COVID-19’s origins maybe in Asia but its breaking point has been in the West

Geographic laws are simple: the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. But yet in the geopolitical imagination of countries, at least in the last two hundred years or so, from technological innovation to Westphalian sovereignty and to liberal democratic norms, all have allegedly flown from the West to the East.

There has been a perception of “utopianism” around western democracies, that sense of “first worldness” that gets codified with nations in Western Europe and North America. These countries have long been seen as the paragon of a developed society; on the back of strong foundations in their economies through robust infrastructure, allegedly quality healthcare and more often than not exercising universal suffrage, largely eschewing from demagoguery and dictatorship in a post-World War II period.

These countries have far from seen as the origins of plagues and pandemics. But yet COVID-19 has mercilessly ripped through vulnerable fissures in healthcare across Spain, Italy, Germany, France, the UK and of course, the United States. The juxtaposition between the death toll in Asia and the West as well as government response teams has been stark.

There has been a perception of “utopianism” around western democracies, that sense of “first worldness” that gets codified with nations in Western Europe and North America.