While older adults suffer disproportionately from COVID-19’s health impacts, adolescents and young adults are likely to bear the brunt of the global economic and social crises unleashed by the coronavirus. Addressing these crises cannot wait until after the virus has receded. And young people themselves should be at the center of pandemic recovery plans. They are not just victims of these interlocking crises. They can be a cost-effective response to lead and contribute to mitigating the long-term health, economic, and social costs that their generation may experience most profoundly.

To date, the coronavirus crisis has been treated primarily as a public health emergency. It is now time for a broader global strategy. Public health measures to slow the spread of the disease, however understandable, shut down businesses and industries, affecting 2.7 billion workers and 81 percent of the world’s workforce. Reduced production and consumer spending are in turn driving a collapse in commodity prices, undercutting economies around the world. Meanwhile, external financing to emerging markets has vanished as remittances, private debt and equity, tourism, and domestic tax revenue evaporate.

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