High inequality renders the world more susceptible to pandemics, amplifies their economic devastation and lethality, and prolongs their duration, leading economists, health experts, and the United Nations declared on Monday.

The assessment stems from two years of research by the UNAIDS-convened Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics, detailed in a report released before G20 leaders convene in South Africa this month, reported AFP.

"High levels of inequality, within and between countries, are making the world more vulnerable to pandemics, making pandemics more economically disruptive and deadly, and making them last longer," the report said.

"Pandemics in turn increase inequality, driving the cyclical, self-reinforcing relationship," it said.

The council was chaired by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, former Namibia First Lady Monica Geingos, and eminent epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot.

This "inequality-pandemic cycle" manifested in outbreaks including Covid-19, AIDS, Ebola, influenza, and monkeypox, the experts stated.

"Failure to tackle key inequalities and social determinants since Covid-19 has left the world extremely vulnerable to, and unprepared for, the next pandemic," it said.

The Covid-19 crisis "pushed 165 million people into poverty while the world's richest people increased their wealth by more than a quarter", they said.

Breaking the cycle

Inequality "is a political choice, and a dangerous one that threatens everyone’s health", Geingos said in a press release.

The report urged leaders to bolster pandemic preparedness through national "social protection mechanisms" and address global disparities via debt restructuring for developing nations.

"Pandemics are not only health crises; they are economic crises that can deepen inequality if leaders make the wrong policy choices," Stiglitz said.

"When efforts to stabilise pandemic-hit economies are paid for through high-interest on debts and through austerity measures, they starve health, education and social protection systems," he said.

"Breaking this cycle requires enabling all countries to have the fiscal space to invest in health security," Stiglitz said.

The report demanded fairer distribution of treatments and health technologies, greater investment in local and regional manufacturing, and an immediate waiver of intellectual property rights upon pandemic declaration.

Stiglitz will present findings on global inequality and poverty to world leaders before the G20 summit on November 22 and 23. The Group of 20 (G20) comprises 19 leading economies as well as the European Union and the African Union.