UN Report Warns Inequality Fuels Global Pandemic Vulnerability

High inequality is making the world increasingly vulnerable to pandemics and perpetuating a destructive cycle that threatens both public health and economic stability, according to a new United Nations report released on Monday.

The findings, based on two years of research by the UNAIDS-convened Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics, were published ahead of the upcoming G20 leaders’ summit in South Africa.

The report warns that “high levels of inequality, within and between countries, make pandemics more economically disruptive, deadly, and prolonged,” while pandemics in turn worsen inequality — creating a self-reinforcing “inequality-pandemic cycle.”

The council behind the report includes Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, former Namibian First Lady Monica Geingos, and renowned epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot. They noted that this vicious cycle was evident in past crises such as Covid-19, AIDS, Ebola, influenza, and mpox.

“Failure to address key inequalities and social determinants since Covid-19 has left the world dangerously exposed to the next pandemic,” the report said, highlighting that the Covid-19 outbreak pushed 165 million people into poverty even as the world’s richest individuals grew wealthier by more than 25 percent.

Calling inequality a “political choice” that endangers global health, Geingos urged world leaders to strengthen pandemic preparedness through expanded social protection systems and fairer economic policies.

The report recommends that countries invest in social protection mechanisms and global inequality reduction, including debt restructuring for developing nations. Stiglitz warned that “pandemics are not only health crises; they are economic crises that can deepen inequality if leaders make the wrong policy choices.”

He cautioned that austerity and high-interest debt repayment measures deprive countries of essential funding for health, education, and social welfare, leaving societies more fragile and less resilient to future outbreaks.

Breaking this cycle, the report says, requires allowing all nations the fiscal space to invest in health security, ensure equitable access to medicines and technology, and waive intellectual property rights on critical treatments once a pandemic is declared.

Joseph Stiglitz is also expected to present a follow-up report on global inequality and poverty to world leaders at the G20 summit scheduled for November 22–23.