The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor-A Critique from the Left

During the first years of the pandemic, the Left agreed that ‘following the science’ with hard lockdowns was the best way to preserve life. But social science reveals the true human cost of this policy.

The Covid Consensus provides an internationalist-left perspective on the world’s Covid-19 response, which has had devastating consequences both for the Global South and for the poor and disadvantaged in Western societies. As the fortunes of the very richest soared, nationwide shutdowns caused small and medium enterprises to disappear off the map; violence against women to spike; and tens of millions of children to have their education disrupted.

Toby Green and Thomas Fazi argue that lockdown policies have continued and exacerbated existing trends of inequality, mediatisation and surveillance, with grave implications for the democratic future. Rich in human detail and evidence, The Covid Consensus tackles head-on the refusal of the global political class and mainstream media to report the true extent of the socioeconomic assault against the poor and of the erosion of democratic processes. As the world emerges from the pandemic to confront new modes of monitoring and control, this left-wing reappraisal of global Covid policies exposes the injustices and political failings that have produced the biggest global crisis since the Second World War.