Flu pandemic, world power, and contemporary capitalism: building a historical–critical perspective

Liliana Henao-Kaffure () and Mario Hernández-Álvarez ()
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Liliana Henao-Kaffure: Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Mario Hernández-Álvarez: Universidad Nacional de Colombia

International Journal of Public Health, 2020, vol. 65, issue 7, No 3, 1003-1009

Abstract: Abstract Objectives To present a historical–critical analysis of the configuration process of the 2009–2010 flu pandemic in order to show the relationships between this process and the organization of world power, and to promote social and political mobilization. Methods Primary and secondary sources on the dynamics of the 2009–2010 flu pandemic were studied. The sources were validated by plausibility assessment and historiographical analysis. From a historical–territorial and critical approach, the relations between the world configuration of the pandemic and the economic, political, and ideological power relations of contemporary capitalism were identified. Results It is revealed that the expanding monopoly of the pig industry provided favorable conditions for the evolutionary explosion of the influenza A(H1N1) virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) made decisions that were inclined toward the economic interests of the pig and pharmaceutical industries within the framework of financial-cognitive capitalism. Conclusions The modes of conduct of these institutions and companies materialized the world relations of economic, political, and ideological power of our time, which determined the configuration process of the pandemic. The worldwide spreading of the virus is barely a trail of the process.

Keywords: Flu pandemic; Historical–critical perspective; Configuration process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1007/s00038-020-01441-z

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