Before 2020, the world was on track to get healthier and richer as a whole. The number of extremely impoverished people was on the decline and humans’ life expectancy was on the rise.
Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic halted and even undid some of the progress we’ve made as a whole. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates lamented this in a recent conference call with the press ahead of the release of his foundation’s Goalkeepers report for 2020.
The report, which is meant to cover progress, now enumerates some of the ways we have regressed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Here are some of the biggest setbacks we recently faced.
First Time in Over a Century
The year 2020 marks the first time since 1870 that many countries in the world are in a recession at the same time. In fact, the coronavirus-caused global recession is considered to be the worst one since the one observed at the end of the second world war in terms of the drop in gross domestic product (GDP).
Because of this, the number of people living on less than $1.90 a day is reportedly starting to climb again. That said, global poverty is increasing for the first time in two decades.
Growing Wealth Divide
Even wealthy countries weren’t exempt from being hit badly by the recession. In the U.S., the divide between the rich and the poor is growing even worse.
Data from the US Census Bureau show that about one-third of the American population are struggling to pay their bills due to the pandemic. This issue was observed to disproportionately affect the Latino and Black populations.
Meanwhile, the top 5% of families continue to experience the most rapid income growth, according to a January 2020 report by the Pew Research Center.
Eradicated Progress
The Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers report also noted how the pandemic practically erased 25 years’ worth of progress on vaccines in just 25 weeks. This means that many children around the world are now going without life-saving vaccines against deadly diseases.
Gates and his wife Melinda have notably been active in aiding various relief efforts and vaccine research concerning the coronavirus pandemic. They’ve donated $150 million to the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer to ensure that a COVID-19 vaccine would be provided to people at an affordable price.
The Microsoft co-founder has also been actively warning people against the possibility of a pandemic like the ongoing coronavirus pandemic for years.