How infectious diseases strain economies

Infectious diseases jeopardize economic growth in myriad ways, and the COVID-19 pandemic offers a powerful example, according to a November 5, 2020, World Economic Forum article.

The article, co-authored by David Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, noted that the economic impacts of a disease change with the characteristics of the disease and who it primarily affects. A disease that mostly hits young children, for instance, will reduce investments in schooling and the long-term “human capital” gains that come from education.

The article also discussed economic impacts of financing policy responses to epidemics and pandemics, including subsidizing vaccines and other necessary medicines.

“While the macroeconomic effects of epidemics depend on disease characteristics, demographics, and cross-country wealth disparities, all infectious diseases extract potentially devastating human and economic tolls,” the authors wrote.

Read the World Economic Forum article: How to mitigate the economic impacts of infectious diseases