The Social Consequences of the Global Expansion of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Based on a class analysis, the article shows the failure of the commercialized health care system in the Global North and South to address the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, the article investigates the dynamics, consequences, and prospects of the struggle by developed countries to overcome the coronavirus crisis, revealing the extremely low effectiveness and class limitations of the measures taken. The stumbling block in the way of curbing the pandemic on a global scale has been the refusal by developed countries to help developing countries vaccinate their populations. The brunt of the COVID-19 problem has been shifted by the capitalist state and monopolies onto the working class, leading to increased exploitation, excess mortality, and widening inequality. On the basis of an analysis of the health crisis in the capitalist world, the article concludes that global civilization must move toward a more just and democratic world order that is able to put the health of workers before monopoly profits, and to guarantee everyone the right to live with dignity.