Critiquing the Capitalist Coronavirus Crisis
A critical review of the state of the pandemic in Nebraska and US
Roughly a year after the world fell victim to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 disease, we can now begin to see a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. That light, however, came at the cost of over 500,000 lives in the United States alone, and over two million around the world. And still, we are not yet out of the woods. How did we get here? Why have so many had to suffer, and how do we recover?
First, let us cover some of the basics so as to dispel myths and reinforce a material understanding of the world. Nature operates in a dialectical way; that is to say that the natural world is the result of a multitude of interconnected relationships, be they biological, ecological or physical. Applying this understanding helps us to understand the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. Contrary to popular conspiracy theories that may suggest that the virus was engineered in a laboratory or purposefully disseminated by the Chinese Communist Party, we understand the virus to be the product of the encroachment of industrialized human life into the biosphere. The appearance of this novel coronavirus in China is merely coincidental – it has no relationship to the Chinese diet (i.e. we ought not tolerate racist and sinophobic implications about the consumption of bats being responsible for SARS-CoV-2, etc.), nor does it have any relation to the structure or composition of Chinese society.
Instead, the virus is the product of unregulated human activity arrogantly intruding further and further into natural ecosystems, leading to their disruption and the intermingling of previously segregated species of animals. It is through this process that such a virus can find an evolutionary pathway to becoming a human pathogen. In fact, we would be wise to take seriously the risks that stem from our own agricultural industry, where we amass thousands of genetically identical animals into so-called factory farms where they live out their lives under horrific sanitary conditions – a literal breeding ground for diseases that could make the jump from farm animal to human. Indeed, diseases such as tuberculosis and smallpox likely emerged as significant human pathogens only once humans began farming and raising livestock, which in turn allowed for denser communities and the adaptation of pathogens to infect humans. While many specific details about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 remain to be uncovered, we should accept that this pandemic is not a freak accident, but a warning of things to come.
These ideas are not new: that the next pandemic lurks in the shadows of the ignorance of human activity and industrialization has been illustrated time and time again. Why then were we so unprepared, and why were we unable to stop the pandemic in its tracks? The answer to both questions lies in the operational logic of capitalism, the totalizing system which we all currently live under. As a point of departure, we should see our unpreparedness as the consequence of the organization of our society. An organization which ties healthcare to employment, which consolidates (and physically confines) work to maximize efficiency (and therefore profit), which favors the liberty of the bourgeois individual over the collective well-being of all people. Our precarious and fragmented society was at a serious disadvantage to address a crisis that required collective, solidaristic solutions. Moreover, organizing society around such highly individualized principles has led to the degeneration of institutions that could have more aptly prepared us for an unexpected pandemic (such as the EPA, the FDA, and the CDC). Such institutions are not economically profitable, and therefore are comfortably disregarded by the wealthy, for whom the consequences do not matter to begin with.
We can address our inability to stop the spread of the virus simply by acknowledging that any widespread halt to economic activity is an unsavory option for capitalists. Thus, a nation-wide lockdown was always a bridge too far for those that aimed to profit off of our collective suffering. While the rich could easily work from home, they sent the working class of America into the grocery stores, meat packing plants, shipping centers, etc. to possibly die from COVID-19. Even the best case scenario would have meant the unmitigated spread of the virus throughout the country (which we of course observed contemporaneously with the horrifying, sky-rocketing death count). Our hospitals therefore became over-burdened with sick and dying workers and senior citizens because their death was an acceptable cost to sustain the accumulation of profit among the wealthy elite. Unlike countries such as China, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan where a strict lockdown, mask-mandate and contact-tracing policy was enforced, the US decided the best path forward was through, not around. The consequence is half a million dead, while all the aforementioned countries have long since returned to relatively normal daily activity.
In the US and Europe, capital accumulation was prioritized over public safety. Therefore, the best approach was to wait for a therapeutic (which pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies could charge an exorbitant price for) or a vaccine. We are fortunate that we now have many viable vaccine candidates ready to be administered to people, but we should also acknowledge that these vaccines could have been developed and administered while also sparing the lives of so many victims of this pandemic. Regardless, the vaccines cannot solve all of our problems.
First, there is the problem of access, which is itself a problem of supply. It would be conceivable that in the most wealthy country in the world, we could manufacture a vaccine at break-neck speeds. However, the companies that have developed these vaccines have endeavored to keep their manufacturing proprietary and not share the formulation with others who have the capacity to produce the vaccine. Therefore, instead of one highly effective vaccine that has been vetted much more thoroughly, we have three quite similar vaccines that all had to be assessed for safety and quality independently, and which are all being produced independently. The consequence is that for most working people without an outstanding health condition, a vaccine remains out of reach for at least the next few months, (editor's note: this was written before the rollout of vaccines to other groups besides the 65 and over crowd) despite the fact that our inability to stay home has contributed so dramatically to the spread of the virus. This is made worse by insufferable cretins such as our own Governor Pete Ricketts, who decided that undocumented immigrants in Nebraska would not be able to register for the vaccine, despite making up as much as 40% of the state’s immigrant population. The combination of market logic and white nationalist rhetoric make for a noxious cocktail that will only prolong the suffering of us all.
Second, there is the problem of efficacy. While the two mRNA-based vaccines from Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna are roughly 95% effective at preventing severe COVID-19 symptoms and hospitalizations, the Johnson & Johnson lipid nanoparticle vaccine is only about 85% effective. Moreover, none of the vaccines have been clearly demonstrated to completely protect you from being infected or transmitting the virus to someone who is not vaccinated. Again, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine seems less efficacious in this regard. Despite this, it is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that will be distributed to rural health care clinics to be administered more frequently to the general public because it only requires one dose and does not need to be stored at -80˚ celsius. This is not to say that anyone should avoid receiving a vaccination when they are able, but to emphasize that the development and roll-out of these vaccines has been an objective disaster if for no other reason than the prioritization of intellectual property and private profit. This is further emphasized by the reluctance of the US, UK and EU – among others – to support a motion through the WTO to waive intellectual property rights for the vaccine so that countries in the global South could produce vaccines in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Thus, many around the world will be without a vaccine for many months and years to come, leading to the inevitable emergence of more virulent strains of SARS-CoV-2.
Despite the gloomy picture that has been painted here, we can also acknowledge the way in which the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the promise of a brighter future. To begin, the pandemic made clear that “essential work” is not work that makes one rich, but that benefits society as a whole. Jeff Bezos, the outgoing CEO of Amazon, did little (if anything) to help people suffering through sickness, death and isolation. In contrast, Amazon was actually caught red-handed in price-gouging schemes to exploit poor and working people attempting to access essential goods. No – instead of CEOs and hedge fund managers coming to save us, it was working people who kept shelves stocked, maintained supply chains and administered our medicine if we got sick. Today it is less difficult than it was a year ago to imagine what a world organized collectively for the benefit of all people might look like. Additionally, the pandemic has revealed the insanity of our healthcare system better than any political orator ever could. While capital worked tirelessly to externalize costs by laying off workers, they simultaneously created a massive population of uninsured Americans during the greatest pandemic in 100 years. Even if a miracle therapeutic had been developed for the treatment of COVID-19, how could any of the recently unemployed Americans receive it without health insurance? It is more clear than ever that health care needs to be universalized so that all people, regardless of income, employment or citizenship status can see a doctor when they need to.
We must now ask how we achieve these goals. How do we reorganize society so that we can all benefit from the fruits of our labor and build a world that reduces the risks of new pandemics, new crises and new horrors? We have but one answer: mass organization of the working class of the US – and the world – towards a revolutionary upheaval of the capitalist world order. Feed the People – Omaha has been working throughout the pandemic to continue to provide free food to those in need without barriers to access. We provide but a small glimpse of what a mass organization of working people could accomplish to build a brighter future for us all.
Nick P. 5/1/21