Scientific American - USA (2022-03)

March 2022, ScientificAmerican.com 63

Large-Scale* Annual Digital Health Funding, U.S. (billions of dollars)*Includes deals more than $2 million$4.6(2016)

$14.6(2020)

Telehealth-Related Bills Passed

0

60

Regulatory requirements

Private payer reimbursement

Online prescribing

Medicaid reimbursement

Studies and reportsCross state licensing

Broadband

2020

2021

Interrupted LearningTrajectories Learning Progression

Time

School closures

Loss of previously acquired learning and expected learning that does not take place because of school disruptions.

Pre-COVID learning trajectory

COVID trajectory

Alternative COVID trajectory

Accelerated learning to getback to pre-COVID benchmark.

If students do not getback on track, learning losses will accumulate.

Lines are colorized according to the Pandemic Violations of Democratic Standards Index, which represents the extent to which 2020 pandemic responses have violated democratic standards. In general, countries with lower levels of perceived corruption (top of chart

) have

exhibited a more democratic handling of the pandemic (

yellow

and

orange

).

Perceived Corruption IndexLess corruptNew Zealand,Denmark More corrupt

2019

2020

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10

0

ViolationsNoneMinorModerateMajor

U.S.Armenia Somalia

64.4%(2001)

58.7%(2020)

10.8%(2020)

2 0 .1 %(1983)

Percent of U.S. Employees Who Are Members of a Labor Union

Deviation in Google Search Intensity

–2

–4

–6

2

4

6

Weeks from Outbreak

Historic baseline (

dotted

)

ZoomSkypeDeliveryFlightShoppingRestaurantMuseum

Higher than baselineLower than baseline

Global Labor Force Participation Rate (percent of total population, ages 15 and up)

Mar. 2020

EDUC ATION

A report from the World Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF warns that

COVID-related

disruptions caused “the worst education crisis on record.” Children in low- and middle-income countries have suffered the biggest losses because of school closures and will likely experience longer-lasting effects than those in high-income nations. “Affected cohorts of children end up with lower educational attainment, as well as lower earnings and higher unemployment in adulthood.”

TRUST

The success of any democracy depends largely on the degree to which the public trusts its institutions to act in its best interest. In many countries, political responses to COVID appear to have shifted public perceptions of corruption in

government—some for better, others for worse.

Disrupted Learning Trajectories

According to the World Bank, some evidence shows that a portion of the long-term losses “are attributable to slower learning once children return to school.” If educators and administrators are given the resources and support to respond to pandemic-related setbacks with an “accelerated learning trajectory,” students may still catch up. But that would require immediate, sweeping changes to education systems, including consolidating the curriculum, increasing instructional time and tutoring students in small groups. Source:

The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery,

World Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF (2021) Perceived Corruption (Global)According to the organization Transparency International, the corrosive effects of corruption are amplified during emergencies, which can in turn exacerbate the emergency. Some of the key factors in this spiral of harm are di

version of funds from

essential services, opaque government spending, and breaches of human rights in

the management of

the crisis. All these issues arose during the pan

• 
  

demic, and people all over the world suf

• 
  

fered and died as a^ result.Sources: Transparency International (

Corruption

Perception Index values

),^

and Pandemic Backsliding Project, Varieties of Demo

• 
  

cracy Institute (

Pandemic Vio­

lations of

Democratic Standards

Index values

)

The story of COVID and its myriad impacts is far from over. As we enter year three of the pandemic, data will continue to play a key role in quantify

• 
  

ing the waves of change that ripple through soci

• 
  

ety. Some of these data will help us make personal risk assessments in our daily lives, whereas oth

• 
  

ers might inform policy decisions. Charts and graphics can also highlight emerging trends that might otherwise get lost as we navigate the daily noise of an ongoing crisis.

Successesand failures

In New Zealand, which famously

handled COVID quite well, levels of public trust started out high in 2019 and improved in 2020 as the government maintained

democratic standards throughout its response. In the U.S., however, violations of

democratic

standards seem to have worsened perceptions of corruption at the same

time the country has suffered

devastating losses during

the pandemic.

New rules

require interpersonal trust“The problem is that for the

recommendations or regulations to work,

we need to trust our fellow citizens as well as the government institutions that are issuing them. If people do not believe that most others

are going to play by these novel and

restrictive rules, they are unlikely to adhere

to them themselves.”

—Political scientist Bo Rothstein,

in

Scientific American,

March 2020

MOVING FORWARD