COVID-19 Pandemic and the misleading notion of “We are in this together” Introduction The world had been thrown into chaos by the pandemic on March 11, 2020, as COVID-19 has been classified as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). It brought enormous suffering to individuals all over the world, both directly and indirectly, and its impact on communities and economies had proven to be disastrous. Global economic stagnation, cessation of international travel, and the "lockdowns" imposed by governments in most parts of the world (Cucinotta and Vanelli, 2020) . Many nations suffered serious recessions, and many global value chains have been massively disrupted by demand and, in some cases, supply shocks. The government's policy reactions to the pandemic resulted in a series of economic shocks that will have far-reaching social and economic consequences for years to come (OECD, 2020) . Despite the narrative that COVID-19 was characterized as something int...