Health Inequalities Research Group (GREDS-EMCONET), Department of Political and Social Sciences, 16770Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
Johns-Hopkins-UPF Public Policy Center, Barcelona, Spain.
Int J Health Serv. 2021 Jan;51(1):50-54. doi: 10.1177/0020731420946594. Epub 2020 Aug 3.
COVID-19 not only constitutes a serious public health problem and a global major threat to the poorest and most vulnerable social groups and neighborhoods of the world, creating a potential pandemic of inequality, but also poses an enormous challenge from the perspective of public health, ethics, economy, environment, and politics. However, many of the deep and complex systemic interrelationships created and developed by this pandemic are largely hidden, unknown, or neglected, both by the hegemonic media and by a highly specialized and fragmented academic world. However, when all the available knowledge is critically integrated, the origins and effects underlying this pandemic are likely to be found in the development of neoliberal capitalism and its inherent logic of ceaseless accumulation, economic growth, large inequalities, and ecological devastation. This commentary reflects on these issues, drawing out some of the most important lessons to be learned and challenges to be faced in the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, advocating for a radical social change to deal with these challenges.
新冠疫情不仅对全球最贫穷和最脆弱的社会群体和社区构成了严重的公共卫生问题和全球性重大威胁,造成了不平等的潜在大流行,而且还从公共卫生、伦理、经济、环境和政治等角度带来了巨大挑战。然而,这场大流行所产生和发展的许多深层次和复杂的系统相互关系,在很大程度上被霸权媒体和高度专业化和碎片化的学术世界所掩盖、未知或忽视。然而,当批判性地整合所有现有知识时,就很可能会发现这场大流行的根源和影响在于新自由主义资本主义的发展及其不断积累、经济增长、巨大不平等和生态破坏的内在逻辑。这篇评论反思了这些问题,从中得出了在新冠疫情及其后续发展中需要吸取的一些最重要的教训和需要应对的挑战,倡导进行激进的社会变革来应对这些挑战。