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VULNERABLE26 At the domestic level, countries will develop a range of recovery plans. Some of these plans will tilt toward austerity, tacitly accepting that some will be left behind.105 While health care budgets are unlikely to see significant cuts, other crucial public goods, such as education, could see their funding slashed. Other countries will spend their way out of the economic down- turn. These governments will invest significant funds to support their populations and build new infrastructure in the hope of stim- ulating the economy.106 While temporary income support programs will eventually be phased out, some may become permanent. In Canada, for example, there will be pressure to convert the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit, a $500 weekly payment to individuals who became unemployed as a result of the pandemic, into a univer- sal basic income program.107 Economists have argued that recovery plans must be attentive to the gendered impacts of COVID-19 on the economy. Jobs held predominantly by women have been more sig- nificantly impacted than jobs held primarily by men, and access to childcare will be crucial to ensuring the return to the workforce of women.108 In Canada, too, there will be pressure to significantly invest in and reform long-term care. In short, states will be faced with choices. The weaknesses of some choices that countries have made to date have been exposed by COVID- 19. Will countries now choose another path? Rather than ignoring our vulnerabilities and disregarding questions of human dignity, respect, and equity, we contend these values should shape the response going forward. Profound global inequities have created the preconditions 105. See generally Rory O’Connell et al, Applying  an  International  Human  Rights  Framework  to  State  Budgetary  Allocations:  Rights  and  Resources (Oxford: Routledge, 2014). 106. See Bob Rae & Mel Cappe, “We Can’t Just Pick up the Pieces after the Pan- demic Subsides – We Need to Keep Them Together”, The  Globe  and  Mail (30 March 2020), online: <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-we- cant-just-pick-up-the-pieces-after-the-pandemic-subsides-we-need>. 107. “Will This Pandemic’s Legacy be a Universal Basic Income?”, Maclean’s (19 May 2020), online: <https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/will-this-pandemics- legacy-be-a-universal-basic-income>. 108. Jessica Smith Cross, “Women’s Job Losses Require Strategies for an Economic ‘She-covery’” (5 May 2020), online: QP  Briefing <https://www.qpbriefing. com/2020/05/05/womens-job-losses-require-strategies-for-an-economic-she- covery>; Jordan Press & Teresa Wright, “Ottawa Quietly Probes Expanded Role for Child Care in Post-Pandemic Recovery”, The  Globe  and  Mail (17 May 2020), online: <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-feds- quietly-probe-expanded-role-for-child-care-in-post-pandemic>.