“Corona-crash”, “corona-recession”, expansive monetary policy due to the coronavirus, strike against “corona”, border closures, overloads in health care services, speculation on masks and hydro-alcoholic gels, problems with childcare… The news is full of all kinds of examples to illustrate the depth of the crisis. But the traditional media will not mention that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is bringing all the contradictions of the capitalist system to the surface. This is not the first time that microbes have revealed the contradictions of a society.
The consequences of the Neolithic revolution
The Neolithic revolution led to the permanent settlement of nomadic or semi-nomadic populations in agricultural areas. The early development of livestock and culture allowed, through production and stockpiling, an increase in the population. At the same time, this led to the first epidemics due to the concentration of a larger number of people in the same place but also to prolonged contact with animals. These are known as “zoonoses”.
Humanity’s struggle against the vagaries of nature was transformed with a sedentary lifestyle. With the development of techniques and culture, the first civilizations increased their control over nature. But as Engels said: “Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it is true, in the first place brings about the results we expected, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first. Thus at every step we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature — but that we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst, and that all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and apply them correctly.” (Friedrich Engels: ‘The Part played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man’)
The emergence of Covid-19 in a society on the road to recession
The Covid-19 pandemic generates a wide range of feelings. But beyond these feelings, we must recognize that the emergence of this health crisis has taken us by surprise. This is not only due to the fact that the virus mutates rapidly by its nature (a virus composed of a long chain of RNA). It is also due to the way in which the capitalist class, which runs society, does not care about problems that do not directly threaten its profits. After the emergence of SARS at the beginning of the 2000s, measures to stockpile the necessary products and to invest in front-line responses should have been taken.
There should also have been forward-looking investment in basic and applied research to understand how this viral family evolves and functions. All the more so since humanity has lost a lot of time in developing its understanding of microbes. It should be remembered that the structure of DNA was described in the early 1950s. The first virology magazine was published in 1955 and the first scientific congress of virology was held in Helsinki in 1968. This delay in discoveries in virology is not a coincidence but is partly due to the contradictions of class society.
From miasma theory to microbes…
Microbes (a general name for different biological forms: bacteria, viruses, prions) have existed since life first emerged on earth. They are present in all environments and are involved in different natural cycles (nitrogen cycle) and live in various relationships (from mutualism to parasitism) with other expressions of life. The human body, for example, has 10 times more bacterial cells from 300 to 500 different species than human cells.
Despite this omnipresence and the importance of microbes in the living world, it took a long time for humanity to perceive the importance of studying these organisms. In fact, as far back as ancient Greece, the philosopher Hesiod — born in a city in cultural contact with the Ionian miracle — emphasized the contagious nature of certain diseases, while Hippocrates of Cos defended the fact that epidemics could only come from corrupted air. Within the framework of a struggle of ideas that reflected class society, it was Hippocrates’ hypothesis that imposed itself. The feudal society and its three orders (those who pray, oratores; those who fight, bellatores; those who work, laboratores) took up the ideas of the post-Socratic philosophers to justify its maintenance. This is how Hippocrates’ ideas were imposed in medieval medicine. The theories of miasmas and spontaneous generation were the cornerstones of the medical approach to microbes. To question these theories was to question power in society. Thus, all the theories competing with the official theory were fought by the church and those in power.
It wasn’t until the emergence of the free zones of cities and commercial development that this order of things in medicine began to be challenged. In the Netherlands, Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek, who was from a draper’s family, made lenses to examine the quality of fabrics. By perfecting the assembling and polishing technique he was able to get much better optics and glimpse the microorganisms he called animalcules. He sent the description of these discoveries to the Royal Society in London, but because of the secrecy of his lens manufacturing no scientist was able to replicate his observations, and the theory of spontaneous generation continued to dominate the scientific community. It wasn’t really until the 19th century, with the technical progress linked to the development of the industry, that this theory could be overcome, with figures such as Pasteur in France and Koch in Germany. It should also be noted that the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 brought about a patriotic wave that prevented the progress of scientific knowledge in this field.
Capitalism in crisis
Despite these internal contradictions, for a whole period capitalism was able to develop the productive forces. These productive forces have enabled us to increase scientific knowledge and to arm ourselves against the deleterious consequences of natural hazards. This period is now over.
This does not mean that there will be no more major scientific breakthroughs or technological discoveries. It just means that these advances will no longer be able to advance the productive forces of humankind. The contradictions are such that, despite the fact that we have a level of scientific knowledge never before achieved in the history of humanity, we are unable to cope with the consequences of climate change or to respond collectively at the global level to the covid-19s pandemic.
When capitalists want to achieve a scientific objective, they rationally plan their efforts to achieve it and give themselves the means to do so in the long term. This is how they were able to go to the moon or set up the LHC (Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator) in Switzerland and confirm the quantum properties of matter. Under capitalism, however, this is limited to areas where opportunities for profit are seen or progress depends on accidental discoveries. Where opportunities for additional profits are seen, rational planning is possible under capitalism. Why limit this to those cases and not generalize rational planning to what is socially useful?
Public health should be no different. If we want to succeed in the fight against this pandemic and its consequences, or any other objective in the field of science, it is imperative to reject the neo-liberal logic. This means advancing research and development through cooperation on the basis of public, open and well-funded research, carried out by researchers who have stable jobs and are not pushed by the system to publish rushed results, to the detriment of their colleagues and the quality of their work.
