How the Coronavirus Pandemic Upended Life as We Know It

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The coronavirus pandemic has upended life as we know it with its devastating effects not only on health, but on domestic economies and multilateral trade, cooperation and aid. It has reframed domestic politics by crowding out other issues, with political performances measured against how successfully leaders have navigated their countries through the pandemic. Failure to do so has already toppled seemingly entrenched rulers, like longtime Surinamese President Desi Bouterse. Afraid of facing similar consequences, some governments have used the pandemic as a pretext for restricting free speech and stripping away the rule of law.

The pandemic has stalled economies and wiped out millions of jobs, with the World Bank having predicted a 5.2 percent contraction in global GDP in 2020. Governments everywhere are struggling to map out possible paths to recovery. There have already been calls for debt relief across the Global South. Saudi Arabia has been forced to implement harsh new austerity measures. And Spain, one of Europe’s hardest-hit countries, is experimenting with a minimum guaranteed income for its citizens. Now the second wave of the pandemic is threatening further economic damage, requiring sustained government interventions to head off catastrophe.

In light of the restrictions imposed to stop the coronavirus’s spread, deeply embedded societal structures are suddenly receiving renewed scrutiny. Mounting inequality and crackdowns on civil rights in some countries have contributed to a surge in social protest movements and civil resistance. Frustrations with governments’ responses to the pandemic have encouraged broader reconsiderations of political and economic systems, and fueled calls to address legacies of police brutality, racism and colonialism. The pandemic has also raised important questions about the role religion can play in an emergency, as some faith communities contribute to the response, while others struggle against it. And it has also thrown into sharp relief the limits of state authority, as governments around the world struggle to provide relief in “ungoverned spaces.”

Among the victims of COVID-19 might be the multilateral system and international organizations that have emerged since World War II to help ensure peace and coordinate global responses to challenges that cut across borders—like the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump continued his efforts to dismantle this system, including taking initial steps to withdraw America from the World Health Organization. The global economy has been upended, but there is no indication governments—particularly Washington and Beijing—are interested in cooperating to build more resilience. Even the European Union, a consistent voice for multilateralism in recent years, demonstrated at the outset of the pandemic just how fragile these systems can be: As COVID-19 spread, European countries immediately moved to shut down their borders, undermining the principle of free movement and solidarity that is at the heart of the EU pact.

WPR has covered the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in detail and continues to examine key questions about what might come next. How will U.S. President-elect Joe Biden reorient America’s response to the pandemic, both at home and abroad?? Will the pandemic permanently alter global trade patterns? Will countries “build back better,” in terms of both green economies and social justice, after the pandemic? Below are some of the highlights of 

When the novel coronavirus first emerged a year ago in Wuhan, China, no one realized how significant this new pathogen would become. As we pass the first anniversary of the pandemic, it’s worth taking a step back to evaluate what we can learn from this crisis to guide our collective response to the next one.

Domestic Politics

The pandemic has tested countries’ political systems, while at the same time providing leaders with political cover for unpopular or illiberal measures. While some democratic leaders may face electoral consequences for their halting responses, successfully confronting the pandemic does not necessarily guarantee political immunity. Countries like Germany have seen a growing backlash to coronavirus restrictions, which Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is struggling to contain. In Morocco, success may have come at the expense of human rights, as the government relied on heavy-handed policies to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Economic Fallout and Global Trade

With global trade slowed and domestic businesses battered by COVID-19 restrictions, including months-long shutdowns in some countries, governments are desperately seeking strategies to revive their economies. But with the pandemic widening inequality, there are specific calls for multilateral financial institutions and governments to focus on policies that ensure wide swathes of people—especially members of the informal economy—are not left further behind.

Policy Implications

As the pandemic has upended established systems, it has given rise to a reconsideration of long-accepted policies and approaches, as well as our relationship to familiar practices and institutions. While those disruptions can be destabilizing, they also give rise to opportunities to discover new models in areas like health and education, but also tourism and the relationship between governments and religions.

Multilateral Cooperation Versus Competition

At first glance, the pandemic would seem to be a tailor-made crisis for multilateral cooperation. Instead, with a few exceptions, the initial response was characterized by “medical nationalism” and “an every country for itself” mentality. Since then, heightened tensions between the U.S. and China have impeded efforts to formulate a collective response in multilateral institutions and forums like the United Nations and the G-20. But given the nature of a pandemic, in which the world’s health is only as secure as that of its weakest member, international cooperation will eventually be necessary—to distribute a vaccine once it is available, for instance, as well as to mitigate the economic fallout and boost recoveries.

How China is trying to tightly control the narrative of the coronavirus’s origin, in A Year on, China Keeps Trying to Rewrite the Origins of the Pandemic