Emerging viral threats and the simultaneity of the non-simultaneous: zooming out in times of Corona

Hub Zwart

doi:10.1007/s11019-020-09970-3

Abstract

This paper addresses global bioethical challenges entailed in emerging viral diseases, focussing on their socio-cultural dimension and seeing them as symptomatic of the current era of globalisation. Emerging viral threats exemplify the extent to which humans evolved into a global species, with a pervasive and irreversible impact on the planetary ecosystem. To effectively address these disruptive threats, an attitude of preparedness seems called for, not only on the viroscientific, but also on bioethical, regulatory and governance levels. This paper analyses the global bioethical challenges of emerging viral threats from a dialectical materialist (Marxist) perspective, focussing on three collisions: (1) the collision of expanding networks of globalisation with local husbandry practices; (2) the collision of global networks of mobility with disrupted ecosystems; and (3) the collision of viroscience as a globalised research field with existing regulatory frameworks. These collisions emerge in a force field defined by the simultaneity of the non-simultaneous. Evidence-based health policies invoke discontent as they reflect the normative logic of a globalised knowledge regime. The development of a global bioethics or macro-ethics requires us to envision these collisions not primarily as issues of benefits and risks, but first and foremost as normative tensions closely entangled with broader socio-economic and socio-cultural developments.

Highlights

In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the global political economy faces a dramatic moment of suspense whose tumultuous impact materialises into a “new normality”
Global resilience vis-à-vis disruptive viral threats requires that the super-structural, socio-cultural dimension is duly addressed
A bioethical assessment of normative challenges involved in contemporary viroscience should acknowledge the interpenetration of cultural, technological, economical and demographical transitions

Summary

Introduction

In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the global political economy faces a dramatic moment of suspense (involving hundreds of millions of people) whose tumultuous impact materialises into a “new normality”. Traffic of livestock and food and other forms of connectivity, such as air travel, tourism and migration, the outbreak narrative suggests that the biological existence of people in Singapore or Toronto has become intimately connected (in real time) to the lives of wild bats in China or domesticated ducks in Vietnam Against this general backdrop, I will focus on three particular collisions, each of which will be illustrated with the help of concrete (specific) viral threats, beginning with the collision between expanding globalised food production networks and local husbandry practices, many of which continue to reflect basic features of the CHP, including intensive, unprotected interaction with animals. This may either result in deepening the digital divide (by exclusive elite network of research) or in suspicion against newcomers (as in the case of the Wuhan lab)

Conclusion

10 In his book The Monster at Our Door