The recent crisis in question is the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis can be classified as both a developmental and situational crisis, due to its nature as an ongoing global event that has caused disruption on multiple levels, ranging from individual health to economic systems (Hale 2020).

At its core, the COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency caused by a novel virus. This virus has been found to cause severe respiratory illness and death in some cases, and over the course of 2020 it has spread around the world rapidly (CDC 2020). As such, this situation qualifies as a “situational” crisis due to its sudden onset and immediate impacts on public safety.

However, beyond simply being an immediate threat to public health, the COVID-19 pandemic has also become a major global event with far-reaching consequences. From an economic perspective it has resulted in market volatility and massive job losses; while politically it has resulted in governmental reorientations towards managing risk associated with contagion (Hale 2020). These aspects of the crisis qualify it as a “developmental” type of crisis since they involve more long term effects than just those directly related to infection rates or mortality rates.

In conclusion ,the COVID – 19 pandemic can be considered both situational & developmental crises depending upon one’s particular point view . Despite vast differences between these two forms of crises ,both have had considerable impact on modern society over last year – making them equally important if not more so when attempting draw conclusions concerning current state of affairs.