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] Maryland will continue to work with partners to address the availability of COVID-19 vaccine for children. Maryland.gov Enterprise Agency Template
• [New] Whereas Covid-19 was easily spread from person to person, the World Health Organization and other health authorities have stressed that human-to-human transmission of hantavirus is very rare, and so the risk to public health is low. The Guardian
• [New] Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions, particularly national public health institutions and national reference laboratories, accounting for 87.3% in Africa, had extremely limited genomics and bioinformatics literacy, expertise, and opportunities 1-3. PubMed Central (PMC)
• [New] Compounding shocks - the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Trump tariffs, and Red Sea disruptions - have exposed the fragility of supply chains over-concentrated in single locations. ZestLab
• [New] The economic hit of the Iran war on the British economy could be the worst since Covid - even as Deloitte predicted that 250,000 British workers will lose their jobs by the middle of 2027, bringing the unemployment rate up to 5.8%. UnHerd
• [New] The PRC is likely expanding its people-to-people and economic exchanges with North Korea to pre-COVID - 19 levels to gain leverage that could restore its former political relationship with Pyongyang. American Enterprise Institute - AEI
• [New] The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened public attention to chronic diseases, including diabetes, as the global health crisis emphasized the risks associated with comorbidities like diabetes and obesity. PubMed Central (PMC)
• [New] Setbacks have occurred in lower-income countries where COVID-19 pandemic disruptions and cuts to global health funding, including the termination of USAID and the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO, have weakened vaccination systems and slowed recovery. Council on Foreign Relations
• [New] While AI may be claiming the spotlight, investment across supply chain technology will increase in 2026 - although not at as high a pace as during the COVID era. DC Velocity
• The current COVID-19 pandemic has created a range of additional challenges testing the resilience of many health-care systems and vulnerabilities at all levels (acute, subacute, community, and individuals) on the global stage. LWW
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions to malaria services contributed to an estimated 47,000 additional deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs
• CMS proposes to increase SNF payments by 2.4% in FY 2027 and remove COVID-19 vaccine measures from the SNF QRP. McDermott+
• The disruptions from Covid, the war on Ukraine, all exacerbated by climate change, erased more than a decade of progress on combating global hunger. New Statesman
• 8.6% of adults 18 years and older, 12.5% of adults 18-64 years with high-risk conditions, and 10.0% of adults 65 years and older reported that they definitely will get vaccinated with a 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccine. / USA RespVaxView
• The study in JAMA Network Open found prediabetic adults with certain variations in the vitamin D receptor gene had a 19% lower risk of developing diabetes when taking a high daily dose of vitamin D. Futurity

Last updated: 17 May 2026