BORDER CONTROLS

With Europe’s interconnectedness cited as among the reasons for the virus’ rapid spread in the continent , countries are likely to adopt protectionist policies related to their borders as well

Science will ultimately defeat Covid-19. Science and the human spirit (and huge sums of money spent in research). We have to believe this. We also have to believe that the world will never be the same again.

The financial crisis of 2008 asked serious questions of the world’s preferred capitalist model – and some of these are yet to be answered. Real incomes around the worldhavesincedeclined,onereasonwhymanycountrieshavemadeunconventionalpoliticalchoices.over the following decade, multilateralism started on what is almost certainly the lingering journey of its death and countries became more protectionist, inwardlooking, and immigrant-unfriendly.

Now,12yearslater,sars-cov-2,thevirusthatcauses Covid-19, has highlighted the risks of the networked, globalised approach countries and people around the world have adopted for work, and life, building on and amplifying fractures that emerged in 2008.

The World Health Organization (WHO) would like to believe that it can orchestrate, lead, and manage a global, multilateral response to the pandemic.

That is not going to happen.

Recent history has shown that it is largely the African countries that have been open to following WHO’S lead.inthisparticularcase,who’shandlingofthecrisis when it first emerged – till mid-january, it continuedtoinsistthattherewasnoriskofhuman-to-human transmission – has severely dented its credibility. It is clear that the organisation was happy (and far too quick) to accept whatever Beijing was saying.

Most countries have chosen to follow their own approach in dealing with the pandemic; many have institutedinternationaltravelbansandclosedborders on their own (without checking with WHO, as they promisedtoinanagreementtheysignedafterthesars scare). Vaccine development has become an international competition between countries – the 21st century equivalent of a space race, with the winner likely to focus on ensuring its citizens get the advantage of early vaccination.

The response to the pandemic, then, will not be