Tag: Covid Crisis

Hesitancy for the vaccine in the Covid Era

Article

June 30, 2021
2 Comments on Hesitancy for the vaccine in the Covid Era

6 min
3 years
1,028 word

Tagged Covid, Covid Crisis, COVID-19, Vaccination, Vaccine

Hesitancy for the vaccine in the Covid Era

If this hesitancy remains high due to the above reasons, it will be a critical situation for the nation or the world as it will lead to less coverage which further leads to disease outbreaks. It is a great threat to global health. Hesitancy to the vaccine is contagious, misinformed, misinformed, and not limited to COVID-19.

AUTHOR : DR. SHRUTI

In December 2k19, many got symptoms of shortness of breath, cold, cough, etc. caused by a pathogen that is unknown. Eventually, it was found out to be linked to the seafood market in China, particularly in Wuhan. Subsequently, the virus was identified as Coronavirus or COVID-19 by WHO (World Health Organization). It belongs to respiratory syndrome classification and is named SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2) by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. It has infected many and caused deaths in China initially and then spread to Italy, Europe, USA, and India, by this time WHO declared it as pandemic due to spread around the globe due to high level of infection and mortality rate.

Covid-19 has affected the world drastically; it brought personal losses to the economy at an individual as well as country level. The lockdown was introduced in almost every country for several months to break this chain of infection in the year 2020 which has many ill-effects like unemployment, financial losses, personal losses, etc. Worldwide, the two waves of this virus were observed, one on 2k20 and the second on 2k21. Also, many scientists and mathematicians have already predicted the third wave of this virus by the end of 2k21, especially affecting children up to 18 yrs of age. Covid-19 behavior was also introduced in all the nations which include –

Frequent hand sanitization/washing
Mask on while going out
Social Distancing
Reducing unnecessary outside houses

To control the spread of this virus, countries including India worked to introduce the vaccine against this novel Coronavirus. Many trials were conducted worldwide before the vaccine got administered as per the protocols of Drug Safety and Compliance. And finally, the day has arrived in Jan, 2k21 when the first jab was given to healthcare professionals and the front line workers, followed by the general public.

According to the recent data, there are a handful of countries that have curbed the novel virus and are not using masks anymore like-

Israel
Bhutan
USA
New Zealand
China

This achievement is a result of vaccine coverage for the nation. Below are the data for the vaccination coverage for the countries that are mask free now :-

Country	Coverage in percentage
Israel	70%
Bhutan	90%
USA	44.4 % of the population fully immunized
New Zealand	6.6 % of the population fully immunized
China	N/A

Other than above there are more places like-

Tuvalu
Turkmenistan
Tonga
Tokelau
Saint Helena
Pitcairn Islands
Palau
North Korea
Niue
Nauru
Kiribati
Federated States of Micronesia
Cook Islands
American Samoa

These places have curbed the virus due to the only reason for high immunization rates. Worldwide we are not getting the immunization rate as it was desired to be due to vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is a spectrum to refuse all vaccines to accept some vaccines. WHO defines the term “vaccine hesitancy” as a behavior that is influenced by numerous factors such as lack of confidence in vaccine or provider, complacency (don’t perceive it feeling not required), and access or convenience. The individuals who are vaccine-hesitant may accept few and then doubt on few, some delay or refuse to get immunized. Each one of us should understand and respect the availability of the vaccines as it is the crucial aspect in this Covid era to minimize the infections, specifically the healthcare or front line workers. Population which is vaccine-hesitant or showing negative behavior towards immunizations is a major concern towards the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.

As per the literature review, there are many studies done in the past worldwide showing low acceptance of the vaccine. Factors or reasons given by participants are as follows-

Employment – Less educated/ unemployed showed low acceptance
Personal perception
Religion
Politics
Gender
Income
Covid infection
Other comorbidities
Medical diseases like Cancer etc.

Literature review from high-income countries suggested the 5 determinants responsible for vaccine-hesitant behavior. 5C framework is as follows :-

As per the history of vaccination drive happened in the past, it helped many nations to forget the diseases like smallpox, polio, yellow fever, etc. which caused millions of deaths. All thanks to vaccination, for COVID-19 also it could have shown this picture but hesitancy towards the same is a big hindrance to overcome. This reluctance is not limited to only COVID vaccine but to other vaccinations as well. Director-General of WHO right said that “We are not just fighting with an epidemic; we are fighting with an infomedic. Infodemic is excess of information that got spread during an outbreak, some correct and some not via media or physical communications leading to poor access to accurate information.

Fb (Facebook) has conducted a survey – COVID-19 symptom survey (CSS) in India, the results are not impressive, it showed the hesitancy rate in India to be 28.7% Hesitancy is the highest in Tamil Nadu as high as 42% followed by Punjab with 41%. Recent government reports also suggested that it is more prevalent in rural or remote areas even after multiple visits of healthcare professionals. In the past when the vaccine for polio was introduced, India has faced this hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is not new to India. At that time also, some collaborations were made with leaders of either politics or religion. This time also the government is adopting many initiatives to reduce vaccine hesitancy-

Folk songs used to aware local people
Misinformation for vaccines is creating havoc. To alert officials about unreliable or fake news related to it.
Leaders or influencers like Mr. Amitabh Bachchan did campaign for Polio.
Delay should be addressed immediately.
Healthcare professionals are aware of people and inform them about the benefits of vaccines.
The general public be made aware of myths about vaccinations linked to medical diseases like, patients with blood cancers or any other types of cancer, etc., or other conditions like menstruating women, lactating women. There is no contraindication related to the above. Only contraindications exist for allergic patients or patients with low platelet count.

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What is K-Shaped Economic Recovery Curve | Covid Crisis

Commerce

June 10, 2021
/ Leave a Comment on What is K-Shaped Economic Recovery Curve | Covid Crisis

6 min
3 years
1,083 word
1

Tagged Covid Crisis, COVID-19, Economic, K-Shaped, recession

What is K-Shaped Economic Recovery Curve | Covid Crisis

A K-shaped recovery occurs when, following a recession, different parts of the economy recover at different rates, times, or magnitudes. This type of recovery is called K-shaped because the path of different parts of the economy when charted together may diverge, resembling the two arms of the Roman letter “K.”

What is K-Shaped Recovery Curve?

AUTHOR : Riya Kashyap

A K-shaped recovery occurs when, following a recession, different parts of the economy recover at different rates, times, or magnitudes. This is in contrast to an even, uniform recovery across sectors, industries, or groups of people. It leads to changes in the structure of the economy or the broader society as economic outcomes and relations are fundamentally changed before and after the recession. This type of recovery is called K-shaped because the path of different parts of the economy when charted together may diverge, resembling the two arms of the Roman letter “K.”

It is the business cycle stage following a recession that is characterized by a sustained period of improving business activity. Normally, during an economic recovery, GDP grows, incomes rise, and unemployment falls and as the economy rebounds.

Recently, the latest readings of the Nomura India Normalization Index (NINI) suggested the impact of Covid 19 on Indian Economy and the K-Shaped Recovery through which the Indian Economy is recovering.

Effect of Covid-19 on households :-

Households at the top of the pyramid are likely to have seen their incomes largely protected, and savings rates forced up during the lockdown, increasing ‘fuel in the tank’ to drive future consumption.
Households at the bottom are likely to have witnessed permanent hits to jobs and incomes.

Effect of the Current Monetary Policy :-

A long lasting period of ultra-accommodative monetary policy has led to a fall in real lending rates and spreads for corporates and households that should eventually come as lagged relief to the interest-sensitive sectors.
An economic spread is a measure of a company’s ability to make money on its capital investments.

Economic Recovery after Covid-19 :–

As the fiscal deficit in FY 2020-21 has widened to roughly 7% of GDP, which is double the pre-pandemic target of 3.5 % of GDP. The government may, therefore, feel encouraged to rely on higher fuel taxes, disinvestment.
India is going through a K-shaped recovery, wherein corporates and households with stronger balance sheets have recovered more robustly, while smaller firms and poorer households probably remain trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and indebtedness instigated by the pandemic.

Implications of the K-Shaped Recovery :-

Households at the bottom have experienced a permanent loss of income in the forms of jobs and wage cuts, this will be a recurring drag on demand, if the labour market does not heal faster.
To the extent that Covid has triggered an effective income transfer from the poor to the rich, this will be demand-impeding because the poor have a higher marginal propensity to consume (i.e., they tend to spend-instead of saving) a much higher proportion of their income.
If Covid-19 reduces competition or increases the inequality of incomes and opportunities, it could impinge on trend growth in developing economies by hurting productivity and tightening political economy constraints.

With the top 10 per cent of India’s households responsible for 25-30 per cent of total consumption, one could argue consumption would get a boost as this pent-up demand expresses itself. But it’s important not to conflate stocks with flows, and levels with changes. Upper-income households have benefitted from higher savings for two quarters. What we are currently witnessing is a sugar rush from those savings being spent. This is, however, a one-time effect.

More recently, JP Morgan introduced the K-shaped recovery curve, which paints a more realistic, yet unpleasant, picture. As per their analysis, the covid-19 recovery path bifurcates in two directions: large firms and public-sector institutions with direct access to government and central bank stimulus packages will make some areas of the economy recover fast but leave others out. Those that get left out are the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), blue-collar workers, and the dwindling middle class.

Misallocation of stimulus funds or emergency subsidies makes some areas of the economy recover fast but leaves out others. In economics, this is known as The Cantillon Effect, which refers to the change in relative prices resulting from a change in the money supply. When liquidity is injected into the market, there are distributional consequences that operate through the price system. Prices act as viable signals, as relative price changes occur because the change in money supply has a specific injection point, and therefore a specific flow-path through the economy. The higher the level of unemployment in a recession, the longer the recovery curve and this crisis is going to have an exceptionally long recovery curve.

Rising inequalities were particularly painful to a low-income country like India, where the upper segments of the population have seen their incomes protected and their wealth rise while the lower sections have lost jobs, incomes, savings and purchasing power. About 122 million people, mostly daily wage earners and those employed by small businesses lost their jobs to one of the world’s strictest lockdowns around this time last year, and new localized lockdowns by Indian states now are once again pushing the unemployment rate higher.

The importance of using technology as a lever of adaptation and survival is going to become increasingly important as covid-19 instigates changes in consumer preferences and increases their use of digital platforms. If before technology was seen quasi-exclusively as the panacea of all troubles, it may be time just now to collectively design it toward solutions of which we are in dire need. Furthermore, a K-shaped recovery can reveal the existence of “creative destruction,” a term and concept coined and developed by Austrian economist Josef Schumpeter in 1942. According to Schumpeter, creative destruction occurs when novel technologies and industries take the place of old ones during a recession.

A K-shaped recovery scenario can also provide financial and monetary clues into public policy response, benefiting some areas of the economy more than the others. Or quite simply, it can show the differential impact of the initial recession on various economic sectors, particularly when the recession happens with or is spurred by negative real economic shocks that affect certain areas of the economy at different magnitudes. However, keep in mind that these three are not always co-exclusive but may interact with other factors in any K-shaped recovery.

Given the K-shaped recovery and the new pandemic poor the budgets for spending heads such as subsidies, employment generation, rural development and other social sector programmes are likely to remain large. The vaccination costs add to the bill. The government will also have to sharpen its focus on capital spending to contain damage to potential growth.

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