COVID‐19 Pandemic

Abstract

When the World Health Organization first declared the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus, more commonly known as COVID‐19, to be a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, few people in the world were prepared for what was about to happen. Schools closed, offices were shuttered, people were advised to stay at home, and the global economy started to tumble. The world also began to see a deterioration in areas such as mental health, domestic violence, and race‐based acts of discrimination and violence. Many words and phrases rarely used in everyday conversations before the pandemic gained ground in the popular vocabulary, including “misinformation,” “essential worker,” and “lockdown.” In short, the world changed, as did the lives of nearly everyone. This entry looks specifically at issues of employment, the economy, education, vaccines, and social inequality.