Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake
While the now available 2020 annual global data clearly indicates that Covid-19 is primarily a first world virus, the Global South was locked down, impoverished and ‘structurally adjusted’ during 2020 – the year of the Corona virus. Decades of development gains have been wiped out in South Asia due to WHO recommended policies of lockdowns and curfew which resulted in massive job losses, displacement of migrant workers, increased poverty, and inequality.
It is not the Covid-19 virus, but the Covid-19 infodemic, as well as, WHO-led international policy that has triggered a deep economic, social and political crisis in the Global South at this time. The call for lockdowns, curfews and stoppage of public transport systems, often implemented by militaries based on the “Global pandemic” narrative and infodemic of Covid-19 infection figures form the John’s Hopkins University data base with contradictory messages resulted in creation of Covid-19 fear psychosis and anxiety in many tropical countries where the Corona virus is mild. As a result, millions have not been able to go to work and have lost jobs and livelihoods in countries like Sri Lanka and Thailand.