Towards a changing world order: Geographies of inequality and the COVID-19 pandemic

Covid-19 has infected hundreds of millions of people and caused many deaths worldwide. Despite the disease's global prevalence, it has produced different results for citizens of different countries. This research examines the reasons for the differences between countries in the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths. The main purpose of the research is to demonstrate the effect of various unequally distributed indicators on the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths. Also, demographic transition theory, epidemiological transition theory, and globalization, which are closely related to the research, are explained and discussed on how valid their arguments are for Covid-19. The study has an empirical method that adopts a positivist/nomothetic stance. In this context, using statistical data; The number of Covid-19 cases and deaths and some indicators thought to be unequal between countries were mapped, and correlationregression analyzes were performed to explain the relationship between these two structures. The maps show that both the number of Covid-19 cases-deaths and the selected variables are unevenly distributed among countries. According to the results of the correlation analysis, cases, and deaths; are related to income level, the proportion of the elderly population, the prevalence of tobacco consumption, the proportion of the population with diabetes, population density, and some pandemic control measures. The results of the regression analysis showed; Income level, the proportion of the elderly population, the prevalence of tobacco consumption, the proportion of the population with diabetes, school closure, and stay-at-home measures are factors in explaining crosscountry differences in cases and deaths. In particular, the variables of income level and the ratio of the elderly population came to the forefront in terms of contribution to the regression models. Contrary to expectations, countries in the further stages of demographic and epidemiological transition constituted the regions most affected by an epidemic. This shows that because of the increasing connectivity brought by globalization, diseases with different characteristics can affect any part of the world, contrary to the arguments put forward by the current theoretical framework.