Geneva: The United Nations warned on Wednesday that the coronavirus crisis could have a severe and lasting impact on the life prospects of young adults without swift remedial action.
The UN’s International Labour Organisation said the career prospects of people aged 18 to 29 were taking a hit from the Covid-19 pandemic, while students faced a “gloomy outlook” for its effects on their education.
The ILO report entitled “Youth and Covid-19: impacts on jobs, education, rights and mental well-being” said young adults had been disproportionately affected by the crisis. The report was based on the Global Survey on Youth and Covid-19, a study of more than 12,000 young people aged 18 to 29, conducted online in 23 languages across 112 countries between April 21 and May 21.
The respondents were largely educated young adults with internet access, representing students and working young people with a tertiary education. “The study finds the impact of the pandemic on young people to be systematic, deep and disproportionate. It has been particularly hard on young women, younger youth and youth in lower-income countries,” the report said.
“Unless urgent action is taken, young people are likely to suffer severe and long-lasting impacts from the pandemic.” The survey found that 13 percent had been left without any access to courses, teaching or training, while more than 70 percent said they were adversely affected by the closure of their educational establishments.
With courses moving online, the survey revealed the “deep digital divides that exist, especially for youth in lower-income countries, as well as the gloomy outlook that young people hold as regards learning outcomes”, said the report.
It called for greater access to online learning opportunities and teaching programmes tailored to a virtual audience. “The pandemic is also inflicting a heavy toll on young workers, destroying their employment and undermining their career prospects,” the ILO report said.
It found that 17 percent who were employed before the outbreak had stopped working altogether. Working hours among employed youth fell by nearly a quarter and 42 percent reported a reduction in their income.
“Urgent, large-scale and targeted employment policy responses are needed to protect a whole generation of young people from having their employment prospects permanently scarred by the crisis,” the report said.
The survey found that 17 percent were “probably affected” by anxiety and depression. “The increased sense of anxiety and fear that this crisis has instilled in many young people threatens to delay recovery in education and youth employment outcomes,” the report said.
It called for mental health services to be extended to young people whose school-to-work trajectory had been hit by disrupted educational careers or job losses.Meanwhile, although none of the coronavirus vaccines under development has proved its efficacy yet in clinical trials, at least 5.7 billion doses have been pre-ordered around the world.
First shipments of a Covid-19 vaccine created by Western laboratories have often been snapped up by the United States. Five vaccines -- three Western and two Chinese -- are in Phase 3 efficacy trials involving thousands of people.
In a surprise announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Tuesday that a vaccine dubbed “Sputnik V” -- after the Soviet satellite -- conferred “sustainable immunity” against the novel coronavirus.
As research laboratories around the world race to develop a vaccine, manufacturers have received financing to help them prepare to have millions of doses ready to administer in 2021 or even before the end of the year.
Oxford University, working with the Swedish-British pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, hopes to have results by September while the US biotech company Moderna, partnering with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), is aiming for the end of the year, possibly November.
President Donald Trump has launched “Operation Warp Speed” in a bid to develop, manufacture and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine to all Americans by January 2021. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been directed to vaccine developers including nearly $500 million to Johnson & Johnson at the end of March.
The United States has allocated funding to more companies than other nation in the hope that one of them will come up with the vaccine to counter the highly contagious virus. So far, Washington has handed out at a total of least 9.4 billion dollars to seven vaccine developers and signed manufacturing contracts with five of them to provide 700 million doses.
The companies involved are: Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Oxford/AztraZeneca, Novavax, Pfizer/BioNTech, Sanofi/GSK, Merck Sharp and Dohme. Two vaccine developers -- Oxford/AztraZeneca and Sanofi/GSK -- have signed or are in advanced negotiations with the European Commission to provide a combined 700 million vaccine doses.
Britain, because of Brexit, is negotiating a separate pre-order of 250 million doses from four developers.
Japan is counting on 490 million doses from three suppliers including 250 million from Novavax of the United States. Japanese pharmaceutical giant Takeda bought the rights to a Novavax vaccine for Japan, which has funded the research. It would be produced locally.
Brazil chose a similar model, ordering 100 million doses from AstraZeneca, and partnering with China’s Sinovac to produce 120 millions of “CoronaVac,” which is already undergoing testing with Brazilians.