Global Scans · Coronavirus · Weekly Summary

Future potential spread of the coronavirus is impacting world trade and threatens a global economic recession and inflection point. For the first time, Illness is now a major driving force. We first reported this virus way back in 2010 and regularly since July 2015 as a predictable surprise: a known unknown to most. It is not a Black Swan; it was foreseen! Forewarned is forearmed and forearmed is protection against unpleasant possibilities and this inflection point will most likely change everyone's future profoundly.

Here are some actions you could take offered by and our friends at WavePoint and BCG and McKinsey.

Companies are asking people to work from home (we have always worked from our homes since 2003). We think the latter will become a long-term and rapidly growing trend as people reduce traveling time, buy more online, and increasingly recognize the benefits to their health of staying home. More emerging, potential behavioral trends here. Begin regularly evaluating predictable surprises, be prepared and act in time, while others lose their shirt through inattention to the future.

• [New] Alabama had 67% more total predicted COVID-19 deaths than officially reported. EurekAlert!
• [New] The war in the Middle East could cause the worst disruption to lifesaving humanitarian work since COVID. UN News
• [New] The COVID-19 pandemic significantly boosted adoption, with UNESCO reporting disruptions to 1.6 billion learners worldwide. Persistence Market Research
• [New] After the COVID-19 pandemic, massive stimulus spending and supply-chain disruptions pushed U.S. inflation to about 7%, the highest level in decades. Economic Times
• [New] Past disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war showed that periods of extreme volatility are temporary and markets eventually stabilise. Economic Times
• [New] The US-Israeli conflict with Iran has triggered the biggest disruption to air travel across the Gulf region since the Covid-19 pandemic, with commercial airline operations thrown into turmoil by airspace closures. KRDO
• [New] The U.S. is projected to add about 835,000 people in 2026 - the smallest gain since 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. PRB
• [New] If current trends continue, gender parity on corporate boards would not be reached until 2043, 19% of which still have no female representation. / Mexico Mexico Business
• [New] Forecasting consultancy Airfinity has estimated a 28% chance of a COVID-like pandemic by 2033. The Nuclear Threat Initiative
• [New] A collaboration between the ACS and the American Cancer Society aims to develop strategies to better prepare cancer centers for events that can trigger large-scale disruptions, including climate-related disasters and health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. ACS
• [New] U.S. life expectancy was already in crisis long before the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to face alarming threats from shifting patterns in chronic disease and emerging cancers. UTMB WWW (ROOT)
• [New] Myanmar's health system - still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and other disruptions - has limited capacity to absorb a large-scale obesity-driven NCD epidemic. Global New Light Of Myanmar
• [New] FDA safety communications have highlighted the risk of transmitting multidrug-resistant organisms and other pathogens via FMT and have outlined donor screening and testing requirements, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers
• [New] While falling interest rates helped boost business lending last year to the highest level since the coronavirus pandemic, the current unpredictable trading environment is expected to weigh on investment appetite in 2026, leading to more modest growth. The Independent
• [New] Government policy changes have done more than the coronavirus pandemic to throttle Australia's language training sector, costing thousands of jobs and threatening to fundamentally change the nature of a once-thriving industry. Times Higher Education (THE)
• The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends that pregnant people get an updated COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest opportunity - either while trying to get pregnant, during any trimester of pregnancy, or while breastfeeding or in the postpartum period. Live Science
• Tariff instability and geopolitical disruption are pushing companies deeper into supplier diversification and regional realignment in 2026 - trends that began during COVID but are now hardening into long-term structural change. Yahoo Finance
• A new national system will seek to halt an exodus of foster carers, which has seen the number of people approved for foster care fall by almost 12% over the past decade, with the drop sharper since the COVID pandemic. The Guardian

Last updated: 22 March 2026