Global Scans · Coronavirus · Weekly Summary

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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] The decline in productivity growth has been largely driven by under-investment, compounded by a series of economic shocks including recent trade disruption, the impact of Russia's invasion on Ukraine on energy prices, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Brexit. FoodManufacture.co.uk
• [New] Geopolitical and economic challenges, from the Covid-19 pandemic to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and unpredictable trade tariffs, have emerged as barriers to the Paris climate goals. WoodMac.Site.Features.Shared.ViewModels.Metadata.Publis
• [New] COVID lockdowns only exacerbated America's education crisis, and the next generation of workers will be at an extreme disadvantage. Armstrong Economics
• [New] Many private insurers already committed to covering COVID-19 vaccines as preventive care for the 2025-2026 vaccine season. The Conversation
• CDC recommends a 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccine for people ages 6 months and older based on individual-based decision-making. covid
• A US-wide trial will test whether tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Zepbound, may be an effective treatment for people with long Covid. Wired
• More than three-quarters of American adults did not get a covid shot last season, a figure that health care experts warn could rise in 2025 amid new U.S. government recommendations. Conexiant
• People beginning to shop for 2026's plans on the ACA marketplaces are experiencing sticker shock due to the expiration of more generous premium tax credits that were expanded during the covid pandemic. KFF Health News
• Some COVID-19-era subsidies under individual Affordable Care Act plans are due to lapse in 2026, which would lead patients to accelerate elective procedures, preventive care visits and diagnostic services while their insurance is still affordable. Yahoo Finance
• COVID-19 vaccination significantly reduces the risk of developing long COVID in adolescents. NYU Langone News
• The CDC will no longer recommend routine COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women and healthy children. AJMC

Last updated: 07 December 2025