Nationwide lockdowns, strict governmental curfews, social bubbles, and six-foot distancing—these might seem like scenes from a dystopian movie, but they were the reality during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic has resulted in over 7 billion cases and approximately 7.1 million deaths.
Beyond claiming countless lives, COVID-19 has created the most significant global crisis in generations, profoundly impacting societies worldwide, as noted by the United Nations. COVID-19 pandemic has been the biggest crisis faced by humanity due to its unprecedented economic impacts, overwhelming healthcare systems, and political turmoil, and drastic changes to the education system.
Economic Impact
COVID-19 significantly exacerbated the pre-existing economic inequalities across numerous countries. Frequent lockdowns forced people to work from home, creating a social divide between those with higher educational degrees who could continue their jobs remotely and those with lower educational degrees, many of whom were laid off.
As such, essential workers with lower incomes faced higher rates of unemployment and resulting poverty during the crisis. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on the impoverished regions than the affluent regions as they had workers that were unable to work from home. A 2021 study on the unemployment rates by education demonstrated that workers or employees possessing less than a high school diploma underwent an unemployment rate of 21.2%, while employees with a high school diploma but no college degree experienced an unemployment rate of 17.3%, and employees with a bachelor degree or higher faced an unemployment rate of 8.4% at its peak, signifying that inequality between the wealthy and the poor was rising during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moreover, to analyze the unemployment rate by industries, workers in the leisure and hospitality experienced the greatest unemployment rate of 39.3% followed by workers in the mining industry with an unemployment rate of 19.3% as of April 2020. Consequently, the overall unemployment rate peaked at 14.3% in April 2020, which surpassed the unemployment rate during the Great Recession from 2008 to 2009.
Healthcare System Overload
The healthcare systems worldwide were not prepared to handle such a large-scale catastrophe, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries such as Greece encountered challenges, including shortages in protective equipment, such as masks, face shields, and gloves, disrupting the regular services provided by the hospital. The paucity of the primary health care system obstructed Greece from meeting the needs of the vulnerable population such as the homeless people.
This was mirrored globally, leading countries like the Czech Republic to mandate medical students to aid the doctors in taking care of the patients. In addition to debilitating physical health, COVID-19 significantly enfeebled the mental health of countless people. Surveys of the general public done in 2020 and 2021 showed increased levels of stress, depression, and anxiety related to COVID-19.
Moreover, World Psychiatry study revealed that COVID-19 has increased the prevalence of anxiety and depression among adults in China. In addition to the physical and mental health impairment, there are approximately 7.1 million deaths caused by COVID-19, highlighting its menacing nature.
Political Crisis
COVID-19 also triggered significant political disputes, polarization, and division. government’s mandates for social distancing, stay in curfews, mask-waring, and vaccinations became highly politicized.. Some claimed that these measures are an infringement on their constitutional rights, while others asserted that they needed to follow the public health practices, essential for public safety. In the United States and beyond, protests against the public health measures such as lockdowns and enforced vaccinations were prevalent.
Traversing across Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Utah, which were states that had both Democratic and Republican governors, perpetual protests were occurring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. CBS news reported that these protests were driven by partisanship, with car protests causing traffic disruptions and raising questions in safety regulations as well as other legal and regulatory issues.
Educational Disruption
The pandemic also forced unprecedented changes in the education system, causing school closures and development of virtual classes. These unprecedented changes led to a decline in the learning progress of students. A study by the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank found decline in standardized test scores of United States students after the outbreak of COVID-19 and is still continuing. Moreover, while there were other causes such as a decline in enrollment, the chief reason for the decline in students’ learning progress was attributed to the change in schooling mode.
The students who faced the greatest decline in their standardized test scores were the ones who had the least experience with in-person classes. Although these virtual or hybrid schooling systems were necessary due to safety concerns, it had a significant impact on the education system, contributing to a notable decline in learning outcomes.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought four principal unprecedented impacts: economic downfall, physical and mental health impairment, political crisis, and abrupt changes to the education system. This unanticipated and unprecedented crisis exposed vulnerabilities of countries around the world.
The influence of COVID-19 is unmatched by any other crisis as it has caused the highest unemployment in recent decades, leading to social paralysis, and it has also sparked significant changes in the education system. However, this experience has also provided valuable lessons, equipping countries to handle future crises more effectively from experience.
By: Jaejun Hwang
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