COVID-19

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic will not lead to serious negative consequences for globalization, according to report by American National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

"The pace of globalization has indeed slowed down recently compared to previous decades <...>, but stories [of difficulties] in the life of individual companies, which are considered evidence of deglobalization [during the COVID-19 pandemic], do not reflect on overall statistics", concludes Paul Anthras, author of the study, Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

According to his findings, ratio of trade to global GDP — one of the main indicators of globalization - has remained stable in recent years, and share of migrants in total population in 2018 reached the highest level since the 1990s. As for the damage to trade from COVID-19, economist considered it temporary, since volume of trade went up as soon as governments relaxed the lockdown, which means that serious consequences for globalization due to the pandemic should not be expected, at least in the near future.

Many countries are known to be developing COVID-19 vaccines.

So, Japanese authorities have already signed contracts with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and American biotechnology company Moderna for the supply of coronavirus vaccines in the future.

For citizens of country of the rising sun, vaccination will be free - relevant amendments to current legislation were approved by the Upper House of the Japanese Diet, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan Katsunobu Kato.

"Within the framework of this legislation, Japanese government intends to prepare necessary amount of doses for vaccination of the entire population by the middle of next year", Kato said.

He also noted that amendments were adopted unanimously. It is stated that all the costs of vaccination are borne by the government. If there are side effects from the vaccine, it will also pay compensation for them.