronavirus has left the world more vulnerable, Schwalbe and others argue, amid increased resistance to vaccination and other preventive measures and the weariness of public health officials. In some U.S. states, officials’ powers have been curtailed by legislatures.

Meanwhile, climate change and increased interactions between human and animal populations are increasing the possibility of spillover events spawning zoonotic diseases that are all but impossible to contain given the speed of modern travel.

Efforts to study pathogens present their own risk, with laboratories around the world engaged in medical and military research aimed at increasing the virulence of existing bacteria and viruses through “gain-of-function” research, posing a threat of accidental or deliberate release.

And in March, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a paper outlining a new peril: Advances in gene editing and synthetic biology make it possible to revive pathogens including the virus that causes deadly and disfiguring smallpox — the only human disease declared to have been eradicated following a vaccine campaign by epidemiologists nearly half a century ago.

“New technologies could enable nefarious actors to genetically engineer the smallpox virus from scratch or make it even more lethal,” said Gostin, who chaired the committee that produced the National Academies report. “The potential for a laboratory leak or intentional release of smallpox or other pox viruses is real.”

Nature is also making a show of strength.

Since the beginning of 2023, the Democratic Republic of Congo has reported more than 12,000 cases of mpox resulting in 581 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , and there have been more than 700 cases this year in the United States. Bird flu has been identified in dairy cows in several U.S. states, with one dairy worker being treated for symptoms. A new JN.1 strain of the coronavirus is circulating.

When the ninth and supposedly final round of talks on the global pandemic accord closed in late March with no agreement, Tedros declared overtime, setting a date in late April for negotiations to resume. The WHO director general has portrayed the pandemic agreement as an urgent generational opportunity, only the second such global health accord, following the 2003 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which used new taxation and labeling and advertising rules to target smoking.

Asked in early April whether a deal could still be struck, Tedros sounded cautious. “I believe it can happen,” he said. In mid-April, the policy nonprofit Health Policy Watch published a new bare-bones draft agreement that is being sent to member states. It maintains support for equity, while leaving key details to be hashed out during the next two years, by which time the leadership of many instrumental countries, including the United States, may have changed. Meetings are set to resume April 29.

Some experts have speculated that the original timeline was too short to unite 194 countries around such a divisive and complex topic, pointing out that many treaties take years to finalize and that this process has been complicated by concurrent negotiations over the International Health Regulations, which aim to prevent the spread of disease. The Biden administration also just announced its own Global Health Security Strategy, with a goal of combating health emergencies by using U.S. leadership to drive investment in prevention and response among partner countries.

But past crises have shown that complex global negotiations can move quickly.

“After Chernobyl, a legally binding treaty was negotiated within six months,” Schwalbe said, referring to the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster. “Covid-19 is a calamity of equal importance.”

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The global impact of the coronavirus pandemic

John hiscott.

a Pasteur Laboratory, Istituto Pasteur Italia - Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti, Rome, 00161 Italy

Magdalini Alexandridi

Michela muscolini, evelyne tassone, enrico palermo, maria soultsioti.

b Molecular Virology Laboratory, Department of Medical Microbiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

Alessandra Zevini

The coronavirus pandemic has engulfed the nations of the world for the first five months of 2020 and altered the pace, fabric and nature of our lives. In this overview accompanying the Special Issue of Cytokine & Growth Factor Reviews , we examine some of the many social and scientific issues impacted by SARS-CoV2 – personal lives, economy, scientific communication, the environment. International members of Istituto Pasteur in Rome and INITIATE, the Marie Curie Training Network reflect on the lasting global impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

1. Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020 and a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Countries were urged by WHO to adopt strict social distancing and quarantine measures to avoid virus spread and to protect public health [ 1 ]. Despite fragmented international efforts to contain the spread, SARS-CoV2 has spread to 213 countries, resulting in more than 5 million cases and deaths approaching 400,000 since its formal identification in Wuhan China in December 2019. This issue of Cytokine & Growth Factor Reviews is devoted to reviews from around the globe, describing the rapidly accumulating knowledge about the virus, the immunopathogenic consequences of severe disease, the consequences of the cytokine storm and potential therapeutic interventions that could improve morbidity and mortality until a vaccine can be developed and made available. Below, members of Istituto Pasteur in Rome and the Marie Curie ITN INITIATE ( https://initiate-itn.eu ) reflect on the lasting global impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

2. Warning signs

“ Pestilence is in fact very common, but we find it hard to believe in a pestilence when it descends upon us. There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise .”

- Albert Camus, The Plague

‘How quickly it hit us’ – this is one of the most common sentiments about the Covid-19 pandemic. We were all caught off guard in one way or another; in an instant, an obscure outbreak of pneumonia in an exotic foreign locale - in the next, a viral outbreak jumping from China to the heart of Italy, then to all of Europe, on to America - finally a plague that stopped the world. As the pandemic hit all countries of the globe, it became indisputably clear that everyone was connected - united against a viral scourge [ 2 ].

Despite the shock, there were plenty of warning signs. Since the beginning of the 21st century, recurring outbreaks and epidemics presaged what was coming - there was the first SARS outbreak in 2003, H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009, MERS coronavirus in 2011, Ebola in 2014−16; mosquito-borne Zika in 2016. A collage of news magazines ( Fig. 1 ) screamed out warnings of an impending pandemic but the clichéd phrase ‘it’s not a matter of if, but when’ continued to be ignored. Even the messages from political leaders (Presidents Barak Obama and George W. Bush) and scientific leaders (NIAID Director Anthony Fauci) went unheard. Below are links to their statements from 2005 to 2017.

Magazine covers from recent years announcing the arrival of new virus outbreaks around the globe.

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/04/10/barack-obama-2014-pandemic-comments-sot-ctn-vpx.cnn

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/george-bush-2005-wait-pandemic-late-prepare/story?id=69979013

https://www.sciencealert.com/niaid-director-warned-us-government-of-a-surprise-outbreak-in-2017

International cooperation and a unified strategy of pandemic preparedness were not a priority. In the end, there was no united response - a global leadership void painfully revealed at a moment when it was most needed. What resulted was an international cacophony of last moment efforts, strategies and opinions to suppress the viral pandemic - after it was already upon the world.

3. Global scientific response

“ I have no idea what's awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing .”

In order to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, an unparalleled international scientific response has been launched with the goal to understand viral genetics, immunopathogenesis, and therapeutic strategies. Public and private funders across the globe have launched an unprecedented number of initiatives to support multidisciplinary projects addressing the detection, treatment and prevention of SARS-CoV2 infections. Most of the calls encourage collaboration between international scientists, industry, healthcare community, and government policy makers, to facilitate a well-integrated COVID-19 response. The dramatic effects of COVID-19 outbreak taught us that similar pandemics cannot be managed solely at the national level. For this reason, alliances, consortia and networks have emerged on every continent, to connect experts in different research areas of fundamental science, clinical trials, social and behavioural sciences, engineering, and bioinformatics [ 3 ].

In the same context, it has been remarkable how research groups and companies from all over the world have been “repurposing” equipment, facilities and product lines in a joint effort for a rapid response against the ongoing pandemic. Companies that were once producing perfume switched gears to production of much-needed hand sanitizers and disinfectants; industrial companies switched to making face masks which were in short supply in many countries, and automotive companies started production of medical devices, such as ventilators. Scientists in non-virology research fields, who were required to halt their research indefinitely due to the lockdowns, turned their laboratories into diagnostic testing facilities for SARS-CoV-2 and organized into volunteer groups to help researchers on the front lines with their skills and expertise [ [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] ].

This pandemic has also brought to light the importance of open science, data-sharing and new means of communication among members of the scientific community [ [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] ]. Numerous data sets are available publicly, alongside literature reviews and preprint articles in bioarxiv and medarxiv portals. This openness has resulted in a massive amount of information spreading swiftly, which is an important driving force moving COVID-19 research forward in a short time. Of course, such openness comes with a cost: the surge of preprints available in bioarxiv and medarxiv has made it harder to keep up with the screening process of articles to be published in the preprint repositories. More than ever before, information needs to be scrutinized before going public to avoid the danger of inaccuracies, misinformation or even conspiracy theories. Such a situation is unprecedented, as no other pandemic in human history has been tackled in this way. Many scientists all over the world welcome this new form of communication and data-sharing and believe that eventually there will be a balance between good-quality information spreading quicker versus perfect-quality information that is unavailable until much later [ 8 ].

The EU joined forces to coordinate a common response against the coronavirus pandemic. On 30th January 2020, when the pandemic was not declared yet, European Commission mobilized a budget of €10 million for research, that was subsequently increased to €47.5 million [ 11 ]; later on, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a partnership between the European Commission and the pharmaceutical industry, invested a total of 90 € million for research proposals to combat the COVID-19 emergency [ 12 ]. During the Coronavirus Global Response pledging event organized by the EU together with WHO (May 4th), €7.4 billion was raised from donors worldwide, to be used “for developing, producing and deploying a vaccine for all”, the European Commission President von der Leyen said [ 13 ]. In the UK, Government invested £20 million to fund new studies against coronavirus, including studies to sequence the different virus isolates as a tool to understand virus behaviour, mutation frequency, virus spread and emergence of new strains [ 14 , 15 ].

Part of these funds will be also used to allow the rapid, large scale production of a vaccine. With more than 100 research laboratories conducting vaccine development research, and with eight vaccine candidates already moving to clinal trials, the race to develop an effective prophylactic vaccine is on [ 16 , 22 ]. Since the biotech firm Moderna announced plans to launch vaccine trials in humans, the US government has invested $483 million to scale up that company’s vaccine production [ 17 ]. Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), together with other government organizations and biotech companies, set up a partnership to coordinate efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic, giving priority to the development of an efficient vaccine and therapeutic drugs [ 18 ]. Days ago, Moderna announced the results of a small eight-person phase I trial of their spike mRNA vaccine candidate, and the preliminary results indicate that all subjects developed antibodies, even at the lowest dose of inoculum [ 19 ], encouraging the company to proceed with a phase II clinical trial that will involve 600 participants. However, scientists are cautious over the successes of such vaccine candidates since the levels of the immune response needed to grant protection against SARS-CoV-2 are not yet well understood [ 8 ].

European biotech companies are also working to develop a potential COVID-19 vaccine. In Germany, BioNTech has designed four vaccine candidates that deliver mRNA encoding four different viral antigens [ 20 ]; ReiThera in Rome, Leukocare in Munich, and Univercells in Brussels have announced the creation of a European consortium that will start the clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine. The two pharma giants Sanofi and GSK have recently started a collaboration finalized to the development of an adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine [ 21 22 ]

To contribute to the pandemic effort, the COVID-19 High Performance Computing (HPC) Consortium demonstrates cooperation amongst global high tech giants Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM; the HPC Consortium offers services, resources and expertise to support molecular modelling projects as the simulation of SARS-CoV2 entering in a host cell, the high throughput screening of drug candidates, and the evaluation of patients’ genomic features with prognostic values [ 23 ].

4. Lockdown & social distance

“The public lacked, in short, standards of comparison. It was only as time passed and the steady rise in the death-rate could not be ignored that public opinion became alive to the truth.”

A. Europe. As the pandemic spread throughout the world, countries took drastic measures to protect their citizens. These measures focused on achieving a fragile balance between limiting virus spread from person to person and maintaining economic activity. It was an impossible balance, although the timing of the implementation of these measures proved to be crucial, both for public health and SARS-CoV2 spread, as well as the economic impact on each country. Early lockdown and strict enforcement were the most effective strategies available to limit virus spread [ 24 , 25 ]. In an accompanying article in this issue, Olagnier & Mogensen describe the implementation of lockdown procedures in Denmark, a country with a remarkably rapid and effective response. The trilogy - social distance, personal hygiene, protective mask – became the mantra throughout Europe and the world.

Follow the spread of Covid-19 in a worldwide cases timeline ( Fig. 2 ): ( https://www.worldometer.info/coronavirus/worldwide-graphs ).

Global distribution of the Covid-19 cases.

Working in close cooperation with the WHO and EU Member States, the European Union took clear, strict measures, based on the best available scientific expertise. Some member countries faced a significantly limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the public health systems came close to collapse from the ever-increasing number of severe cases requiring emergency intensive care and ventilation [ 26 ]. In some cases, medical equipment destined for other countries was confiscated [ 27 ]. On the 20th of March, the EU announced a funding scheme of 1,3 billion euro for bulk purchase of PPE [ 28 ]; unfortunately, the UK missed the opportunity to join that funding scheme [ 29 ].

In Europe, health systems adapted to the crisis by mobilizing staff, increasing pharmaceutical spending on vaccine development, and optimizing space with the aim to increase the number and availability of intensive care beds capacity. The European average is currently 11.5 critical care beds per 100.000 capita of population [ 30 ]; in addition to the shortage of ICU beds and ventilators, the lack of health workers to staff the new units became critical. Countries such as France used army forces and camps to transport patients and optimize care bed capacity [ 31 ]. Germany, with the highest proportion of ICU beds per capita of population and one of the best European health systems, campaigned to obtain the medical help of foreign doctors who were living in Germany but did not yet have a license to practice medicine [ 32 ]. In Italy, the Netherlands, France and the UK, retired doctors, nurses and medical students were recruited to help [ 33 ].

Rather than impose a lockdown of its population, the UK initially followed a mitigation strategy to build population immunity but abandoned this plan after realizing it would result in ‘hundreds of thousands of deaths,’ as noted in a report from the Imperial College's COVID-19 response team [ 34 ]. The subsequent illness of the Prime Minister and his transfer to intensive care further contributed to the realization that strict lockdown measures were necessary. Despite ongoing restrictions in the UK, the number of cases continues to rise, the death rate is the highest in Europe and the curve of infections has yet to plateau – a reflection of the lag time before the start of the lockdown.

The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Coronavirus Resource Center ( http//:coronavirus.jhu.edu ) provides an important live global update of the spread of SARS-CoV2 that includes world map, US map and critical trends. As of 20th May 2020, the total reported cases in Europe were 1,909,592, and the total deaths are 167,538. The UK currently has the highest number of cases & deaths (250,138 & 35,169), followed by Italy (226, 699 & 32,169), Spain (232,037 & 27,778) and France (180,933 & 25,025).

Sweden similarly followed a plan of ‘voluntary’ social distancing, with the country remaining open. With a population of 10 million, the country remains amongst the top 25 in the world in terms of total number of cases, even though testing is reserved only for those with severe symptoms. These measures have not proved to be effective, and altogether the country has registered 5–10 times more deaths than neighboring Scandinavian countries. The above examples again demonstrate that fast response and strict lockdown saved lives.

JHU lists Sweden with 30,799 cases and 3743 deaths, compared to Denmark (11,315 & 551), Finland (6399 & 301) and Norway (8267 & 233).

Moreover, results from a recent antibody testing study across Spain showed that only 5% of the total number of participants tested positive for exposure to the virus and developed some level of immunity [ 35 , 36 ]. A modelling study, based on data obtained from French hospitals, has shown that by the 11th of May only 4.4 % of the French population had developed potential immunity against SARS-CoV-2 [ 37 ] Such numbers, even if remotely accurate, make it clear that letting the infection run its natural course will not result in protection levels high enough to satisfy the criteria of herd-immunity. On the other hand, if such data are interpreted as a low percentage of the population exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in two of the most affected countries in Europe, this showcases a massive positive impact of lockdown measures in containing the spread of the virus.

Lockdowns were not the only measures taken to protect public health. Asian countries which had experience with other viral outbreaks rapidly implemented strict movement restrictions and suspended all unnecessary activities, but in parallel ramped up testing for virus, as well as tracking and isolating cases and contacts [ 38 ]. At the same time, China in response to the surge of cases, built new, specially equipped hospitals to increase the number of intensive care beds, while in Korea, hotels were repurposed as care units exclusively for patients suffering from Covid-19. These countries were also the first to ban flights to and from other countries; borders were closed and open only for cargo trade [ 39 , 40 ].

JHU: Many months after the start of the outbreak in China the number of confirmed cases is more than 84,063 and the deaths are 4638; the case fatality ratio is close to 5,5%. As stated on numerous occasions, it is not clear how accurate the Chinese numbers are. Remarkably, in South Korea, the number of cases is 11,110, with only 263 deaths, numbers that reflect the positive impact of in depth efforts in testing, contact tracing and social distancing.

In the pandemic emergency, the lack of PPE and supplies like disinfectants created fear among frontline medics and staff. To draw attention to this aspect, German medical practitioners posed naked on a Twitter page; this protest was inspired by the French doctor Alain Colombié, who affirmed that doctors were being asked “to go to the front without weapons and no defences.” [ 41 ]. For the same reason protest marches involving doctors, nurses and paramedics took place in many countries - in Pakistan, they evolved into violent clashes between police and doctors, in Italy, silent flash-mobs protested the government response [ 42 , 43 ]

“Many continued hoping that the epidemic would soon die out and they and their families be spared. Thus, they felt under no obligation to make any change in their habits, as yet. Plague was an unwelcome visitant, bound to take its leave one day as unexpectedly as it had come.”

B. America. The first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in America on January 21 st and a few days later the White House Coronavirus Task Force was established. But with government inaction about the pandemic, weeks were lost when the government could have prepared its own response, informed the public and identified necessary medical supplies. New York City, with its dense population and hundreds of flights a day from Europe, became the epicenter of the pandemic in America. The first New York case was recognized on March 1, 2020, although reports now indicate that by March 1, there may have been as many as 10,000 cases in the state, imported from Italy and elsewhere. Mixed messages from city and state officials, essentially claiming ‘go on with your lives’ at the beginning of March further confused the response. Additional delays in announcing a lockdown and containment practices (the New York Pause was issued March 22) guaranteed the firm establishment of the virus in the city and state. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo became a daily fixture on the news, providing daily updates on the number of cases, the search for proper medical equipment and the courageous efforts of medical front line personnel. However, with more than 15,000 deaths in New York City, the critical need to recognize and respond swiftly to the virus was once again sadly reinforced by the staggering numbers. In contrast, California reacted more swiftly to the emergence of SARS-CoV2, and issued a ‘stay-at-home’ order on March 19, an important decision when hours and days mattered.

JHU: As of May 21st, New York state listed 354,370 cases with 28,636 deaths, while California registered 85,997 cases and 3497 deaths. For comparison the number of cases/deaths in New York City are 194,550 and 15,789, while in San Francisco, there are 2179 cases and 36 deaths.

By the end of March, all 50 states of the USA reported cases of Covid-19. A few weeks after the first Covid-19 case, the hospitals began reporting supply shortages - both for testing and personal protective equipment, a severe safety issue for frontline medical staff that was never addressed nationally. Rather, it was left to state governors to grapple with the purchase supplies on the international market [ 44 ]. In mid-March the army started constructing new hospital facilities [ 45 ]. As in Europe, large-scale gatherings were prohibited, schools and other educational institutions were closed, businesses shuttered and restrictions on movement were imposed.

JHU: As of 20 May 2020, the total reported cases in USA is 1,528,661, the number of deaths is more than 91,938.

5. Impact on economy

“The truth is that everyone is bored and devotes himself to cultivating habits. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. Their chief interest is commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, 'doing business.'”

A. Europe. The eurozone was experiencing poor economic growth even before the shock of the pandemic, with an expansion of just 0.1% for the last three months of 2019. The economic productivity of the 19 countries of the Eurozone decreased by 3.8 % for the first three months of 2020, in the shadow of the spread of coronavirus throughout Europe. Analysts now say it is certain that the entire eurozone will experience the largest recession since its creation in the late 1990s. Germany, France and Italy, the three largest economies in the monetary union, have all entered into economic recession, with Eurostat recording an even bigger drop in gross national product (GDP) compared to what markets expected. Although countries have published data only for the first quarter of 2020, analysts predict an even greater recession for the second and third quarters of the year [ [46] , [47] , [48] ].

Of the individual Eurozone countries that published relevant data, France reported that after a recession of 0.1 % for the last quarter of 2019, its economy shrank by 5.8 % for the first 3 months of 2020, the largest recession since the country began recording data in the late 1940s. Italy has also experienced recession for the first half of the year, with the economy shrinking to 4.7 % after falling 0.3 % at the end of 2019. The effects of coronavirus pandemic on an already weak economy were enough to squash it. Spain, one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic, reported a 5.2 % drop in the first quarter the year, while GDP in Belgium and Austria fell 3.9 % and 2.5 % respectively [ 46 , 47 ].

Germany’s economy shrank by 2.2 % in the first quarter of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic pushed the eurozone's strongest economy into recession; the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed in Germany jumped by 373,000–2.64 million in April. The jobless rate climbed to 5.8 % from a low of 5% the previous month. The government also increased the number of ‘underemployed’ workers to 10.1 million during April; these part-time employment measures helped to maintain the overall employment figures in Germany [ 49 ].

According to Reuters, experts from the World Bank, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and other organizations warn that the coronavirus pandemic will leave behind about 100 million 'new poor’ living in cities around the world due to job losses and income [ 50 , 51 ]. In this scenario, another sad truth must be faced: coronavirus pandemic is widening the gap dividing rich and poor. As for any epidemic, poverty and inequality can exacerbate rates of transmission and mortality. The main factors that sentence poor people to illness are the lack of access to health care, plus poor and crowded living conditions. In the context of the current pandemic, a key mitigating factor in infection risk is the possibility of working remotely, but this is a luxury that a large segment of the workforce doesn’t have. For people who work outside home, the choice is between lose job, lose salary - or keep going out to work amid the pandemic. And because their financial position is more precarious, the only option is to continue to work, travelling in most cases by public transportation, despite the risk of infection for themselves and their families. A primary consequence of this phenomenon is the racial disproportion in sickness and death percentages in the US: African Americans are contracting SARS-CoV2 and dying for it at significantly higher rates compared to white Americans, and this has nothing to do with a biological or genetic predisposition toward coronavirus infection, but is more likely due to a "social predisposition” [ 52 ].

In the European Union, it was decided to provide financial assistance of 5% of its GDP to its member states [ 53 , [ 54 ]. The worst affected countries can use the funds to alleviate the financial burden of the immediate response measures, including assistance to the population, medical assistance and equipment, support to vulnerable groups, and measures to contain the spread of the disease, strengthen preparedness and communication. Among the various fiscal measures adopted to contain the economic fallout, several governments have decided to defer certain payments, including taxes, loans or utility bills, to improve the liquidity positions of individuals and companies facing difficulties. But, in many cases, those measures are not sufficient.

In Italy, the EU country worst affected by coronavirus, economy has been damaged in such a severe manner that people in some regions are running short of food and money. Many of these “new poor” have turned to charities for help, and several cases of looting at supermarkets have been reported. This critical situation encouraged Italians to give a new twist to an old custom known as “suspended coffee”. In this centuries-old Neapolitan tradition, bar customers pay in advance a coffee for someone who can't afford it. The same concept is being applied to “suspended grocery shopping”: customers buy food with a long shelf-life for the needy - such as pasta and canned goods. "Those who can, put something in, those who can't, help yourself": this is the slogan written on solidarity baskets that appeared in supermarkets, local grocery shops and even on the streets throughout Italy [ 55 ]. Beyond these acts of charity, an important help will come from the government, which has designated €400 m for food vouchers to those who can no longer afford groceries [ 56 ].

“He knew quite well that it was plague and, needless to say, he also knew that, were this to be officially admitted, the authorities would be compelled to take very drastic steps. This was, of course, the explanation of his colleagues' reluctance to face the facts.”

B. America. The country with the greatest wealth and medical minds in the world failed to heed warnings from China and then Italy; refused to acknowledge the ‘emergency of international concern’ from the World Health Organization on January 31, 2020; and lacked a pandemic preparedness plan that would have mobilized the American health system to respond to the coming viral pandemic as early as February. A failure of national leadership, compounded by the political divisions, and a fragmented state by state response guaranteed the numbers - more than 1.5 million cases and counting, deaths approaching 100,000. It is impossible to imagine that the United States will emerge from this pandemic with the same perspective on its historic economic inequality.

The coronavirus pandemic has already triggered the sharpest recession in the United States since the Great Depression. For the first 2 1/2 months of 2020, the economy continued to grow at a steady pace, but suddenly halted in mid-March - when businesses, travel industries, restaurants and retail shops were abruptly closed, and tens of millions of Americans were ordered to stay home in an effort to slow the spread of SAR-CoV2.More than 35 million people were suddenly out of work and have filed unemployment claims in recent weeks. The spread of the coronavirus has threatened the social and economic fabric of American communities and revealed in a striking way the inequities of the American system – a single event threw more that 35,000,000 people into joblessness and a step closer to poverty. Expanded unemployment benefits and a one-time stimulus package were forthcoming from the US House and Senate, but these are temporary solutions to a much larger structural inequality that the pandemic has exposed. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the flaws in the system and revealed two economic conditions that have been left unchecked: poverty and economic insecurity. An inclusive social safety net that includes a basic income and health coverage may be the only solution to ensure that its citizens have a strong foundation for preparedness for the next pandemic.

6. Psychological impact

“Thus, each of us had to be content to live only for the day, alone under the vast indifference of the sky.”

The measures taken to avoid the spread of the new coronavirus have left their mark on the psyche of citizens around the world. At its peak, an estimated 2.6 billion people – or a third of the world’s population – was living under some kind of lockdown or quarantine, arguably the largest psychological experiment ever conducted [ 57 ]. Adapting to new, unprecedented conditions brought a change in our daily routine and our habits, and imposed adverse effects on citizens at multiple levels. Fear of death and the end of humanity, loneliness and isolation at home, sadness and anxiety for the next day and the future of our loved ones are the grounds for psychological disorders. Increases in firearm and alcohol sales have been registered in the US over the last two months, clear signs of the stress and anxiety generated by coronavirus pandemic among people [ 58 , 59 ]. Since the onset of social distancing, calls to domestic abuse helplines or suicide hotlines have intensified all over the world [ 60 , 61 ]. France offered free accommodation to victims of violence in the home and encouraged people to ask for help in pharmacies [ 62 ]. Australia announced a special phone line named “coronavirus wellbeing support line.” [ 63 ]

In late February 2020, before European countries mandated various forms of lockdown, The Lancet published a review documenting the psychological impact of quarantine (the “restriction of movement of people who have potentially been exposed to a contagious disease”). In short, and perhaps unsurprisingly, people who are quarantined are likely to develop a wide range of symptoms of psychological stress and disorder, including low mood, insomnia, stress, anxiety, anger, irritability, emotional exhaustion, depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms [ 64 ]. In China, these expected mental health effects are already being reported in the first research papers about the lockdown [ 65 ]. A study reporting on the long-term effects of SARS quarantine among healthcare workers found a long-term risk for alcohol abuse, self-medication and long-lasting “avoidance” behavior - where some hospital workers avoid being in close contact with patients by simply not showing up for work. Scientists predict that, if the pandemic continues, psychological and social effects of Covid-19 will worsen and create the “perfect storm” of conditions for suicide, especially in the most vulnerable categories, like the elderly, poor and people suffering from previous mental problems [ 66 ].

“Well, personally, I've seen enough of people who die for an idea. I don't believe in heroism; I know it's easy and I've learned that it can be murderous. What interests me is living and dying for what one loves.”

Widespread measures adopted by governments facing the pandemic crisis were social distancing, country-wide lockdown, and restriction of traffic. Numerous constitutionalists have argued that such measures violate human rights, as freedom of movement is a fundamental right directly linked to human nature. However, international human rights law does recognize that during serious public health threats and public emergencies that threaten the life of a nation, restrictions on some rights can be justified.

Various measures have been taken by the majority of the countries to protect human rights in these difficult times. Countries like Ireland, Austria and Argentina have banned the evictions and have announced measures to protect housing, recognizing its role in the crisis response. Portugal announced that people with pending residency and asylum applications will be treated as permanent residents, giving them equal access to free health care [ 67 ]. Initially several incidents of racism and xenophobia were reported towards people of Chinese and Asian descent all over the world [ 68 ]. Some politicians started to use the term “Chinese Virus” to describe the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic and received criticism for their statements. As the virus spread into European countries and Italy became an epicenter, Italians were also subjected to racism. Unfortunately, such incidents are neither extraordinary nor isolated. Socioeconomic and anthropological/archaeological studies have shown that past pandemics, like the 1918 Spanish Flu and the Black Death in the 14th century, affected societies disproportionally [ 69 ]. People at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum were more likely to die from infectious diseases due to different treatment practices (or lack thereof) based on their societal status. African Americans, Latinos and indigenous populations have also faced health care inequalities and discriminations during the course of past pandemics. Since the current pandemic does not yet belong to the past, it is a pivotal moment in history to prevent such discriminations and racial inequalities from leaving their social stigma in the years to come.

7. Misinformation

“There comes a time in history when the man who dares to say that two and two do make four is punished with death.”

WHO has repeatedly stated the urgency of adhering to the measures and positions of the scientific community – social distance, personal hygiene and the use of protective masks. But such invasive measures also opened the floodgates of misinformation, with social and mass media spreading a range of questionable information; conspiracy theories, misinformation or non-scientific views regarding the virus, its origin and spread that endanger public health have acquired a criminal character in several countries.

One of the most difficult issues concerned reports that U.S. officials were investigating the possibility that the coronavirus was secretly ‘manufactured’ and/or ‘escaped’ from a Chinese lab in Wuhan, specifically the Wuhan Institute of Virology. There is no scientific evidence to support these theories. The sequencing and analysis of coronavirus genomes have already dispelled these rumors and instead demonstrate that bats are the likeliest source, suggesting that COVID-19 was created by nature, not humans. At its molecular level, the viral genome most closely resembles an isolate that already exists in horseshoe bats in Hunan province. Supported by several studies, bats have an unusually high capacity to harbor viruses and have been linked to past outbreaks, including SARS, MERS and Ebola. The virus may have spread from bats to an intermediary animal before infecting humans; this remains unclear. The fact that the earliest cases of COVID-19 were linked to a live animal market in Wuhan that sold exotic species only bolsters these observations.

In a recent study from Nature Medicine, researchers concluded "Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus” [ 70 ]. It is well known that the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other Institutes have been studying coronaviruses and bats ever since the SARS outbreak of the early 2000s, but there is no evidence that this research was malicious, rather it was a response to the need to understand the pathogenesis and epidemiology of SARS. High containment research was essential, given earlier outbreaks, as well as warnings from former Presidents and scientific leaders (see above).

In 2003 the Chinese government was legitimately criticized for their attempted cover-up of the original SARS outbreak, leading to skepticism amongst its critics about the openness of its response to the SARS-CoV2 outbreak of 2019. Calls from over 100 nations for an investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV2 and the pandemic have been recognized by Premier Xi of China, with his qualification that the review take place ‘after the virus is under control’. There remains much to learn from the early days of the pandemic and the Chinese response, as well as the pandemic response of other countries. From an epidemiologic perspective, these were critical days; understanding the nature and necessity of the immediate response will only prepare the global community for the next outbreak.

8. An environmental surprise

“What’s true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves.”

The massive shutdown of industry, business, global travel, farming and personal movement produced an unanticipated beneficial effect on the environment. All over the world, the levels of air pollution dropped [ 71 ]; in China, a 25 % reduction in carbon emissions has been reported [ 72 ], while in New York, air pollution dropped by 50 %. In northern Italy and central Europe, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions decrease by 5o% ( Fig. 3 ) [ 73 , 74 ].

Reduction of NO2 emissions over Northern Italy – January (left) & March (right). https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2020/03/Coronavirus_nitrogen_dioxide_emissions_drop_over_Italy .

To observe statistics and videos of the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on environmental emissions, please visit: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/coronavirus-lockdowns-emissions/

And, in perhaps the most symbolic evidence of the impact of the global pause on the environment, the canals of Venice have cleared; in this video [ 75 ] a jelly fish swims in the canal, while Venetian buildings are reflected in the clear water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zDqYvjld18

9. Conclusion

We have reached May 2020 and the lockdown efforts in most countries are winding down. At the time of writing, the population in Italy has moved forward with re-opening the economy; restaurants, stores and businesses are active once again, although the tourists have yet to return. Germany, Spain and France are moving forward with the re-opening their countries after reducing the number of cases and deaths through strict lockdown enforcement. The United States pushes ahead with re-opening business, travel, beaches and bars, despite the continued rise in cases and deaths. And new regions of concern are emerging; Brazil and Russia report massive daily increases in the number of cases and are now becoming the new epicenters, with the second and third highest rates of infection in the world. Singapore and China are carefully evaluating spikes in new cases - using testing, contact tracing and isolation to prevent a ‘second wave’ of coronavirus cases. Research and vaccine development are moving at ‘warp speed’ in the hopes of finding a treatment that will restore us to a new normal. In the first four months of 2020, Covid-19 has engulfed the world; it remains to be seen if global efforts during the next four months will unwrap our planet ( Fig. 4 ).

Wrapped in Corona. A schematic view of the world as SARS-CoV-2 engulfs the planet.

The pandemic continues. Although it is not clear whether the virus will continue to smolder and ignite in different global regions during the summer, or perhaps retreat, only to return to new peaks in the fall and winter, most experts agree that Covid-19 is not going away anytime soon, and will probably be with us for the next two years [ 76 ]. On May 21st, the WHO reported 106,000 new cases of Covid-19 globally, the highest one day total since the pandemic began. As new knowledge about the virus accumulates, new complications of the disease arise, including the recent recognition of a serious Kawasaki-like disorder in children, termed multi-system inflammatory syndrome (MIS). And new modelling research states that had the lockdown of America been imposed two weeks earlier - March 9 vs March 23 - over 80 % of the cases and deaths could have been prevented. This sobering estimate brings us to another unsettling fact; throughout this crisis, efforts have been made to mute and even ridicule the response of scientific leadership to the pandemic. If Covid-19 ushers in a ‘new normal’ for citizens around the world, we hope that new reality will include the recognition that the voice of science, reason and experience must be heard.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Michaela Muscolini, Evelyne Tassone and Enrico Palermo for critical reading and comments. The authors also thank the students of INITIATE, the Marie Curie International Training Network for their scientific perspectives and writings during this pandemic period. Quotations in italics from Albert Camus, The Plague. This project was supported by funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 813343 for the Marie Curie ITN INITIATE program.