COVID‐19: A Make or Break Moment for Global Policy Making

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented set of challenges to governments, policy makers and citizens; lockdowns and social distancing measures generate significant economic losses, fuel public expenditures and deficits and will no doubt significantly boost public debts. The burden of such measures is also likely to be disproportionately felt by the worse-off members of society and will weigh heavily on future generations. This is both unfair and runs the risk of politically destabilizing the recovery process. To avoid these outcomes unconventional policy measure such as taxes on private wealth and digital economic activities, but also public debt monetization, should be considered. From a political perspective, governments should realize that policy coordination is the only successful exit strategy following a systemic economic shock. While the EU is moving faster than we are accustomed to, it still seems unable to respond quickly enough given the nature of the circumstances. In this picture, the G-20, provided it acts quickly over the coming months, could emerge as the sole global policy forum left on the playing field that can avoid that national interests will prevail eventually producing collectively sub-optimal results in the long-run.

Coping with the COVID‐19 pandemic through institutional trust: Rally effects, compensatory control, and emotions

“…On the one hand, the rally effects elicited by the COVID-19 pandemic did not transcend the boundaries of Italy, leading instead to a decrease of trust in international institutions. This is consistent with the idea that in the struggle against COVID-19, the perception of increasing difficulty in policy coordination across international institutions has favored the spread of a common feeling of "every country for itself" in response to a risk that is common and global (Maffettone and Oldani, 2020). However, this decrease was not generalized.…”

Ultrarapid On-Site Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Using Simple ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy and an Analysis Algorithm: High Sensitivity and Specificity

“… 1 Starting from an epidemic outbreak in Wuhan (China), the virus quickly spread westwards toward Europe and the USA 2 with serious health and socioeconomic consequences worldwide. 3 SARS-CoV-2 exhibits a high propensity for infectious spread throughout populations. 2 Every COVID-19 positive case, if not contained, can readily spread to two or more people giving a virulent R number.…”

“…In early 2020, a new strain of coronavirus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), more commonly known as causing the COVID-19 disease, gave rise to a global pandemic . Starting from an epidemic outbreak in Wuhan (China), the virus quickly spread westwards toward Europe and the USA with serious health and socioeconomic consequences worldwide . SARS-CoV-2 exhibits a high propensity for infectious spread throughout populations .…”

COVID-19 Unintended Effects on Breast Cancer in Italy After the Great Lockdown

“…The Prime ministers of France, Italy, Spain, and Germany in March and April 2020 have all publicly declared that “cost” will not be a consideration in fighting the COVID-19 virus, or in making medical treatment available; the analytical framework adopted by these governments accepts a fiduciary duty to protect their citizens' health. On the other side, countries as Sweden and Brazil, that adopted the cost-benefit analysis to manage the health emergency; their choice not to lock down the country has been insensitive to both distributive and rights-based considerations ( 7 ). The medium to long-term effects of the pandemic depend on various known and unknown factors, and the economic literature provides little help to guide for policymakers.…”