Political Economy of the Pandemic

Global supply chains have been severely impacted by the blanket travel restrictions in many countries due to the highly contagious coronavirus, resulting in the loss of significant cargo capacity by air.

Travel bans, closed borders, lock-downs and blame-games by some of the world’s political leaders — is this the end of global co-operation? Nationalism was already on the rise almost everywhere. Will Covid-19 make countries more inward-oriented, less co-operative and insular?

Upmarket restaurants are delivering free meals to the elderly, while a fashion firm donates face masks.

I wore a face mask outside for the first time on Tuesday morning. It wasn’t a new one; I purchased it last summer to clean out a critter infestation.

As people around the world find themselves in confinement to control the Covid-19 pandemic, look out for another affliction with an even higher infection rate than any virus. Boredom is now a serious health risk.

From medical workers struggling to care for the rising tide of Covid-19 patients to the billions of people told to stay home to slow the pandemic, everyone is waiting for one thing: a vaccine.

The stay-at-home orders issued in an increasing number of US states may be necessary, but the psychological effects that come with them are heavy all the same. It’s no longer a suggestion to stay home, but a directive.

Threats to national security invariably limit domestic political disputes. Now that governments have assumed a leading role in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, the political opposition in countries under populist rule is quickly being marginalised.

The use of face masks in Asia during the coronavirus outbreak has been far more widespread than in the West, where governments have urged people to reserve supplies for frontline medical staff, so have they helped limit infections?

Driving to work at his factory to the west of London last week, designer Steve Brooks had coronavirus on his mind. What could he make that would let him open a door without touching the handle?

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