Without a doubt, the biggest impact of the covid-19 pandemic has been the loss of life and infections. The virus continues to evolve into new strains, and from a medical perspective, the ongoing health risks are apparent. As the experts predicted at the beginning three years ago, it looks like covid is going to be with us, in some form, for a long time.
But when it comes to the pandemic’s impact, a close second place has to be what it’s done to the economy — specifically, the disruption of the “normal” economy that most of us took for granted until the virus came along.
The virus shut down wide swaths of the economy in 2020. Most everything has reopened, but so much is different today.
The economy keeps adding jobs every month. Yet rising prices for fuel, food and many other essentials have hit hard for a year now. The “supply chain,” meaning the many elements that bring merchandise from production to consumer, has become a topic of ordinary conversation. Can’t buy what you want when you want it? It’s the supply chain.
Some of these economic changes are bad timing instead of the pandemic. For example, when the Biden administration took office in 2021 and focused on clean energy instead of oil and gas, it was no surprise that domestic production slowed — and fuel prices increased.
Another problem that got a lot of attention last year was a shortage of infant formula for several months. There were two reasons for this. First, a large production facility got shut down because its equipment was contaminated. But more importantly, government policy for years has discouraged imported formula through tariffs. There weren’t enough links built into this supply chain to overcome both issues.
This week, The Washington Post reported on a similar problem that many people surely have noticed: the ridiculous price of eggs.
You would think that the production of eggs, a staple of many diets, is as basic as the food industry can get. Millions of hens lay eggs. The eggs are collected and sorted, then placed in sets of 12 and shipped to grocery stores.
Like so much else the past couple of years, it’s not that simple right now. The Post reported that egg prices “hit historic peaks ahead of the December holidays, when egg demand is at its highest.” By one estimate, prices are three times what they were a year ago.
It turns out that the egg industry has been dealing with a double-whammy. The pandemic kicked it off by increasing labor and building costs, but the biggest hit came from a strain of “highly pathogenic avian influenza” that began last February.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the flu killed 44 million egg-laying hens, accounting for 4% to 5% of egg production.
The cost of eggs is expected to remain high in the short term. But prices should come down as more healthy birds begin producing eggs.
The good news is that egg farmers learned a lot of lessons from 2015, when they dealt with another flu outbreak. This time around, they rebuilt their flocks more quickly.
Eventually the broader economy will emerge from today’s doldrums, too. It’s just frustrating because it’s impossible to know when.
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
