The coronavirus pandemic is rapidly changing health conditions, daily life, social relationships and economic prospects around the world. In the first 55 days of the pandemic, the World Health Organization reported 155,000 cases and 6,500 deaths worldwide. In China, where the virus started, the infection seems to have stopped after reaching 81,000 cases; in Italy – the second most affected country with 25,000 cases – the pandemic has not slowed down yet. In many of the other 146 countries infected, the virus is spreading at a sustained pace and, as we write, several countries – including the United States – are introducing drastic measures to address the spreading of the virus. The consequences of this pandemic will be wide-ranging, affecting our views of health and the public good and the way the world economy works. In these notes we reflect on the issues raised by the pandemic, the lessons we can learn, and the possible changes in the relationships between health, economics and politics.
Health is a global public good
The necessary starting point is a conception of health as a fundamental right. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations states: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services”. From an economic and public policy perspective, health is a global public good; it cannot be produced as a commodity and sold on the market to individual consumers, and is highly vulnerable to lack of health – or, in fact, to the emergence of epidemics – in any point of the planet.
The importance of global public goods was recognised in the late nineties in the context of the debate on globalization:
