You will forgive me if I propose another reflection from the Facebook page “Italian Observatory on Neoliberalism”, but after the news that Von Der Leyen is under investigation for the Pfizer vaccine contracts, this post is really apt for a discussion on the underlying issue implicated. A clear example of how Western society is destined to pay a very high price for the capitalist structure of its political, social and economic organization. I try to pose the question in the most schematic and least verbose way possible: – climate change, together with the progressive erosion of “uncontaminated” nature spaces, is destined to generate a greater spread of pathogenic agents, both due to the increase in temperatures and the worsening of extreme meteorological phenomena both due to zoonosis (passage of pathogens from animals to humans); at the same time, viruses and bacteria that have been latent for millions of years risk emerging from the melting of the permafrost; – it is, therefore, a serious and objective problem that hangs over human civilization in the 21st century, which would require awareness on the part of people and specific policies on the part of institutions; – the political and health institutions, however, are profoundly delegitimized, since among people there is widespread awareness of the mix of public-private interests: vaccines and drugs are produced by private companies, often listed on the stock exchange, which primarily pursue the the objective of private profit and not that of public health; people are also aware of the fact that the private pharmaceutical industry carries out massive lobbying campaigns against politicians and health sector bodies; – whenever we are faced with a pandemic-epidemic health problem, therefore, the doubt of being inside a profit machine is widespread and completely legitimate; to this dynamic we must then add that there is also a profound hostility towards the “control policies” of public institutions, also motivated above all by the fear of being faced with the actions of public institutions guided by private oligarchic interests; – on this distrust, for personal political and economic interests, many people (real professionals of going “against the system”) are marching who spread real conspiracy theories without established foundation, with the effect of strengthening and further spread of mistrust towards institutions; – the consequence is that we find ourselves in a highly hostile situation with respect to the ability of institutions and society to deal with the objective problem of the spread of pandemics, with millions of citizens who would think they were immersed in large-scale conspiracies to make billions of profits to Big Pharma (which, in fact, makes billions in profits); even simple scientifically based statements that should be listened to with seriousness and concern, such as those relating to a future characterized by the increase in pandemics, are greeted with raspberries and profound distrust on a large scale: even the most rational and dutiful things, such as precautions minimum behavioral standards, will be rejected by millions of people (and not due to “stupidity”, as claimed by the intelligentsia who daily criticize the ignorance of the “functionally illiterate”); – we therefore have political, economic and cultural conditions that will make it very complicated to effectively deal with future pandemics when they break out. Every society is based on an intangible asset, very fragile and of inestimable value: trust between people and towards institutions. The capitalist political-economic organization, founded on individualism and the search for profit, is a gigantic machine for the erosion of trust at a private and public level. Without forgetting the fact that it is a defeat of civilization that the right to health, which is a fundamental human right, is bent to the logic of profit of private companies.
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Posted by LackApprehensive5805