Covid-19 did not arrive without warning and SARS and Ebola were lucky escapes. Fixing national public health systems and preserving ecological zones is no more a local public good; any view to the contrary essentially assumes away open economy and international trade. The current episode of Covid-19 has sufficiently demonstrated that surplus wealth cannot be created or preserved if pandemics hit the global system of wealth creation and exchange even twice in a decade. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that Covid-19 alone is likely to cut its GDP by more $10 trillion. Covid-19 is probably the last clarion call for prosperous countries as well as influential and prosperous classes within less developed countries to come forward and start coughing up the money to fix the national public health systems and ecological zones.

Source: The Express Tribune April 14, 2020 05:03 UTC