This chapter discusses the Kazakh Spring's context of digital revolution. In the absence of viable, independent media, the protestors had to move their communication, outreach, and engagement online. Kazakhstan is one of the most digitalized post-Soviet nations, and the Kazakh Spring managed to politicize this and help the emergent protests even on less politicized platforms like Instagram. This was exacerbated by the public health crisis and growing corruption of the first pandemic year. Political protestors were involved in creating databases of Covid deaths that the state tried to hide and created a space not only for digital national mourning but also for investigation of the corruption associated with the Covid crisis. Through these processes, Kazakh Spring activists were able to unite many citizens whom this crisis left angry and disoriented in the conditions. This chapter also focuses on the online trial of activist Asya Tulesova in August 2020, which had to be held on Zoom due to the lockdowns.

The historic perspective of Chapter 1 will inform a critique of the comparable responses to COVID-19, questioning why, with the clear warnings of SARS, MERS and Ebola, the UK was so unprepared for an event that had been anticipated for so long. It will explore the deficiencies of leadership in the lead-in to and especially during the response to COVID-19. It will look at whether decisions over lockdown in the UK were dangerously delayed and examine failures ranging from the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the inadequate track and trace infrastructure. It will reveal the U-turns, loss of authority over the stay safe messaging and panicked decisions that contributed to further misery and confusion.

It will end by reviewing the astonishing achievement of the scientists who developed new vaccines against COVID-19 in just a few short months. By 15 February 2021 the UK had met its target to vaccinate 15 million of its most vulnerable citizens, thanks to the efficiency of the NHS and supportive community volunteers. It will show the desperate race against time as the vaccination roll out coincided with escalating infections, a third national lockdown and one of the highest death tolls in the world.