Economics

Thumb — A stock index chart shows the 2020 stock market crash.

The pandemic and responses to it damaged the global economy. On 27 February 2020, worries about the outbreak crushed US stock indexes, which posted their sharpest falls since 2008.^[459]

Tourism collapsed due to travel restrictions, closing of public places including travel attractions, and advice of governments against travel. Airlines cancelled flights, while British regional airline Flybe collapsed.^[460] The cruise line industry was hard hit,^[461] and train stations and ferry ports closed.^[462] International mail stopped or was delayed.^[463]

The retail sector faced reductions in store hours or closures.^[464] Retailers in Europe and Latin America faced traffic declines of 40 percent. North America and Middle East retailers saw a 50–60 percent drop.^[465] Shopping centres faced a 33–43 percent drop in foot traffic in March compared to February. Mall operators around the world coped by increasing sanitation, installing thermal scanners to check the temperature of shoppers, and cancelling events.^[466]

Hundreds of millions of jobs were lost,^[467]^[468] including more than 40 million jobs in the US.^[469] According to a report by Yelp, about 60% of US businesses that closed will stay shut permanently.^[470] The International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that the income generated in the first nine months of 2020 from work across the world dropped by 10.7 percent, or $3.5 trillion.^[471]

Supply shortages

Pandemic fears led to panic buying, emptying groceries of essentials such as food, toilet paper, and bottled water. Panic buying stemmed from perceived threat, perceived scarcity, fear of the unknown, coping behaviour and social psychological factors (e.g. social influence and trust).^[472]

Supply shortages were due to disruption to factory and logistic operations; shortages were worsened by supply chain disruptions from factory and port shutdowns, and labour shortages.^[473]

Shortages continued as managers underestimated the speed of economic recovery after the initial economic crash. The technology industry, in particular, warned of delays from underestimates of semiconductor demand for vehicles and other products.^[474]

According to WHO Secretary-General Tedros Ghebreyesus, demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) rose one hundredfold, pushing prices up twentyfold.^[475]^[476] PPE stocks were exhausted everywhere.^[477]^[478]^[479]

In September 2021, the World Bank reported that food prices remained generally stable and the supply outlook remained positive. However, the poorest countries witnessed a sharp increase in food prices, reaching the highest level since the pandemic began.^[480]^[481] The Agricultural Commodity Price Index stabilized in the third quarter but remained 17% higher than in January 2021.^[482]^[481]

By contrast, petroleum products were in surplus at the beginning of the pandemic, as demand for gasoline and other products collapsed due to reduced commuting and other trips.^[483] The 2021 global energy crisis was driven by a global surge in demand as the world economy recovered. Energy demand was particularly strong in Asia.^[484]^[485]

Arts and cultural heritage

The performing arts and cultural heritage sectors were profoundly affected by the pandemic. Both organisations' and individuals' operations have been impacted globally. By March 2020, across the world and to varying degrees, museums, libraries, performance venues, and other cultural institutions had been indefinitely closed with their exhibitions, events and performances cancelled or postponed.^[486] A 2021 UNESCO report estimated ten million job losses worldwide in the culture and creative industries.^[487]^[488] Some services continued through digital platforms,^[489]^[490]^[491] such as live streaming concerts^[492] or web-based arts festivals.^[493]

Politics

The pandemic affected political systems, causing suspensions of legislative activities,^[494] isolations or deaths of politicians,^[495] and rescheduled elections.^[496] Although they developed broad support among epidemiologists, NPIs (non-pharmaceutical interventions) were controversial in many countries. Intellectual opposition came primarily from other fields, along with heterodox epidemiologists.^[497]

Brazil

The pandemic (and the response of Brazilian politicians to it) led to widespread panic, confusion, and pessimism in Brazil.^[498] When questioned regarding record deaths in the country in April 2020, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said "So what? I'm sorry. What do you want me to do about it?"^[499] Bolsonaro disregarded WHO-recommended mitigation techniques and instead downplayed the risks of the virus, promoted increased economic activity, spread misinformation about the efficacy of masks, vaccines and public health measures, and distributed unproven treatments including hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.^[498] A series of federal health ministers resigned or were dismissed after they refused to implement Bolsonaro's policies.^[500]

Disagreements between federal and state governments led to a chaotic and delayed response to the rapid spread of the virus,^[501] exacerbated by preexisting social and economic disparities in the country.^[498]^[502] Employment, investment and valuation of the Brazilian real plummeted to record lows.^[498]^[503] Brazil was also heavily affected by the Delta and Omicron variants.^[504] At the height of the outbreak in the spring of 2021, 3,000+ Brazilians were dying per day.^[505]^[506] Bolsonaro's loss to Lula da Silva in the 2022 presidential election is widely credited to the former's mishandling of the pandemic.^[507]^[508]^[509]

China

Multiple provincial-level administrators of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were dismissed over their handling of quarantine measures. Some commentators claimed this move was intended to protect CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping.^[510] The US intelligence community claimed that China intentionally under-reported its COVID-19 caseload.^[511] The Chinese government maintained that it acted swiftly and transparently.^[512]^[513] Journalists and activists in China who reported on the pandemic were detained by authorities,^[514]^[515] including Zhang Zhan, who was arrested and tortured.^[516]^[517]

Italy

In early March 2020, the Italian government criticised the EU's lack of solidarity with Italy.^[518]^[519]^[520] On 22 March 2020, after a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian army to send military medics, disinfection vehicles, and other medical equipment to Italy.^[521]^[522] In early April, Norway and EU states like Romania and Austria started to offer help by sending medical personnel and disinfectant,^[523] and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered an official apology to the country.^[524]

United States

Beginning in mid-April 2020, protestors objected to government-imposed business closures and restrictions on personal movement and assembly.^[526] Simultaneously, essential workers protested unsafe conditions and low wages by participating in a brief general strike.^[527] Some political analysts claimed that the pandemic contributed to President Donald Trump's 2020 defeat.^[528]^[529]

The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States prompted calls for the United States to adopt social policies common in other wealthy countries, including universal health care, universal child care, paid sick leave, and higher levels of funding for public health.^[530]^[531]^[532] The Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that preventable hospitalizations of unvaccinated Americans in the second half of 2021 cost US$13.8 billion.^[533]

There were also protest in regards to vaccine mandates in the United States.^[534] In January 2022, the US Supreme Court struck down an OSHA rule that mandated vaccination or a testing regimen for all companies with greater than 100 employees.^[535]^[536]

Other countries

The number of journalists imprisoned or detained increased worldwide; some detentions were related to the pandemic.^[537]^[538] The planned NATO "Defender 2020" military exercise in Germany, Poland and the Baltic states, the largest NATO war exercise since the end of the Cold War, was held on a reduced scale.^[539]^[540]

The Iranian government was heavily affected by the virus, which infected some two dozen parliament members and political figures.^[306]^[541] Iran President Hassan Rouhani wrote a public letter to world leaders asking for help on 14 March 2020, due to a lack of access to international markets.^[542] Saudi Arabia, which had launched a military intervention in Yemen in March 2015, declared a ceasefire.^[543]

Diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea worsened.^[544] South Korea criticised Japan's "ambiguous and passive quarantine efforts" after Japan announced travellers from South Korea must quarantine for two weeks.^[545] South Korean society was initially polarised on President Moon Jae-in's response to the crisis; many Koreans signed petitions calling for Moon's impeachment or praising his response.^[315]

Some countries passed emergency legislation. Some commentators expressed concern that it could allow governments to strengthen their grip on power.^[546]^[547] In Hungary, the parliament voted to allow Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to rule by decree indefinitely, suspend parliament and elections, and punish those deemed to have spread false information.^[548] In countries such as Egypt,^[549] Turkey,^[550] and Thailand,^[551] opposition activists and government critics were arrested for allegedly spreading fake news.^[552] In India, journalists criticising the government's response were arrested or issued warnings by police and authorities.^[553]

Food systems

The pandemic disrupted food systems worldwide,^[554]^[555] hitting at a time when hunger and undernourishment were rising- an estimated 690 million people lacked food security in 2019.^[556] Food access fell – driven by falling incomes, lost remittances, and disruptions to food production.^[557] In some cases, food prices rose.^[554]^[556] The pandemic and its accompanying lockdowns and travel restrictions slowed movement of food aid. According to the WHO, 811 million people were undernourished in 2020, "likely related to the fallout of COVID-19".^[558]^[438]

Education

The pandemic impacted educational systems in many countries. Many governments temporarily closed educational institutions, often replaced by online education. Other countries, such as Sweden, kept their schools open. As of September 2020, approximately 1.077 billion learners were affected due to school closures. School closures impacted students, teachers, and families with far-reaching economic and societal consequences.^[559] They shed light on social and economic issues, including student debt, digital learning, food insecurity, and homelessness, as well as access to childcare, health care, housing, internet, and disability services. The impact was more severe for disadvantaged children.^[560] The Higher Education Policy Institute reported that around 63% of students claimed worsened mental health as a result of the pandemic.^[561]

Health

The pandemic impacted global health for many conditions. Hospital visits fell.^[562] Visits for heart attack symptoms declined by 38% in the US and 40% in Spain.^[563] The head of cardiology at the University of Arizona said, "My worry is some of these people are dying at home because they're too scared to go to the hospital."^[564] People with strokes and appendicitis were less likely to seek treatment.^[565]^[566]^[564] Medical supply shortages impacted many people.^[567] The pandemic impacted mental health,^[568]^[569] increasing anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, affecting healthcare workers, patients and quarantined individuals.^[570]^[571]

In late 2022, during the first northern hemisphere autumn and winter seasons following the widespread relaxation of global public health measures, North America and Europe experienced a surge in respiratory viruses and coinfections in both adults and children.^[572] This formed the beginning of the 2022–2023 pediatric care crisis and what some experts termed a "tripledemic" of seasonal influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and SARS-CoV-2 throughout North America.^[573]^[574] In the United Kingdom, pediatric infections also began to spike beyond pre-pandemic levels, albeit with different illnesses, such as Group A streptococcal infection and resultant scarlet fever.^[575]^[576] As of mid-December 2022, 19 children in the UK had died due to Strep A and the wave of infections had begun to spread into North America and Mainland Europe.^[577]^[578]

The B/Yamagata lineage of influenza B might have become extinct in 2020/2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic measures.^[579]^[580] There have been no naturally occurring cases confirmed since March 2020.^[581]^[582] In 2023, the World Health Organization concluded that protection against the Yamagata lineage was no longer necessary in the seasonal flu vaccine, reducing the number of lineages targeted by the vaccine from four to three.^[581]^[582]

Environment

The pandemic and the reaction to it positively affected the environment and climate as a result of reduced human activity. During the "anthropause", fossil fuel use decreased, resource consumption declined, and waste disposal improved, generating less pollution.^[584] Planned air travel and vehicle transportation declined. In China, lockdowns and other measures resulted in a 26% decrease in coal consumption, and a 50% reduction in nitrogen oxides emissions.^[584]^[585]^[586]

In 2020, a worldwide study on mammalian wildlife responses to human presence during COVID lockdowns found complex patterns of animal behavior. Carnivores were generally less active when humans were around, while herbivores in developed areas were more active. Among other findings, this suggested that herbivores may view humans as a shield against predators, highlighting the importance of location and human presence history in understanding wildlife responses to changes in human activity in a given area.^[587]

A wide variety of largely mammalian species, both captive and wild, have been shown to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, with some encountering a particularly high degree of fatal outcomes.^[588] In particular, both farmed and wild mink have developed highly symptomatic and severe COVID-19 infections, with a mortality rate as high as 35–55% according to one study.^[589]^[590] White-tailed deer, on the other hand, have largely avoided severe outcomes but have effectively become natural reservoirs of the virus, with large numbers of free-ranging deer infected throughout the US and Canada, including approximately 80% of Iowa's wild deer herd.^[591]^[592] An August 2023 study appeared to confirm the status of white-tailed deer as a disease reservoir, noting that the viral evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in deer occurs at triple the rate of its evolution in humans and that infection rates remained high, even in areas rarely frequented by humans.^[593]

Discrimination and prejudice

Heightened prejudice, xenophobia, and racism toward people of Chinese and East Asian descent were documented around the world.^[595]^[596] Reports from February 2020, when most confirmed cases were confined to China, cited racist sentiments about Chinese people 'deserving' the virus.^[597]^[598]^[599] Individuals of Asian descent in Europe and North America reported increasing instances of racially-motivated abuse and assaults as a result of the pandemic.^[600]^[601]^[602] US President Donald Trump was criticised for referring to SARS-CoV-2 as the "Chinese Virus" and "Kung Flu", terms which were condemned as being racist and xenophobic.^[603]^[604]^[605]

Age-based discrimination against older adults increased during the pandemic. This was attributed to their perceived vulnerability and subsequent physical and social isolation measures, which, coupled with their reduced social activity, increased dependency on others. Similarly, limited digital literacy left the elderly more vulnerable to isolation, depression, and loneliness.^[606]

In a correspondence published in The Lancet in 2021, German epidemiologist Günter Kampf described the harmful effects of "inappropriate stigmatisation of unvaccinated people, who include our patients, colleagues, and other fellow citizens", noting the evidence that vaccinated individuals play a large role in transmission.^[607] American bioethicist Arthur Caplan responded to Kampf, writing "Criticising [the unvaccinated] who... wind up in hospitals and morgues in huge numbers, put stress on finite resources, and prolong the pandemic... is not stigmatising, it is deserved moral condemnation."^[608]

In January 2022, Amnesty International urged Italy to change their anti-COVID-19 restrictions to avoid discrimination against unvaccinated people, saying that "the government must continue to ensure that the entire population can enjoy its fundamental rights." The restrictions included mandatory vaccination over the age of 50, and mandatory vaccination to use public transport.^[609]

Lifestyle changes

The pandemic triggered massive changes in behaviour, from increased Internet commerce to cultural changes in the workplace. Online retailers in the US posted $791.70 billion in sales in 2020, an increase of 32.4% from $598.02 billion the year before.^[610] Home delivery orders increased, while indoor restaurant dining shut down due to lockdown orders or low sales.^[611]^[612] Hackers, cybercriminals and scammers took advantage of the changes to launch new online attacks.^[613]

Education in some countries temporarily shifted from physical attendance to video conferencing.^[614] Massive layoffs shrank the airline, travel, hospitality, and other industries.^[615]^[616] Despite most corporations implementing measures to address COVID-19 in the workplace, a poll from Catalyst found that as many as 68% of employees around the world felt that these policies were only performative and "not genuine".^[617]

The pandemic led to a surge in remote work. According to a Gallup poll, only 4% of US employees were fully remote before the pandemic, compared to 43% in May 2020. Among white collar workers, that shift was more pronounced, with 6% increasing to 65% in the same period.^[618] That trend continued in later stages of the pandemic, with many workers choosing to remain remote even after workplaces reopened.^[619]^[620] Many Nordic, European, and Asian companies increased their recruitment of international remote workers even as the pandemic waned, partially to save on labor costs.^[621]^[622] This also led to a talent drain in the global south and in remote areas in the global north.^[622]^[623] High cost of living and dense urban areas also lost office real estate value due to remote worker exodus.^[624] By May 2023, due to increasing layoffs and concerns over productivity, some white collar workplaces in the US had resorted to performance review penalties and indirect incentives (e.g. donations to charity) to encourage workers to return to the office.^[625]

Historiography

A 2021 study noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had increased interest in epidemics and infectious diseases among both historians and the general public. Prior to the pandemic, these topics were usually overlooked by "general" history and only received attention in the history of medicine.^[626] Many comparisons were made between the COVID-19 and 1918 influenza pandemics,^[627]^[628] including the development of anti-mask movements,^[629]^[630] the widespread promotion of misinformation^[631]^[632] and the impact of socioeconomic disparities.^[633]

Religion

In some areas, religious groups exacerbated the spread of the virus, through large gatherings and the dissemination of misinformation.^[634]^[635]^[636] Some religious leaders decried what they saw as violations of religious freedom.^[637] In other cases, religious identity was a beneficial factor for health, increasing compliance with public health measures and protecting against the negative effects of isolation on mental wellbeing.^[638]^[639]^[640]