The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Break Globalisation

Your iPhone made in Shenzhen – good. Your face mask also made in Shenzhen – bad

- GREG WILLIAMS

IN 2014, I TRAVELLED TO BANGKOK TO MEET LARRY BRILLIANT , the epidemiologist who led the World Health Organisation team in South Asia that eradicated smallpox. Brilliant was there as part of a mission to bring together government, private sector and citizens to develop digital tools for the early detection of disease outbreaks. There was excitement about using mobile healthcare apps to assist public health officials with spotting early indicators of deadly pathogens.

Following the outbreaks of SARS in 2002 and swine flu seven years later, governments across the world had promised action to prevent the widespread dissemination of zoonotic diseases. But governments moved on to other matters. It wasn’t until 2014, when the Obama administration set up a fund to support low-income countries grappling with the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, that an international effort was established.

In Bangkok, Brilliant and his team repeated numerous times that any effort to prevent the spread of a fast-moving pathogen must be transnational. Geographic boundaries exist, but the world’s topography can also be mapped through infrastructure. The spread of pathogens is possible because of our highly interconnected world.