The Consequences of Neoliberalism in the Current Pandemic
In the International Journal of Health Services, Vicente Navarro analyzes how neoliberal policies, imposed by many governments on both sides of the North Atlantic, weakened the capacity of the response to the coronavirus pandemic in Italy, Spain, and the United States. Another report, COVID-19 Exposes the Destructive Legacy of Neoliberalism, prepared by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left is also available. Read more
The COVID-19 Corporate Response Tracker: How America’s Largest Employers Are Treating Stakeholders Amid the Coronavirus Crisis
The coronavirus and economic crises have created an opportunity for CEOs and corporate leaders to put purpose-driven leadership and stakeholder capitalism into practice. In the last few years, many corporate leaders have urged a move from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism. Just Capital created this Tracker – starting with America’s 100 largest public employers – to help assess what’s happening on the ground. Read more
How Capitalism and Racism Hold Back a COVID-19 Cure
COVID-19 has swept the world without any proven treatment or vaccine, writes Neal Sweeney in Liberation. Around 100 potential vaccines and 250 antiviral drugs are undergoing testing, but it is not clear when these will be approved for human use. While the realities of vaccine development are undeniable — vaccines are extensively tested before proven both effective and safe — much of the blame lies with capitalism. Read more
The Consequences of Neoliberalism in the Current Pandemic
In the International Journal of Health Services, Vicente Navarro analyzes how neoliberal policies, such as the politics of austerity (with considerable cuts to social policy expenditures including medical care and public health services) and the privatization of health services, imposed by many governments on both sides of the North Atlantic, considerably weakened the capacity of the response to the coronavirus pandemic in Italy, Spain, and the United States. Another report, COVID-19 Exposes the Destructive Legacy of Neoliberalism, prepared by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left which brings together left-wing legislators in the European Parliament, is available here.
The COVID-19 Corporate Response Tracker: How America’s Largest Employers Are Treating Stakeholders Amid the Coronavirus Crisis
The coronavirus and economic crises have created an urgent, unprecedented opportunity for CEOs and corporate leaders to put purpose-driven leadership and stakeholder capitalism into practice. In the last few years, many corporate leaders have urged a move from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism. How are companies taking up this challenge? Just Capital created this tracker – starting with America’s 100 largest public employers – to help assess what’s happening on the ground.
How Capitalism and Racism Hold Back a COVID-19 Cure
In a few short months, the novel coronavirus COVID-19 has swept the world without any proven treatment or vaccine, writes Neal Sweeney in Liberation. Around 100 potential vaccines and 250 antiviral drugs are undergoing testing, but it is not clear when these will be approved for human use. While the realities of vaccine development are undeniable — vaccines are extensively tested before proven both effective and safe — much of the blame lies with capitalism.
While COVID-19 is newly discovered, other coronaviruses have been known for many years. SARS, the virus that caused a global outbreak and over 800 deaths in 2003, is also a coronavirus and is about 80 percent similar to COVID-19. Another coronavirus, MERS, has been responsible for a decade of outbreaks and hundreds of deaths.
Since 2000, the U.S. government has poured over $600 million into coronavirus research. This funding has led to many promising leads, but a SARS or MERS vaccine was never fully developed and tested. This is because the four corporations that dominate vaccine production — Pfizer, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi — did not see enough potential profit in fighting coronaviruses that often fade in prevalence after several years, instead favoring viruses with more staying power. This decision proved costly when another coronavirus appeared in 2019. With a vaccine against SARS or MERS, researchers would have had a significant head start in stopping COVID-19. Other potential COVID-19 treatments have fallen victim to the profit motive. Read more
Corporations and Health Watch 