While viral epidemics have occurred with increasing regularity, particularly in the neoliberal era since at least the AIDS crisis, and while there has been a distinct acceleration with the SARS, MERS, Ebola and Zika, these viruses were less contagious and (so far) more easily contained. The far more virulent novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has turned into what the WHO has deemed a pandemic. It could result in staggering numbers of dead if not controlled. Neoliberal governments, on the one hand, have attempted to control the spread of the virus through lockdowns of varying degrees of severity, causing unprecedented economic stoppage only to avoid unmanageable political crises. On the other hand, these governments are in most cases fundamentally ill-equipped to deal with it, prolonging the economic crisis.
This is second in a seven-part, multi-week series of commentary on the COVID-19 crisis entitled “What is to be done? A Manifesto for Politics Amid the Pandemic and Beyond” by Radhika Desai.
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Photo by João Pedro Freitas on Unsplash