Last year, while looking ahead to the future of international relations, several global leaders wondered if “winter is coming”. Well, it has come. It’s the winter of coronavirus. At a time where regional and global solidarity should be the norm, it is the exception. This crisis calls for more (and better) multilateralism; not less. The crucial issue at stake is the state of our global health system.

When COVID-19 started in China, most leaders and citizens living outside Asia did not take it seriously. It was so far away. Some even questioned the measures used by China to contain the spread of the virus.

But in a few weeks, the disease went viral and the WHO called it a pandemic on 11 March.
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Since then, we have seen most countries around the world take severe measures of containment. Most of them did so unilaterally. Borders are now closed; countries are in lockdown and are competing with each other in researching COVID-19.

This means that sources for health need to be pooled together. Research should be shared; not confined to individual countries or regions.

Ahead of the pandemic, the worrying state of the global health system was apparent. For example, if we look at the number of hospital beds per 1,000 populations (one indicator of health), the average across the EU fell from 8 beds to 5.6 over the period 1990-2013.
COVID-19 impact beyond health

The impact of the pandemic on the global economy, particularly on jobs will be tremendous.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) predicts that COVID-19 will cost about 25 million jobs.

ILO is calling for urgent, large-scale and coordinated measures to stimulate the economy and employment, protect workers in the workplace, and support jobs and incomes. Low-income countries experiencing debt distress are also at high risk. Read the full article from the source above