This is not the first time that the world has faced a bio-threat. Back in 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak resulted in 8000 cases and 800 deaths. The world came together, acting promptly by imposing immediate quarantine in some cases community quarantine and syndromic surveillance to contain the pandemic. Cut to 2020, we are faced with a new pandemic (COVID-19) and the world cannot be more divided than this. While there are lives lost in excess of 15000 world over to this virus, nations are yet to, China & the US, come together and fight this pandemic.

Rather, Covid-19 has become the new battlefield for the two economic giants to challenge the other. Despite signing the phase-1 of trade deal in January, the two nations have a new-found friction. The two countries have been slinging mud at each other, while World Health Organizations stands at the cross-roads of it. The pandemic has disrupted the Chinese economic activity, with government focusing more on its domestic positioning versus global, thereby effecting the phase-1 trade deal. This has given the opportunity to few in Washington to propose decoupling of the giant economies, citing national risks on social and economic fronts.

Coronavirus then, instead of strengthening the trade partnership, has sharpened the trade war between the two countries- something which has the potential to drastically change the geopolitical landscape, reshape global economy and undermine the very principles of globalization on which some the biggest institutions like the UN rest.

Will Covid-19 finally effect globalization or not, it is matter of time to see. In the meanwhile, we have the US and China relationship deteriorating by the day.