MULTINATIONALS AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, WIN OR LOSE?

Abstract

In March of two thousand and twenty, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 virus a pandemic. Since then, the whole world has had to face the difficult task of resuming daily life by adapting to the new conditions brought about by the virus, as well as stabilizing the health system worldwide and reactivating the economy. This role has fallen to States, International Organizations and large private sector actors with the capacity to influence the decisions of the first two, such as large multinational companies. The multinationals, large private sector actors in all States and in international trade, have for the most part demonstrated the lack of concordance between the pro-individual and humanity principles they proclaim to have and the actions they have taken to confront this pandemic, showing how they have been using this state of health emergency to favor their interests only, or simply giving back as little as possible to thousands of employees who have been their workforce for decades and who have brought them to where they are today, leaving aside the role they have pretended to have in the media and social networks in this last millennium. This document takes a critical look at the role played by multinational companies during the course of the pandemic caused by the covid-19 virus, describing in chronological order the development of the pandemic and pointing out the actors involved and the actions taken by them to deal with this health emergency.