The Price of Inaction During The COVID-19 Crisis

Type Blog Post Author Dirk-Jan Omtzigt Author Ashley Pople URL https://www.cgdev.org/blog/price-inaction-during-covid-19-crisis Date 15/07/2020 Website Type Blog Language en Abstract The global crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in nature. Emerging as a health crisis, the pandemic has become a threat to global prosperity and stability. Domestically, the OECD and G20 countries have responded with a large stimulus package estimated at over $11 trillion, approximately 10 percent of world GDP. In comparison, the cost of protecting the most vulnerable 10 percent of the world from the worst primary and secondary impacts of COVID-19 is $90 billion–less than 1 percent of the stimulus package. It is better, cheaper, and more dignified to frontload responses to the pandemic and its secondary effects. Waiting and then reacting when the full impacts are already visible would be a more expensive proposition. Delaying action not only shifts the burden to the future, but the price of the response will also exponentially increase, as the crisis cascades and reverberates for years to come. Blog Title Center For Global Development