["Social Science Quarterly, Volume 102, Issue 5, Page 2045-2054, September 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nPolitical decisions, constellations, and behaviors exert a large influence of the dynamics of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars‐CoV‐2) pandemic. Politics influences the choice of containment policies and the compliance with these policies—and therefore ultimately the epidemiological situation in each country, state, district, or even neighborhood. This introduction puts the articles collected in this special issue into the broader perspective of the social science literature on Covid‐19.\n"]