Ten lessons from the first 2 years of Covid-19

ON Mar 11, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Covid-19 was a pandemic. Since then, more than 6 million lives around the world have been lost to the disease, and daily life has been upended in countless ways. Some countries are now regaining a degree of normality, though the threat of another variant-induced wave of disease remains.

On this second anniversary, we reflect on 10 things the world has learned through the course of the pandemic.

• Infectious diseases are a whole-of-society issue. One in every 1,300 people alive in 2019 has died from infection with Sars-CoV-2, but when we look back on Covid-19 in the future, the direct health impact may not be what we remember most. Indirect effects on health, as a result of delayed routine and preventive care, overstressed healthcare systems, and the increased mental-health burden, may eventually seem more significant.

Children - especially those from low-income families - suffered significant harm during prolonged school closures. And the economic harm and dislocation that the pandemic caused have decreased the quality of life for people around the world.