In March 2021, nearly every country in the world had more billionaires than they did at the outset of the pandemic in mid-March 2020. Amongst these new billionaires were 40 people who became new billionaires practically overnight solely from covid.
At the same time that these billionaires were getting richer, hundreds of millions were getting poorer and hundreds of millions more were driven to extreme poverty.
In February 2021, the World Economic Forum reported that according to the International Labour Organisation, 114 million jobs were lost in 2020 and others saw their working hours reduced due to covid restrictions. “The ongoing crisis has disrupted labour markets around the world at an unprecedented scale.”
Since the covid pandemic began, Oxfam reported, vulnerable communities around the world have been sending a clear, urgent and repeated message: “Hunger may kill us before coronavirus.” Oxfam noted it was the greatest rise in inequality:
More than a year and a half since the coronavirus pandemic was declared, the economic decline caused by lockdowns and closures of borders, businesses, and markets, has pushed tens of millions more people into hunger especially the most disadvantaged. Mass unemployment and severely disrupted food production have led to a 40% surge in global food prices – the highest rise in over a decade. More than 40 million people experienced extreme levels hunger primarily due to economic shocks largely caused by the pandemic. This is a near 70 per cent increase over the previous year.
The pandemic has also laid bare the greatest rise of inequality since records began. The estimated number of people living in extreme poverty is projected to reach 745 million by the end of 2021, an increase of 100 million since the pandemic started.
Shortly after the World Health Organisation declared covid-19 a global pandemic on 11 March 2020, markets collapsed and economies around the world plunged into recession.
At the same time, hundreds of billionaires fell from the ranks of Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list.
One year later, things couldn’t be more different: a record 493 new billionaires joined the list. Among those newcomers were at least 40 new entrants who drew their fortunes from companies involved in “fighting” covid.
Some became household names due to the “vaccines” they helped develop. Others got rich by making everything from personal protective equipment and diagnostic tests to antibody treatments and software that helps authorities schedule vaccination campaigns.
Some vaccine companies had been so successful that their rise over the year up to March 2021 had minted several new billionaires from the same company, including four apiece from Moderna and Tianjin-based CanSino Biologics.