It is one thing for relatively wealthy western economies to throw themselves semi-halfheartedly into self-protective measures. It’s socialism by the backoor of necessity — it’s quite another for those economies to give up ventilators, medical expertise and volunteer staff for when this pandemic hits the city slums of India and Africa.

The real test of human kindness is yet to come and history will see whether the world’s population was mature enough to be compassionate across borders, or whether our compassion is limited to Nation states. I have no answer to this hypothetical, I’m just aware that it’s coming down the track — I suspect Trump’s nationalism will win out in your country — as will the right wing demagogues across Europe where I live.

These are dark times and history will judge us all on our response over the next year or so. Trump will continue to make wild accusations and cause division for as long as he can — he’d rather push your country into a second civil war than give up his power willingly via election. Against the backdrop of a Pandemic, it may just come to that.

Great article, thanks for writing.