o:25981 Current transformation and COVID-19 pandemic en Today’s change units do not occur solely European East vs. European West, extended to America. The COVID-19- induced transformation leads to broad change in the world, not only in the above direction, but also north vs. south. The planet is the space with ongoing accelerated changes, with the most important ones in the field of geopolitical power, but also in people’s everyday life. COVID-19 vaccine and medications have become a powerful weapon in realizing geopolitical influence. Vaccine (non)availability to poor countries (including some European countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, or North Macedonia) causes an increasing social gap globally. It transpires that, particularly in EU, main concerns were military and economic power, energy and cyber security, while public health as a major legacy of the welfare state became neglected due to neoliberalism. Currently the main concern is health safety affecting not only countries, but also individuals. The absence of timely anti-epidemic solidarity with Italy and Spain – just as previously with the Greek financial crisis – led to huge disappointment regarding the EU ability to respond collectively in the times of crisis. Poor management of the COVID-19 vaccine acquisition process forced some EU countries (first of all Hungary) to begin acquiring vaccines independently from Russia and China at the very beginning of 2021. Non-EU Serbia managed to obtain Pfizer, Sputnik-V and Sinofarm vaccines mid-January 2021 and organize mass voluntary vaccination, which ranked it as the second European country (after the UK) by the number of vaccinated people per population in February, confirming its proper strategic decision to cooperate both with the East and the West. Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, health safety, global geopolitical power redistribution. 1552100 978-2-9581586-0-6 2022-06-08T14:13:00.869Z 44 yes 46 Урош Шуваковић Универзитет у Београду Учитељски факултет 0000-0002-2141-8698 application/pdf 150172 https://phaidrabg.bg.ac.rs/o:25981 no yes 1 70 92000004 11A42 15th ESA Conference Abstract Book Sociological Knowledges for Alternative Futures Sociological Knowledges for Alternative Futures 1184 1184 European Sociological Association 2021 https://www.europeansociology.org/sites/default/files/public/ESA_ABSTRACT_BOOK_BCN_2021%20final.pdf