“A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic. This quote from Joseph Stalin grotesquely sums up the attitudes of governments and the media when talking about COVID-19.
The 5.6 million deaths worldwide have become a statistic. The 3500 dead in Australia is a statistic. The attitude of “giving up” in the blind hope that the economy will somehow pull through is quite compelling. Newscasts simply report the death toll and say no more. All levels of government in this country accept the logic of capitalism, and all avoid the unpleasant fact that these statistics are people and all victims of capitalism.
In a particularly twisted view of the world, University of Sydney Associate Professor Nial Whate, speaking of the response to the supply of vaccines, remarked: “It’s a testament to science and capitalism, how fast we were able to develop these drugs.” .
Capitalism, we are told, is the solution to the problem. It follows that, since capitalism is ubiquitous, we have little to fear from COVID-19 or any other threat to our lives or the well-being of the planet.
This is an argument that reverses all logic.
The COVID-19 crisis and the climate change crisis are ultimately the result of an economic system that has shattered and destroyed everything in its path in the quest for profit.
It has been a comfortable pandemic for some. At the start of the crisis, before he officially stepped down as CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos’ personal wealth soared to $159 billion, while tens of thousands died. If it sounds a bit like the war profiteers of yesteryear, it’s because they’re cut from the same cloth.
The current pandemic has reaped huge dividends for some. A case in point are the pharmaceutical companies that are heralded by some as a “testimonial” to capitalism’s effective response to the pandemic.
Huge profits have been made at the cost of human suffering. Moderna posted an $18.4 billion increase in sales last year. Pfizer’s profits rose 44% on additional COVID-19 revenue of $26 billion.
The speed with which pharmaceutical companies developed effective vaccines was astonishing. It should have been. There was no altruism there. The very future of capitalism rested on the ability of science to turn the cogs.
At the end of last year, Australia was celebrating 90% of the population being fully immunized. At the same time, many low-income countries had still administered only one dose per capita. A report by Amnesty International has argued that new variants of COVID-19 owe their existence to big pharma’s “profit over life” business approach. It is a “testimony” of capitalism.
The relatively high vaccination rate achieved by wealthy countries, however, is overshadowed by Cuba’s response.
As Richa Chintan wrote, Cuba has not only succeeded in vaccinating its own population, but sends vaccines to a number of other countries. Could it be that socialism provides a better model for dealing with crises?
While capitalism at the level of “big pharma” exposes itself as a cruel and rapacious beast, its behavior at the local or national level is equally abhorrent. Record numbers of COVID-19 infections are recorded in Australia and the death rate is rising.
At the same time, governments are effectively withdrawing from the battlefield. Workers are forced to work in unsafe conditions and employers are free to continue their work.
All that matters is that the economy keeps running despite the human cost, and so capital is betting that the economy keeps running efficiently and supply chains won’t stop. If they do, then again, it’s clear who will suffer the most.
The problems associated with COVID-19, from the first to the last, are attributable to capitalism and its treatment of the planet. The fact that the guilty find absolution as saviors is only a terrible irony. Robin Marantz Henig, in a 2020 National Geographic article, wrote about how scientists had warned for decades that something very similar to COVID-19 would happen. She cited her own book, A Dancing Matrix, published in 1990 to prove her point.
This book, and other reports expressing the thoughts and research of so many experts in the field, have been blithely ignored. Nothing was done. Governments avoided spending money in the vain hope that the threats would simply not materialize. Even as governments ignored the warnings, the threats became reality.
There is a clearly identified link between capitalism, climate change, global disease and the pandemic, and it is no secret. The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly highlighted the potential dangers associated with climate change and its relationship to human health. These reports formed the basis of much of what was presented at the COP24 meeting in Poland in 2018. What is troubling is that organizations such as the World Health Organization and the hundreds of Well-accredited attendees at these meetings have been effectively ignored in the delusional hope that things will just get better.
It’s reminiscent of a political cartoon from the early 1980s: a cartoon of capitalism wearing a top hat and smoking a cigar sees a billboard and orders his driver to reverse to read the billboard again. He said “the world will end in 30-40 years”. “What a relief. I thought it said 3-4 years,” our cartoon character commented.
The satire has become reality.
The current pandemic may eventually have an end point, but there is no longer any doubt that new pandemics and existential threats will follow. Will it be capitalism that will allow new and ever more deadly pandemics, or will it be capitalism that will save us?
The answer should be obvious. The question shouldn’t be asked, but governments and the economic system they serve are finding ways to avoid an answer because they haven’t and won’t hear the question. The media hides the truth from us and the best that is offered is the inanity that when vaccines are developed in a short period of time, it is a “testament” of capitalism.
“A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.
