COVID 19; A GLOBAL PANDEMIC WITH EMBEDDED POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic presents itself as one major challenge to globalization as an important product of Liberal ideology (Political and Economic liberalism). After the discovery of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, in less than three months the virus found itself in many countries of the global north, especially in Europe and followed by other regions of the world. The mode of infection and transmission of the virus from China to other geographies was through transportation and migration, especially air transport and trade. In the face of this global pandemic, many countries embarked on control measures such as lockdowns, social distancing, isolation and quarantines as well as detention of infected persons. The early control measures adopted globally to curb the rate of spread of COVID-19 were significant tenets of socialism, communism and totalitarianism, which are anti-integration, less cooperation and the control of individual liberties and freedoms. In spite of the anti-democratic nature of the early control measures against the COVID-19 pandemic, western countries, which are the champions of democratic values and the promotion of human rights and liberal principles, accepted the anti-democratic measures to contain and control the mode of spread and the global infections of the COVID pandemic. The use of socialist, communist and totalitarian tenets or ideas to control the COVID pandemic, which are products of anti-liberalism and globalization, are signs that some aspects of totalitarianism, socialism and communism can be adopted by Liberal states in times of global emergencies and stresses, but not to return to socialism, communism or totalitarianism which may erode the gains made in promoting human freedoms and the many avenues created by globalization through neo-liberal ideas.

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