the global economy is losing $500 billion due

to the ripple effects of COVID-19.

By the end of 2021,

projection show a cumulative loss

of $12 trillion or more.

It hasn't been this bad since the end of World War II,

a conflict that in part grew out

of another infamous global economic crisis,

The Great Depression.

Almost a century later,

the COVID-19 pandemic has created a cascading crisis

with impacts far beyond the realm of public health.

There's a term for this.

Mutually exacerbating catastrophes,

and it's happening right now on a global scale.

So how can the vicious cycle be stopped?

Mutually exacerbating catastrophes.

It's the idea that disasters end up creating

and then cementing crisis after crisis.

A pandemic feeds into a recession,

feeds into income inequality,

feeds into civil unrest,

and on and on.

A ripple in one sector in one country is felt globally

but it is not felt proportionally.

Just as COVID-19 has been more lethal

to patients with preexisting conditions,

The disease has been disproportionately devastating

to lower income economies and people.

And despite their best efforts to respond,

limited resources means a more limited effect.

For example,

2020 wiped out the sustained economic gains

of several low income African nations,

widening the vast wealth gap between high income countries

and low and middle income countries.

And that in turn impacts the response.

- [Vishal] G20 countries spent over 20% of GDP

in their emergency measures,

whereas developing countries spent about 3%.

You're already cutting back

on what your government's able to do,

even at the time you're being asked to do more

and that you're needed even more

to sort of mount a response for your people.

- [Narrator] The economic and societal ripples from COVID

won't fully get addressed without a multilateral response

to a singular disease.

The pandemic is every country's fight.

So global cooperation is paramount.

Fighting the virus requires treatment and solid diagnostics

in the short term and vaccination in the medium.

- [Vishal] We could be living in a world

where we're able to get the virus under better control

through medical countermeasures.

Governments are able to protect their people

and that the temporary problems stay temporary

rather than become forever problems.

- [Narrator] Think of it as the inverse

of mutually exacerbating catastrophes.

Empowering public health networks

empowers communities, particularly women,

which can lead to better outcomes

for environmental justice,

disenfranchised minorities,

and so much more.

Yes, COVID-19 can create ripples outside of public health,

but the right response to it can have societal ripples

that go far beyond the virus.

The fight against poverty and disease is measured every year

by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

in the Goalkeepers report.

But progress has almost entirely regressed.

So the foundation's 2020 Goalkeepers report

analyzes the damage the pandemic has done and is doing,

and advocates for a collaborative response.

- [Vishal] I would like to think that we can come back

in a way that recognizes the interconnectedness

and gives us a blueprint on how we tackle

some other global problems in a way

that we might not have been able to do before.