The Next Pandemic?

How we can change habits in order to outlast and overwhelm the profiteers of pain.

As we create further damage to the Earth’s ecosystems, destabilization will make room for more unique diseases. Rising heat, worsening living conditions (disproportionately for the poorest humans), and the destabilization of predatory ecosystems will all lead to more diseases, not fewer.

How Can We Meet the Future with Compassion?

For this pandemic, and all those to come, we must build the resilience of an open heart and mind.

The Global Health Security Index measures one-hundred and ninety-five countries for their preparedness for further pandemics.

Of those 195 countries, how many do you think are prepared?

• Half?
• A couple of dozen?

What if I told you that the answer was “none?” That not a single country on the planet is capable of effectively handling another pandemic — especially not one that is worse than Covid-19.

This is a problem that goes beyond the United States then, clearly — modern society itself, fractious and fraught with infighting, is the weak-point.

Biased Towards Unbiased Data

Our biases can change, but first we have to recognize that they exist.

And yet, let us consider what Deborah and Rodrick Wallace write in their 2021 book, COVID-19 in New York City: An Ecology of Race and Class Oppression. “Social epidemiologists,” the authors write, “who study disparities of morbidity and mortality often ascribe the generation of the conditions that produce these disparities to capitalism and to the class and race/ethnic bigotry on which capitalism depends” (Wallace & Wallace, 2021).

As we can see from some early explorations of China’s initiatives to halt the spread of Covid, “implementing strict control measures over the movements of residents might effectively reduce the transmission of the virus in rural areas and likely help to contain the infection,” (Wang et al., 2021). These gains did come at significant cost to the economy — which translates to economic hardship and poverty for low-waged workers without implementation of “relief programs from the government” (Wang et al., 2021).

Economic strength only means something if it promotes the general good.

Long Covid: A Stark Reality, a Call to Action

The pandemic isn’t over, and its effects will be with us for decades, but information is a pathway to hope and power.

As we can see, China attempted to mitigate deaths at the expense of economic surety. This has certainly had cascade effects (that extend beyond the scope of this article), but the initial goal has to be admired — even if their approach ultimately fell apart.

The focus on saving lives — especially the lives of the most disadvantaged in a society — must be foregrounded when we deal with the pandemics that await us in the years ahead.

Of course, we have a significant problem here: because your government doesn’t currently prioritize your life over profit generation.

How do I know?

Well, the fact that the California Supreme Court ruled that employers have no “duty to care” is a pretty big clue (Mitchell, 2023). This means that if you catch Covid while at work, then go home and spread it to your family, your employer cannot be held at fault.

That seems pretty terrible to me.

I think it’s time we make a change.

It’s time to organize.

To take back our local elections from climate deniers, capitalists, chauvinists, Liberals, Nazis, and anyone else who isn’t working to make the world a better, safer place for everyone.

To take back our power from unelected tech titans and their hoards of zealous minions.

To take power back for the people, and to create a global society of reciprocity and mutual aid.

And, we need to get started on this before it’s too damn late to act at all.

General Safety Measures We Need to Normalize

We’re all on the front lines of health and safety these days, so here’s what we can do.

Hi there! I’m Odin Halvorson, a librarian, independent scholar, film fanatic, fiction author, and tech enthusiast. If you like my work and want to support me, please consider subscribing!

References

• Mitchell, S. (2023, July 7). California Supreme Court Holds Employers Have No Duty Of Care To Prevent The Spread Of COVID-19 To Employees’ Households. Gibson Dunn. https://www.gibsondunn.com/california-supreme-court-holds-employers-have-no-duty-of-care-to-prevent-the-spread-of-covid-19-to-employees-households/
• Wallace, D., & Wallace, R. (2021). COVID-19 in New York City: An Ecology of Race and Class Oppression. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59624-8
• Wang, H., Dill, S., Zhou, H., Ma, Y., Xue, H., Sylvia, S., Smith, K., Boswell, M., Medina, A., Loyalka, P., Abby, C., Friesen, D., Rose, N., Guo, Y., & Rozelle, S. (2021). Health, economic, and social implications of COVID‐19 for China’s rural population. Agricultural Economics, 52(3), 495–504. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12630