Mitigating negative economic impacts of pandemics

Infectious disease outbreaks impact economic growth and stability. Historical and contemporary examples, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, underscore the need for economic policymakers to rapidly identify and mitigate the negative economic impacts of pandemics. To bolster future efforts, we conducted a literature review to summarize the adverse economic impacts of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), HIV/AIDS, foot and mouth disease, and H1N1 outbreaks on gross domestic products Our review identified two key policy gaps. First, there was a dearth of systematic evaluations of economic responses to past pandemics. Second, many countries lacked an existing framework or strategy to mitigate COVID-19-related economic impacts. Moving forward, we recommend that economic policymakers and public health professionals should work together to evaluate and develop economic interventions. These lessons should be incorporated into a clearly articulated, standing unified policy framework that receives adequate funding to mitigate the negative economic impacts of future pandemics (Morrison and Reynolds, 2022)1.