The conception of a pandemic has plagued humanity since the evolution of the first pathogen. Whether it be the Bubonic Plague or the Spanish flu, pandemics have destructive ramifications across all facets of human life, ranging from agriculture to the economy. Arguably the deadliest pandemic ever, influenza, or the Spanish flu, killed at least 50 million people and infected 500 million people worldwide. The Spanish flu's dastardly economic effects varied from country to country, primarily due to the lack of a globalized economy. It was evident that certain countries were more affected than others, with differing complications on each respective economy. History repeated itself yet again, and 2020 has become a target for a swift-moving pandemic that has taken the world by storm: COVID-19. It has triggered a global economic recession, which has once again affected every aspect of human life. Not only has the virus given rise to a polarized and partisan US Government, but it has inflamed a widespread number of socioeconomic issues afflicting the globe. Worldwide pandemics correlate directly with the economic situation of a nation, and it is key to identify the effects, to better understand and prepare for the future. 

To clearly understand the impacts of COVID, it is essential to examine the impacts of a previous pandemic, influenza. The deaths across the globe varied, and the mortality rate directly correlated to the extent of preventative measures each country took, specifically — quarantining. Australia imposed a quarantine in 1918, which subsequently led to a mortality rate of 0.3, whereas in India and Kenya, mortality rates were 5.2 and 5.8, respectively. Research of the economic effects that the Spanish flu had remained limited due to the technological barriers, although recent studies have found the flu reduced real GDP per capita by around 6 percent in the typical country over the period that the flu affected the globe. Although the quarantine was not empirically proven to be effective at the time, in hindsight, the evidence sheds light on the potential success of quarantine given the precedent Australia set.  The negative correlation between mortality rates and economic prosperity is abundantly clear, as countries experiencing an average death rate of 2 percent saw stock returns drop by an estimated 26 percentage points. A compelling characteristic of influenza was the deadly impact on young adults and its effect on the global economy’s working population. Young and middle-aged adults consist of the majority of the working population, so one could infer a correlation between the increase in influenza, and the decrease in economic output and employment. A sound understanding of influenza’s role in the economic decline will facilitate a clearer interpretation of the recession in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Each and every sector of the global economy is affected by the pandemic in one way or another, whether it be positively or negatively. The first and most basic of the economic sectors, the primary sector, experienced a large blow to the size and quantity of production. Simple public mandates like social distancing, avoiding unnecessary travel, and bans on congregate gatherings proliferated issues and concerns in the agricultural sector. The available inspectors and delivery staff key to ensuring the verification of the products were much more difficult to contact, and the agricultural sector faced unnerving consequences for perishable goods such as meat and vegetables. Agricultural commodities dropped by almost 20 percent, quite a formidable number, especially when keeping in mind that the agricultural sector is known for its resilience. In the petroleum and oil sector, tensions remained high as Russia’s refusal to slash oil production triggered Saudia Arabia to reciprocate and it increased its provision of oil by upwards of 25 percent. This unprecedented volume of production led to the steepest price crash in decades, and on March 23rd, Brent Crude fell from $34 a barrel to $25.70 a barrel. March 23rd is an infamous day in the history of coronavirus, as there were over 15,000 dead and 351,731 cases worldwide. This drop in oil prices and lives, poses problematic questions for economists, in particular they fear the risk of losing economic security. The fear and uncertainty over economic security is only amplified by the dramatic surges in coronavirus deaths, leading to worrisome oil price shocks. However, since the crash, the crude oil price has remained steady and slowly increasing. Ultimately, the primary sector experienced a major blow at the start of the global recession, but has slowly increased at a healthy rate, and economists no longer see it as a large concern. 

The secondary sector of the global economy, primarily focused on manufacturing faced an interesting, yet worrisome crisis. The manufacturing sector is a clear point of concern for its workers, as they are not comfortable with coming back to work, justifiably so. A survey conducted by the British Plastics Federation, the leading trade federation for plastics, found that 80 percent of respondents anticipated a point of decline, and 98 percent possessed concern about the negative impact of COVID-19 on day to day business operations. Ordinarily, manufacturing occupations require the employees to work with material objects, or to manage and monitor autonomous machines like robots or conveyor belts. It is abundantly clear that employees of the manufacturing sector cannot “work from home,” and thus are faced with the issue of how they are to make money, or make ends meet. The decline of the chemical manufacturing industry has set a precedent for the rest of the subsectors. 

The tertiary sector has the most compelling consequences of the pandemic. The heart of the tertiary sector is education, as such, it’s key to examine these empirics first. The United  Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization estimates that there are close to 900 million learners that have been affected by the closure of schools. This hasty shut down of schools has clearly harmed the student body globally. Not only has it had disastrous effects on student mental health, but a new study suggests that the shut down will undo months of academic gains. Summer break only accelerated this deterioration of education, as students returned to school with varying retention rates. The effects of the shutdown have compounded, and while some individuals are excelling with remote learning, others are suffering from the effects of the prolonged school break brought upon by the shutdown. Regardless of however students perform in school, the grave economic consequences as a result of lacking real and effective education will prove to be an issue in the future years coming. COVID-19 only further perpetuates the wide gap amongst higher and lower-income families who have varying degrees of technological access. In Dubai, parents have signed petitions to decrease school fees by 30 percent, while pay cuts have reached up to 50 percent, and the cost of living has increased. Even at the highest levels of education, students suffer from the virus one way or another. The United Kingdom has halted all health research not related to COVID-19, and the National Institute of Health has taken similar measures in America, shutting down “non-critical research” to free up staff and focus on the pandemic at hand. The abrupt shutdowns have clearly impacted even those much higher on the educational spectrum, and the impact of these shutdowns is worrisome and yet to be seen. 

Financial Markets have historically been volatile during times of recession. COVID-19 has undoubtedly disrupted the communities, businesses, and organizations that all function and contribute to the global financial market. The blatant uncoordinated government responses have led to a disturbance in the global supply chain. In the US, stock market indexes saw a drastic decrease in performance, and the three main stock indexes (subsets of stocks), best displayed this decrease. Although after the CARES act, or the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security act, each index rose at an average of about 7 percent. Asian markets followed a similar pattern, where they initially crashed but saw a major increase following a rise in government support. This volatility of the global stock market has given rise to a global economy with critical liquidity levels, which leads to widespread panic among investors as they don’t want to lose money while investing. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the global economy has seen a steady but lagging recovery, and as of December 22th, the world is still experiencing the harms. December has seen a large spike in cases, and the number of deaths per capita has approximately been the same as it was at the start of the pandemic. December has proven to be closely comparable to the emergence of the pandemic, as not only is it the flu season, but it’s also much easier to contract COVID-19. The start of 2021 will most likely encompass a drop in economic factors such as unemployment and the stock market, as it did at the start of the pandemic. Economic analysts from Deloitte, an industry leader in consulting, taxing, and other financial services, forecast that economic activity will continue to increase until the end of the fourth quarter, and see the activity slump at the beginning of the first quarter, January first, 2021. As proven by COVID-19, financial markets will continue to experience unstable and erratic symptoms largely due to the uncertain atmosphere of a pandemic. 

China being the country of origin for COVID-19, its path to recovery began faster than others, which led to some captivating and strategic economic decisions. Being at the forefront of COVID-19 cases, China took advantage of the weak United States and strengthened its trade negotiating power with the United States. China continues to remain an economic powerhouse, as it is currently outperforming the world’s major economies. Specifically, China’s exports have skyrocketed, with a 21.1 percent increase in November, up from 14.1 percent in October. Additionally, exports to certain areas of the globe skyrocketed, 46 percent for the United States, 8.6 percent to the European Union, and 18.1 percent to Taiwan. At first glance, a country of origin during a pandemic would arguably be one that is struggling the most. China has proven this logic to be false and has stayed strong during a global pandemic and recession.

With the vast improvements to modern-day technology and the large leaps humans have taken with regard to quantitative economic analysis, it’s evident that economists, health professionals, and other scholars have a much better understanding of how COVID-19 affects the global economy. At the start of the pandemic, almost every economic sector experienced some sort of crash or slowdown. Different methods of economic stimulus have been tried and tested, and countries have seen varying results. From the primary sector to the tertiary sector, each has experienced different consequences and phenomenons. Phenomenons like the sudden decrease in stocks and the sudden rise after the government support have led economists to predict future solutions to unexpected problems. Although it is beneficial to focus on the worldwide economic implications, it is also key to focus on a smaller scale to analyze COVID’s impacts on the micro-level. 

The United States and COVID-19 have had an interesting dynamic in 2020. It is apparent that COVID-19 has had an effect on the general population of America, but something experts could not predict, was the reinforcement of structural violence, an all-encompassing term that refers to the negative power of social institutions and systems of social organization among marginalized communities.

On June 30, 2020, the US economy plunged to -32.9 percent, the lowest it has been in the last 70 years. To better understand how the United States responded to the economic consequences of COVID it is key to acknowledge the steps that the US Government or the Federal Reserve took in order to mitigate the effect COVID had on the US economy. The first two measures that the Fed or the Federal Reserve (Central Banking System of America) took, were to decrease interest rates by 0.5 percent and purchased $125 billion in bonds. Soon after these two measures, the Trump administration managed to secure a $2 trillion virus aid package, commonly known as the “CARES Act.” The CARES act would provide $1200 to every American adult with an income of less than $75,000 or couples less than $150,000. It also allocated certain amounts of money to different sectors of the economy, such as $14 billion to farmers, and $100 billion in the health care sector. On December 21, 2020, a much needed COVID relief bill was passed once again by congress. It would establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless benefit, along with a $600 direct stimulus payment to most Americans. Many jobless workers and business owners were frustrated with the US Government’s decision to only make the bill $600, reasonably so. All in all, the United States Policy has taken its economic approach to solve covid leaning towards a money heavy standpoint, as they have focused on things like a stimulus package, and decreasing interest rates. 

COVID-19 has perpetuated and amplified the effects of unemployment in the Native American community. The recession has hit Native American employment especially hard, and the employment-to-population ratio has seen a large dip. Prior to the start of the pandemic, the White American employment-to-population ratio hovered around 80 percent, while the Indigenous American ratio hovered around 68 percent. As soon as the pandemic hit, the Native population rate dropped to a very low 55 percent, in comparison to White Americans who only dipped to 72 percent. Focusing on another metric, the employment rate, Native unemployment hit 26.3 percent in April, a historical number the United States hasn’t seen in centuries. By June, the employment rate fell down to 12.4 percent, although still quite high compared to separate demographics. Indigenous Americans have consistently been affected by the fickle economic environment of the pandemic, and it is almost certain that on a micro level, there are a lot of things that the US government is overlooking. COVID has disproportionately damaged the economic well-being of the minority community, and it is obvious that it strengthened the social structures that have historically set them back in our society. 

In an ideal world, the COVID-19 pandemic would be a binary event, purely affecting the population with little to no externalities. Unfortunately, the pandemic has ultimately affected every sector of the global economy, ranging from the agricultural sector to the industrial sector. Individually, these sectors all experience different phenomenons as a “side-effect” of the recession following the virus. Educational institutions across the globe have also been affected in different ways in which the world isn’t fully able to quantify yet, as these are the scholars, businesspeople, and doctors of the future, being trained by a computer screen. China has disproved the thesis that all countries struggle during a pandemic with its exponential increase in exports and GDP. On the micro-level, countries like the United States are dealing with their own problems, and their citizens are not happy. Peculiarly in the United States, the US government focuses on providing stimulus, and relief bills, while overlooking the problems that need to be solved the most, primarily including the unacceptably high rates of unemployment that the Native Americans are experiencing. The economic effects of COVID-19 are still developing and will continue to develop months after the end of the pandemic. 2020 is the target of a deadly pandemic, and it is pivotal to identify and analyze the impacts of it sooner rather than later, in order to better assist governments in making strategic decisions in the future.