THE SEMIOTICS OF POWER DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF THE WHO IN THE GLOBAL HEALTH MANAGEMENT

ABSTRACT

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the end of 2019 in China brought states to loggerheads with one another. The cold war between these states brought intricate discourses that appear to be motivated by the political economy of national interests and global political supremacy. A nuanced reading of the discourses surrounding the pandemic's management is essential to unravel and complicate the political pragmatism at play. Within this context, control of the COVID-19 pandemic became politically charged. The World Health Organisation (WHO) turned into the battleground of ideologies and conspiracies where global superpowers constructed and imposed their visions of the world. This article argues that cynicism and power struggles, especially between the global mighties, have undermined the collective efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic;hence, political ten-sions should be questioned and considered critically in an attempt to re-think ourselves as a global humanity. The study is informed by ideas of power from a critical discourse analysis perspective to examine the semiotics of power and diplomatic tensions that have characterised the global public health crisis in the COVID-19 pandemic, as managed by the WHO . The findings show that politics have profoundly shaped and complicated COVID-19 discourses. This speaks to the imperatives of probing and re-considering these discourses as sites of power struggles in the current context of global public health.