The COVID-19 pandemic’s footprint is massive – don’t expect it to shrink

The effect and impact of COVID-19 on healthcare has been devastating.

The effect and impact of COVID-19 on healthcare has been devastating. Death, hospitalisation and infection are all part of our normal everyday lexicon now as we stare at the unfathomable numbers scrolling across our smartphones and TV screens. As are terms like ‘mRNA’, ‘booster’ and ’transmissibility’. We now understand the nuances of dosing regimens of different vaccines better than we ever did and we have a rudimentary understanding of myocarditis as an adverse event. We know what ‘PPE’ stands for and we are vaguely familiar with the importance of the term ‘R naught [R0]’.

As we enter year three with COVID-19 in our lives, perhaps it is time to remind ourselves that the effect and impact of COVID-19 has gone beyond just healthcare. Many of us are aware of, but not current with, the other policy implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is as wide and deep as anything any of us will ever see in our lifetime.
Let’s start with the economy. It is fair to say that while some have thrived during these past two years, many have barely managed to keep their heads above water. And tens of millions more have suffered economic devastation. The stories you hear about the ‘Great Resignation’ on this side of the Atlantic Ocean are not incorrect. People are voluntarily leaving their jobs. But they obscure and distract from what we have known since March 2020: the vast majority of people are getting crushed by the economic uncertainty that COVID-19 has wrought. Supply chain uncertainties, inflation, low wage growth, public health restrictions that lessen foot traffic... As a reminder, not everyone has a six-figure, white-collar job that can easily be transitioned to Zoom or Skype.

And what about the education and academic impact of COVID-19? It’s not just that people have missed their graduation ceremonies or been forced to quarantine on campus in difficult conditions during outbreaks. Those are inconveniences and irritations to be sure. It’s that children are suffering with difficult learning environments and lack of access to broadband technology to get online and access course material. And in some parts of the world, children have simply dropped out of school with little hope of ever returning. Social interactions and friendships which form such an integral part of the academic experience have not taken root. Children are lonely, demotivated and less prepared to face this world.

The housing and real estate market has been turned topsy-turvy by COVID-19. Runaway home prices have made some very wealthy while pricing homes out of the reach for others. Interest rates have stayed low for those who can afford a home while in some jurisdictions, landlords have preyed on vulnerable tenants through egregious rental price increases. Home builders have been unable to complete affordable housing development projects due to labour and raw material shortages, leaving families without a place to live for months on end.

Immigration and travel policies have reversed decades of compassionate and reasonable levels in most of the western world as COVID-19 has created a (mostly) insular set of nations intent on keeping people out whether they are seeking permanent refuge or just visiting.

Climate and environmental policies have been vastly altered by COVID-19 as the world struggles with how to deal with mountains of trash from PPE and biohazard waste. On the bright side, the positive impact of COVID-19 has also meant that we have seen lower levels of air and noise pollution, along with significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for parts of the pandemic.

And perhaps most alarmingly, although certainly not a conventional policy issue, the deterioration of trust in each other and in our elected officials as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic along with the politicisation of the disease has been terrible. Some will rightly argue that this started well before COVID-19 appeared. But COVID-19 has been an accelerant without question.

As we begin 2022 with a new variant firmly in our midst and many parts of the world still struggling with unequal access to vaccines, we must face a harsh reality. COVID-19 is about more than just healthcare. It’s devastating impact across the policy spectrum (economic, academic, immigration, environment, etc) is just coming into sharper focus. And we can no longer deny that what began as, and still is today, a public health crisis at its core is now an all-pervasive and all-consuming part of ‘us’ and society.

There is no part of life that can say it has been untouched by COVID-19.

Happy New Year.