People wearing protective face masks walk in the main shopping street in Munich during the coronavirus crisis on April 30, 2020.
Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images
LONDON – The ‘internal national agenda’ of certain countries in response to the coronavirus pandemic threatens global resilience in the aftermath of the crisis, a panel member behind the World Economic Forum’s 2021 report on global risks suggested.
Carolina Klint, risk management leader for Continental Europe at Marsh & McLennan, told CNN’s Geoff Cutmore on Monday that lessons can be learned in the collaboration needed to develop coronavirus vaccines at an “unprecedented rate.”
However, she added that the ‘internal national agenda’ of some countries was ‘a point of concern’.
Her comments come as some richer countries are criticized by campaigners for “hoarding” more doses of coronavirus vaccines than they need, while low-income countries struggle to get enough shots to immunize their populations. An Amnesty International report in December expressed concern about a ‘vaccine nationalism’ citing the UK, US, EU, Japan, Canada and Australia as one of the largest advanced buyers of vaccine doses.
On Tuesday, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, co-chair of the World Health Organization’s independent pandemic review panel, shared her disappointment that ‘vaccine rollouts are currently benefiting rich countries’.
Zombie Companies; bates borrel
Klint said the “substantial” stimulus packages injected by governments into their respective economies in response to the pandemic also coincided with the “continuing trend toward self-sufficiency fueled by Covid-19.”
She added that the risk of ‘business zombification’ exists if stimulus packages are not ‘properly structured’.
“So it’s a perfect storm brewing here,” she said.
So-called zombie companies are seen as backward businesses that need debt to function, or earn just enough to survive and service their debt. This was a concern amid the pandemic with increased support for businesses of governments and central banks.
Similarly, Klint warned that asset bubbles – as an investment rises rapidly in price driven by market momentum rather than underlying fundamentals – as another potential risk.
Perhaps it is not surprising that in the WEF’s annual global risk report, infectious diseases are considered to be the greatest impact threat over the next decade. By comparison, in January 2019, the spread of infectious diseases was considered to be the tenth greatest risk in terms of potential impact over the next ten years.
In its very first global risk report in 2006, WEF highlighted the threat of a flu pandemic as one of the four major risks. It warned that a “deadly flu, facilitated by global travel patterns and unrestrained by inadequate warning mechanisms, could pose an acute threat.”
The annual report is based on WEF’s Global Risks Perception Survey, completed by more than 650 members of the forum’s “diverse leadership communities.”
In this year’s risk report, infectious diseases, together with livelihood crises, were also named the best short – term threats to the world, according to 60% of respondents.
Klint added that the: “Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we think about risk, it has been made aware that disasters that could potentially cause mass death and destruction can happen.”
The WEF respondents considered the extreme weather conditions, the failure of the climate action and the human-led environmental damage as the most likely risks during the next decade. This continued the trend of last year’s report, in which all five of the largest long-term risks worldwide affect the environment.
In addition to employment and livelihood crises, digital inequality and youth disillusionment have been listed as the most threatening threats to the world, with the report focusing on the larger social gaps caused by the pandemic.