Question

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has affected not only the healthcare systems all around the world but it has also given rise to severe economic crises all over the world. The main argument that is heard about lockdowns is that there should be a balance between the health situation of people and the related economic impact of lockdowns as well. Analyze this statement in light of critical thinking concepts that you have learnt in class. Your response should not be more than 200 words

Answer 1

The Covid pandemic saw the imposition of lockdowns in various parts of the world at different times as a response to containing the spread of the disease within communities and geographies. This met with varying degrees of success as far as containment is concerned, however the process significantly affected the economic conditions of any place where lockdowns were imposed. The critical points to note in this regard may be summarized as below

• The health benefits of a lockdown outweigh the economic fallouts if the lockdown is known to have a definite period post which things are back to narmal as far as physical and hence economic activity is involved. However in most cases lockdowns continued for variable and indefinite periods which led to great unpredictability for businesses and supply chains. This creates problems especially for small businesses whose cash flow is severely disupted and has resulted in many small businesses winding up and the loss of livelihood for people.
• Indefinite lockdowns also inevitably mean loss of employment and hence pay for the working class who subsist on a regular income from a salary at a workplace. With the lockdowns, whicle the bigger organizatins could move to work-from-home structures and also had the cash balance to continue salary payments, the smaller businesses have laid off people resulting in large levels of sudden unemployment across cities and countries
• Indefinite lockdowns have also created economic impact on the supply chains as they become irregular and affect prices of commodities, raw materials etc. This in turn also affects the capability of systems to deal with the disease in terms of curing, treatment, prevention etc.
• There have been specific cases of migrant populations (people who travel across geographies for work) being stranded without basic necessities as sources of income dried up (due to the closure of businesses) and entire cities locked down without intercity/inter region transportation available for them to move back to a home town for personal safety.
• The cumulative effect of these and many other factors have created more complications on an overall basis than just help resolve the spread of the disease. The impact of the economic factors will continue to be felt post stabilization of the disease and would probably be a bigger problem than the disease itself in terms of humanitarion as well as financial costs.