I can confidently say: this is nothing compared to the fall of the USSR or the aftermath of the Plague.
But what I remember from economic history and what the article actually says is mostly opposite.
>Before the plague erupted, several centuries of population growth had produced a labour surplus, which was abruptly replaced with a labour shortage when many serfs and free peasants died. Historians have argued that this labour shortage allowed those peasants that survived the pandemic to demand better pay or to seek employment elsewhere. Despite government resistance, serfdom and the feudal system itself were ultimately eroded.
This was the main effect of the plague. The wealth concentration BBC talks about affected much fewer people.
This time the same is not going to happens because covid just increases demand for automation.
If 50% of working age people died, both wages and automation would increase.