["\n\nObjective\nTo provide a quick, in the moment analysis of the social and political aspects of the COVID‐19 pandemic to preserve the possibly ephemeral aspects that might be overlooked in future historical studies.\n\n\nMethods\nQualitative and a statistical analyses of real time information.\n\n\nResults\nThe clustering of former imperial powers as states suffering extreme initial impacts, combined with a brief qualitative commentary on the domestic politics related to the pandemic response, suggests that colonial imperialism has lingering domestic political effects.\n\n\nConclusion\nThe domestic political power bases that enabled colonial imperialism may be a significant and previously unrecognized factor in politics both in the context of disaster response and more broadly.\n\n", "Social Science Quarterly, Volume 101, Issue 5, Page 1995-2000, September 2020. "]