ABSTRACT
The breakout of SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in the global spread of COVID-19, a viral infection that has become a pandemic. Millions have been infected, with hundreds of thousands losing their lives even as the tolls are projected to climb higher over the next several months and years. The pandemic, whose effects are primarily medical and biological, has however impacted global politics, economics, and social structures in very significant ways that generate new realities on the one hand while accentuating and making more visible, other realities that have existed hitherto, on the other hand. This chapter explores the intersection of identity politics and the pandemic, globally and locally. It shows how racism, nationalism, and inequalities have shaped the response to the pandemic in spite of some coordinated efforts at the global level to manage the pandemic. The chapter argues further that local responses have equally been constrained by group-based perceptions and attitudes cutting across religious, cultural, and class divides. These factors have combined to create uneven responses that make holistic recovery more difficult to achieve. While being mindful of the local peculiarities that the social and political dimensions of managing the pandemic require, the chapter makes a case for the need for solidarity within and across nations not only for the management of the pandemic but also toward a fair post-pandemic order. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved.