Policies to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) require a balancing of the health risk reductions and the costs of economic dislocations. Application of the value of a statistical life (VSL) to monetize COVID-19 deaths produces a U.S. mortality cost estimate of $1.4 trillion for deaths in the first half of 2020. This article presents worldwide COVID-19 costs for over 100 countries. The total global mortality cost through July 2, 2020 is $3.5 trillion. The United States accounts for 25% of the deaths, but 41% of the mortality cost. Adjustments for the shorter life expectancy and lower income of the victims substantially reduces the estimated monetized losses, but may raise fundamental equity concerns. Morbidity effects of COVID-19 affect many more patients than do the disease’s mortality risks. Consideration of the morbidity effects increase the expected health losses associated with COVID-19 illnesses by 10% to 40%.

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为 COVID-19 大流行的全球健康风险定价

应对 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 的政策需要在降低健康风险和经济混乱成本之间取得平衡。应用统计生命值 (VSL) 将 COVID-19 死亡货币化，美国 2020 年上半年的死亡成本估计为 1.4 万亿美元。本文介绍了全球 100 多个国家的 COVID-19 成本。截至 2020 年 7 月 2 日，全球死亡总成本为 3.5 万亿美元。美国占死亡人数的 25%，但占死亡成本的 41%。对受害者预期寿命较短和收入较低的调整大大减少了估计的货币化损失，但可能会引发基本的公平问题。与疾病的死亡风险相比，COVID-19 的发病率影响更多的患者。