The documentary Coronavirus, Explained debuted on Netflix on April 26, 2020. It clearly shows that the Coronavirus Pandemic was foreseen as a possibility by medical researchers and social scientists. Political leaders who claim that nobody could have seen this coming need to explain why they made budget cuts to Public Health (which has the job of monitoring dangerous viruses) and why they didn’t take the danger seriously.
Political leaders use misleading language about an “unprecedented crisis” and claim that they have “moved as fast as possible.” Conservative politicians favour military language: “We have come so far with this fight; we are not giving up.” This language hides the fact that political and business leaders paid no attention to medical experts and social scientists who warned about an outbreak for years.
The documents are there to be read:
- The SARS Commission, Interim Report: SARS and Public Health in Ontario (2004)
- Learning from SARS: Preparing for the Next Disease Outbreak: Workshop Summary (Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2004)
- Ontario Health Plan for an Influenza Pandemic (in several updated editions, published by Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Emergency Management Branch)
Reading List about Coronavirus Covid-19 Pandemic
Mike Davis, The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu (2005). Available as an e-book. The best explanation of the Coronavirus threat, how they work, where they originate, and how large-scale agriculture and ecological change make it easier for these viruses to jump from animals to humans. There is a recent interview with Mike Davis here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOp9G5hoQnM
Jennifer Kahn, How Scientists Could Stop the Next Pandemic Before It Starts, New York Times, April 21, 2020. A recent investigative report in the New York Times Magazine that covers some of the same ground. Online: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/magazine/pandemic-vaccine.html
David Quammen, Why Weren’t We Ready for the Coronavirus? New Yorker, May 4, 2020. Another long read about failure to learn from previous outbreaks. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/11/why-werent-we-ready-for-the-coronavirus
Monthly Review, Covid-19 and the Circuits of Capital (April 2020). Ecology, economic development and how the Coronavirus came to be a threat. Online: https://monthlyreview.org/2020/04/01/covid-19-and-circuits-of-capital/
Jonathan Watts, ‘Promiscuous treatment of nature’ will lead to more pandemics – scientists: Habitat destruction forces wildlife into human environments, where new diseases flourish, The Guardian May 7, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/07/promiscuous-treatment-of-nature-will-lead-to-more-pandemics-scientists
Pandemics result from destruction of nature, say UN and WHO, The Guardian, June 17 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/pandemics-destruction-nature-un-who-legislation-trade-green-recovery
Costas Lapavitsas, This Crisis has Exposed the Absurdities of Neoliberalism. Another useful overview with an emphasis on issues of inequality and the economy. Online at: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/3/coronavirus-pandemic-great-recession-neoliberalism
Public Health. PBS has a four-part documentary looking at issues of Public Health in the United States. The trailer introduces the main ideas: https://youtu.be/bXBkOYMCAro. If you have access to a university library check out many articles by Dennis Raphael. On health care in the United States during the Pandemic see Anne Case and Angus Deaton in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/opinion/sunday/covid-inequality-health-care.html
The Pandemic in the Global South. Start with another great book by Mike Davis, Planet of Slums (2006). This Pandemic is going to hit people in the global South really hard. In many parts of Africa, people don’t have running water to wash their hands. Here are two recent articles, one by Ian Goldin: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/21/coronavirus-disaster-developing-nations-global-marshall-plan, and another by Fiona Harvey, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/21/coronavirus-pandemic-will-cause-famine-of-biblical-proportions.
Update: Many reports of crisis in the global South. ‘Utter disaster’: Manaus fills mass graves as Covid-19 hits the Amazon, The Guardian, April 30, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/30/brazil-manaus-coronavirus-mass-graves
Trent Research Group on the Pandemic 