The Political Economy of Global Responses to Covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic that erupted in China's Wuhan city at the end of 2019 plunged the world into a global crisis comparable to that of the Great Depression of the 1930s. By November 1, 2021, just 22 months after Chinese public health officials identified the genome of the virus, according to official figures more than 5 million people around the world have died. Throughout the first year of pandemic loss of life was mitigated through massive and comprehensive economic shutdowns in the context of depression-era levels of mass unemployment, comparable declines in GDP, and amid the acceleration of geopolitical rivalries. The future trajectory of the pandemic is uncertain. Scientific breakthroughs in the area of vaccines and anti-viral treatments starting in 2021 have reduced the death toll significantly, especially in high-income countries. However, the dissemination of vaccines to the global south has been slow. New variants may overwhelm the ability of existing vaccines to contain the disease.