Coronavirus
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I see a second wave of the virus coming.
It may already be happening in Portugal;
Significantly it started in the poorer areas of Lisbon where people live closer together and have a higher than average percentage of people with poor health. According to today’s Times:
“Outbreaks in the poorest neighbourhoods and industrial suburbs of Lisbon as well as parties on the coast have alarmed authorities”.
If the authorities here are alarmed by the same thing happening here they are doing their best not to show it.
But let’s hope all this doesn’t spark off a second wave. It might not. As Brian sang on the cross, look on the bright side of life.
Well, peoples believe more in politicians and conspiracy theories than in science and medical doctors who have spent several years studying Medicine, in this case, they know more than the generals and the politicians
Capitalists do not care, they just want to run the capitalist economy to produce profits, but millions of peoples are so brainwashed that they do not understand that and religious leaders are also part of this problem
They are suicidal, if they want to get sick it is fine, the problem is that they are going to infect other peoples and use the resources that can be used by other peoples who accidentally got sick
I read that in the Congo that Ebola is under control and the USA can not control the COVID 19, and the disease is spreading in higher level this time. America is great again in COVID 19, and then the president of the USA like to call shitholes to other countries. Hospitals in Texas can not receive any more patients, and they are using children hospital instead. There is no money for medical services, hospital and medical schools, but there is always money available for the Pentagon and the war machinery
A sad indictment on our fellow-workers.
“There is a general anti-science, anti-authority, anti-vaccine feeling among some people in this country – an alarmingly large percentage of people, relatively speaking.” – Dr Anthony Fauci, explaining why herd immunity will not be achieved in his view.
We see this American worldview in many things , from politics to religion.
Richard Wolff may well be a reformist but he does have a critique of capitalism that resonates with reality. This essay demonstrates the inherent failure of capitalism to tackle the pandemic
“…It was not profitable for capitalists to produce and stockpile adequate quantities of tests, masks, gloves, beds, etc., to be prepared for the virus…”
In Melbourne we are going into lock down again. Today the totals climbed into the 200s. This may seem small in global terms: but the r rate could go beyond that
In responding to homeless populations, the risk of lethality is increased. Private rooming houses/crisis accommodation and so on, receive significant amounts from the welfare spend. Many people are referred to rooms that are neither cleaned (COVID cleaned) nor barely vacated. And profit… well… it opens up the binary division between profit over health!
The structuration of capital public-private interventions generates discord between health over profit for some: and profit over welfare for many. On the street level it is disunified and presents a point of antagonism that amplifies all our subject positions.
We have enough to buy health and risk reduction: we have money spent on out behalf to provide partial risk reduction in health.
How did we get here: not a question…
Alan. You posted an interesting article on Richard Wolf (and that debate ensues- never finding closure).
Reformist ideas mean an intervention to reduce death within a capital mode. It appear at times, better to do something, rather than say: ‘what is: is”
So I do something- I think capital ideas assume economy over health- but we must assume the antipode.
Regarding reform- I can’t stand by and not intervene, I have seen so much loss.
May health find you- for many it fails them
L.B.
I’m sure that socialists being responsible persons will do the best they can to minimise spreading COVID-19 by use of face masks and social distancing. Just as we would abide by even State measures to slow the spread such as limits on public gatherings and travel restrictions.
We would heartily support cooperative measures to research and develop vaccines and treatments such as open resource such as was engaged in with DNA Genome Project while openly opposing such things as claims of intellectual ownership by pharmaceutical industries.
However, leopards rarely change their spots. Capitalism has a structure that is detrimental to progress and the well-being of people. It is not just drug manufacturer patents that present a problem but also national rivalry. He who pays the piper gets the first tune…to paraphrase an old saying.
There is no rule that says socialists as individuals should idly stand by when they witness pain and suffering. We simply understand the limited effect each of our contributions will have when it comes to the big picture.
Alan, thanks.
I have recently struggled to locate a position within socialist narratives (abstain/non reform, agitation/get all angry, or intervene/reform).
The intellect and the heart are a funny thing- and to divide them into oppositions is an artificial social construct. It is like seeking a primacy of idealism over material, or base over structure. Like some recent debates on the forum…
Capital discourse practice (the economy speaks) has impacted on marginal communities during this crisis: dare I say one of may crises. It has made front line service provision hard. Many workers in this position are tired.
The whole notion that health is patent- or that our cost of study is steep (bio-psycho-social study) does not lesson the heart response that some helpers feel. I want reform- but I want that right through the social totality. I know many others who do too. Pity that health and welfare is contingent on a dominant political ideation.
Thanks,
L.B
Looks like its going to be required to wear a face mask to go into shops. Any way we can start to sell SPGB/World Socialism face masks? I am for once being serious, I think it would be a really good way to get the message across.
Every bank i go to has a notice saying hiding your face is not permitted.
With face masks, what happens to all those laws that forbade the wearing of them at protest marches?
What about all those laws that forbade some muslim women from hiding their face?
What about all that facial recognition technology that now seems redundant?
LB, there seems to be two strands of thought.
One is that we are all just sheep that blindly follow lockdown and social distancing rules just because the State says so.
The other is that we are social, cooperative and will collaborate with one another for mutual advantage and benefit. and require little State coercion to do so.
Alan,
I like and I am alloyed to :
“The other is that we are social, cooperative and will collaborate with one another for mutual advantage and benefit. and require little State coercion to do so.”
The first strand is rule governed/following behaviour which assumes we are interpellated into a non-agency state.
Should I join SPGB- it resonates that desired end goal! Any branches close to Melbourne?
Regarding masks and the law- we could have our faces photo printed onto them. There is a beauty to it.
I don’t care about those bourgeoise illusions and fantasies about personal freedom and human rights. There are medical and scientific reasoning about wearing a mask for protection, even more, a mask ( including the N95 ) is not enough protection. My house is like a hospital, we follow all the medical protocols, we do not have any visitors, and outside we wear respirators. The problems with those peoples who do not want to wear a mask are that they get infested and they infest other peoples. Many doctors and nurses have died treating them
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