Snyder 1

Kale Snyder

Mrs. Krepp

Informative Essay

April 3, 2024

The Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdowns

Can you imagine having to take tutoring classes during the school day, having an

extended school year, be provided summer school options, or even have math classes doubled

(Reardon)? All of this is a possibility that could happen due to the impact of the COVID-19

lockdown. In addition to that, the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown didn’t stop there. One of the

bigger problems was healthcare issues, which caused many families and individuals to lose their

jobs and potentially their health insurance. Another problem that the world was faced with was

economic struggles between families and individuals, such as lack of food and money. It even

affected students attending school, during and after the pandemic. The COVID-19 lockdown

affected our lives and the world in significant ways, which caused health care issues,

educational declines, and economic struggles.

One major effect that Covid had on the world is the stress it put on the healthcare

system. With being recently unemployed, now without any health insurance, many individuals

were struck with another situation to be scared about. During the pandemic, there was a surge

of 20 million workers unemployed, which caused around 40% of individuals to lose their
 Snyder 2

employer-sponsored insurance (Blumenthal). This was a large problem because if a family

member got COVID-19, their hospital bills would be outrageous without any health insurance.

Another point based upon financial losses being an issue, is hospitals were losing an

extraordinary amount of money. In the first months of the crisis, office-based practices had a

decrease of 60% in visit volumes and hospitals had an estimated amount of $323.1 billion lost in

2020 (Blumenthal). That may be a number that a hospital can handle, but small office-based

practices could’ve easily run out of business due to this. Vaccinations also play a gigantic role in

the impact of the healthcare system. As of March 2024, roughly 70.6% of the world population

has received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine(Ritchie). Many places of employment, leaned on

the healthcare system to vaccinate their employees, as a requirement before you would be

allowed to return to work. The health care system dealt with hardship and tough situations that

they are still recooperating from to this day.

In addition to Covid having an impact on the healthcare system, it also had an impact on

students with educational struggles at the same time. During the 2021-2022 school year

students returned to either online or in person learning and they took their yearly academic

tests. After their scores came out, educators became very concerned. “Average Fall 2021 math

test scores in grades 3-8 were 0.20-0.27 lower than the same grade peers in Fall of 2019, while

reading test scores were 0.09-0.18 lower” (Kuhfeld). With this type of statistic, educators had to

research ways to assist students in improving their education and needs. Also, the number of

staff has decreased and individuals are less interested in becoming a teacher. “The
 Snyder 3

public school/teacher ratio declined from 15.9 pupils per teacher in the 2019-20 school year to

15.4 pupils per teacher in the 2020-21 school year” (U.S. Education in the Time of COVID). This

may be a small decrease, but with a lack of teachers, this could aslo cause an educational

decline. As there has been a decrease in teachers, the traditional way of teaching has been

replaced with online teaching after COVID-19. The online learning method is becoming more

effective, almost 70% of students say online learning is better than traditional classroom

learning and almost 63% of students in the US engage in online learning daily (Peck). Online

learning is providing opportunities for students to learn another way of teaching and the

various issues that are attached with this new method. Educational struggles during and after

COVID-19 impacted many students across the world.

As a final key point of how the world was affected during the pandemic, the world was

faced with many economic struggles around the world. One major struggle faced was difficulty

in purchasing food and other necessary products. A survey taken on struggles that adults faced

during Covid-19 stated that “9-14 percent of all adults in the country reported that their

household sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat. When asked why, 82 percent said

they “couldn’t afford to buy more food” (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities). Households

may not have had the fiancial needs for food, but non-financial factors, such as being

quarantined, lack of transportation or safety concerns played a large role as well and also

sometimes the inability to get foods because they were unavailable. Alongside trying to have

enough money to pay for groceries, there was hardship with trying to pay mortgage or rent.
 Snyder 4

“The December 2020 relief package and the rescue plan included over $46 billion in emergency

rental assistance, designed to help people struggling to pay their rent and avoid eviction”

(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities). This was a side of the Covid-19 lockdown that was a

positive to many struggling households. Another impact of the lockdown was employment

rates, which were lower then they were pre-covid 19. The unemployment rate skyrocketed in

April 2020 to a level not seen since the 1930s. There were still 4.2 million fewer jobs in October

2021 than February 2020. The majority of these jobs are jobs that pay low average wages

(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities). Many individuals start at a lower average wage and

work themselves to higher wages, but if they don’t start somewhere, they won’t ever have a

good paying job. Economic struggles had a big impact that households around the world took

on and may still be recovering from to this day.

The COVID-19 lockdown has impacted our lives, during and after, which caused health

care issues, educational declines, and economic struggles. It has been reported upon numerous

occasions that the lockdown of Covid-19 has impacted the healthcare system: Loss of health

care, hospitals losing money, and the concerns with vaccinations being given. Not only has the

health care system been reported upon numerous occasions, but educational declines like staff

shortages in schools. Another huge issue was hardship with trying to pay for mortgage or rent,

which was one of the major impacts of the economic struggles faced around the world. Overall,

the lockdown of Covid-19 has given us information that is unprecedented till this day. The
 Snyder 5

COVID-19 lockdown impacted lives around the world and presented situations that individuals

solved, fought, and still deal with till this day.

Works Cited

Doan-Nguyen, Ryan. “Post-Covid Learning Losses.” Harvard Magazine, July 17, 2023.

www.harvardmagazine.com/2023/07/kane-covid-learning-losses#:~:text=Math%2C%20re

ading%2C%20and%20history%20scores,of%20a%20year%20in%20reading.

Blumenthal, David, Covid-19 — Implications for the Health Care System , Nejm, March 8, 2020.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmsb2021088

Ritchie, Hannah. “Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations.” Our World in Data, 5 Mar. 2020.

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

Megan, Kuhfeld. “The Pandemic Has Had Devastating Impacts on Learning. What Will It Take to

Help Students Catch Up?”, Brookings, June 27, 2023.

www.brookings.edu/articles/the-pandemic-has-had-devastating-impacts-on-learning-wha

t-will-it-take-to-help-students-catch-up/.

U.S. Education in the Time of COVID, National Center for Education Statistics (NECS), Aug. 2022.

https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/annualreports/pdf/Education-Covid-time.pdf
Peck, Delvin. “Online Learning Statistics: The Ultimate List in 2024.”, Devlin Peck, Jan. 11, 2024.

www.devlinpeck.com/content/online-learning-statistics.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Tracking the COVID-19 Recession’s Effects on Food,

Housing, and Employment Hardships.”, 10 Feb. 2022.

https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/tracking-the-covid-19-recession

s-effects-on-food-housing-and