[COVID-19 in the midst of a "perfect storm" in neoliberal capitalism: critical reflections on its impacts in Brazil]. / A COVID-19 em meio a uma "tempestade perfeita" no capitalismo neoliberal: reflexões críticas sobre seus impactos no Brasil.

The impacts of the recent coronavirus pandemic on Brazilian society revealed a scenario that goes beyond a health crisis. This article sets out to present the causes and consequences of a systemic crisis in the neoliberal economic order based on the prominence of markets and social exclusion, while the role of the State - as the guardian of social rights - is neglected. The methodology adopted follows a critical interdisciplinary perspective from the fields of political economy and social sciences, located in socioeconomic reports referred to in this analysis. It is argued that the neoliberal rationale guiding government policies, which is deep rooted in the social environment, has contributed to the increase in structural inequalities in Brazil, thus creating favorable conditions for exacerbating the impacts caused by the pandemic in society, particularly among the most vulnerable social groups.

Os impactos da pandemia do novo coronavírus na sociedade brasileira revelaram um cenário que extrapola uma crise sanitária. Este artigo tem por objetivo apresentar as causas e consequências de uma crise sistêmica sob a ordem econômica neoliberal lastreada na proeminência dos mercados e da exclusão social, enquanto o papel do Estado como garantidor de direitos sociais é negligenciado. A metodologia adotada segue uma perspectiva interdisciplinar crítica dos campos da economia política e das ciências sociais presente em relatórios socioeconômicos referidos nesta análise. Argumenta-se que a racionalidade neoliberal, orientando as políticas governamentais e presente no ambiente social, contribuiu para um aprofundamento das desigualdades estruturais no Brasil, gerando condições propícias para o agravamento dos impactos causados pela pandemia na sociedade, em particular nos segmentos sociais mais vulneráveis.

Commercial determinants of health: future directions.

This paper is about the future role of the commercial sector in global health and health equity. The discussion is not about the overthrow of capitalism nor a full-throated embrace of corporate partnerships. No single solution can eradicate the harms from the commercial determinants of health-the business models, practices, and products of market actors that damage health equity and human and planetary health and wellbeing. But evidence shows that progressive economic models, international frameworks, government regulation, compliance mechanisms for commercial entities, regenerative business types and models that incorporate health, social, and environmental goals, and strategic civil society mobilisation together offer possibilities of systemic, transformative change, reduce those harms arising from commercial forces, and foster human and planetary wellbeing. In our view, the most basic public health question is not whether the world has the resources or will to take such actions, but whether humanity can survive if society fails to make this effort.

Can Capitalism Drive Health Equity? Considering The Benefits And Risks Of Social Drivers Of Health Bonds.

Capitalism and health are not synonymous. Numerous health care advances and innovations have stemmed from the financial incentives that a capitalistic society fosters, but individuals and communities achieving optimal health is not always tied to a financial gain. The impact of capitalism-derived financial tools such as social bonds to address social drivers of health (SDH) therefore needs to be carefully scrutinized, not only for the potential benefits but also for the potential unintended consequences. Ensuring that as much of the social investment as possible is directed by communities experiencing gaps in health and opportunity will be crucial. Ultimately, failure to find ways to share both the health and financial benefits of SDH bonds or other market-derived interventions risks perpetuating underlying wealth inequities between communities and deepening the structural issues that cause SDH disparities in the first place.

[The dynamics of financialized capitalism and the Brazilian health system: reflections in the shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic]. / Dinâmica do capitalismo financeirizado e o sistema de saúde no Brasil: reflexões sob as sombras da pandemia de COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil has highlighted the importance of the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS) and the limitations of the country's prevailing health system, consisting of the public and private sectors, in the context of financialized capitalism in which typical instabilities and crises are structurally determined. The article discusses the Brazilian health system under the aegis of financialized capitalism and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article contends that financialization as a systemic pattern of wealth increases the process of commodification of socioeconomic relations which is inherent to this system, making the State's provision of health services indispensable.

A pandemia de COVID-19 no Brasil explicitou a importância do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) e as limitações do sistema de saúde vigente no país, composto pelos setores público e privado, no contexto do capitalismo financeirizado em que instabilidades e crises típicas são estruturalmente determinadas. Nesse sentido, o artigo discute o sistema de saúde no Brasil sob a égide do capitalismo financeirizado e à luz da pandemia de COVID-19. Sustenta-se que a financeirização enquanto padrão sistêmico de riqueza potencializa processo de coisificação das relações socioeconômicas que é imanente a esse sistema, tornando indispensável o provimento dos serviços de saúde pelo Estado.

La pandemia de COVID-19 en Brasil explicitó la importancia del Sistema Único de Salud (SUS) y las limitaciones del sistema de salud vigente en el país, compuesto por los sectores público y privado, en el contexto del capitalismo financiarizado, donde las inestabilidades y crisis típicas están determinadas estructuralmente. En ese sentido, el artículo discute el sistema de salud en Brasil bajo la égida del capitalismo financiarizado y a la luz de la pandemia de COVID-19. Se sostiene que la financiarización, como patrón sistémico de riqueza, potencia el proceso de cosificación de las relaciones socioeconómicas que es inmanente a este sistema, convirtiendo en indispensable la provisión de los servicios de salud por parte del Estado.

Decolonising 'man', resituating pandemic: an intervention in the pathogenesis of colonial capitalism.

This paper brings together fifth-wave public health theory and a decolonised approach to the human informed by the Caribbean thinker, Sylvia Wynter, and the primary exponent of African Humanism, Es'kia Mpahlele. Sub-Saharan indigenous ways of thinking the human as co-constitutive in a subject we might call human-animal-'environment', in conjunction with the subcontinent's experiences of colonial damage in disease 'prevention' and 'treatment', demonstrate the lack of genuine engagement with Indigenous wisdom in Western medical practice.The paper offers a decolonial reading of pandemic history, focused primarily on the human immunodefiency virus (HIV), the severe acute respiratory syndrome of 2003 caused by the SARS Covid 1 virus (SARS-CoV1) and COVID-19, caused by the SARS COVID 2 virus (SARS-CoV2) to demonstrate the importance of the co-constitutive subject in understanding the genesis of these pandemics as driven by colonial-capitalism. I emphasise that prevention will indeed take the kinds of massive changes proposed by fifth-wave public health theory. However, I differ from the proponents of that theory in an insistence that the new kind of thinking of the human Hanlon et al call for, has already been conceived: just not within the confines of the normative human of Western culture.I illustrate that Western Global Health approaches remain constitutionally 'deaf' to approaches that, although the West may not understand this to be the case, arise from fundamentally different-and extra-anthropocentric-notions of the human. In this context, Man as Wynter names Him is a subject ripe for decolonisation, rather than a premier site of capitalist development, including that of healthcare provision.Recognising that most of us are not individually able to change the structural violence of the colonial capitalist system in which Global Health practices are embedded, I conclude with implications drawn from my argument for quotidian practices that enable healthcare providers see their actions within a harm reduction paradigm, in the context of communities experiencing intergenerational impoverishment consequent on colonial violence.

The COVID-19 pandemic beyond Health Sciences: reflections on its social determination. / A pandemia de COVID-19 para além das Ciências da Saúde: reflexões sobre sua determinação social.

This paper aims to perform a theoretical reflection on the historical-social foundations of the COVID-19 pandemic. The "capital worldization", "capital-imperialism", "space-time compression", and "structural crisis of capital" categories are conjured from the historical materialistic-theoretical matrix, outlining a course that transcends the limits of Health Sciences to understand global health, of which the COVID-19 pandemic is an expression. We then return to the field of health, when the category of "social determination of health" allows elucidating the bases of the pandemic studied. We show that, other elements typical of the current phase of contemporary capitalism have become universal besides the SARS-CoV-2 characteristics or the dynamics of the rapid movement of people and objects around the world, unifying the health social determination process.

Este artigo possui o objetivo de realizar uma reflexão teórica sobre os fundamentos histórico-sociais da pandemia de COVID-19. A partir da matriz teórica materialista histórica, evoca-se as categorias da "mundialização do capital", "capital-imperialismo", "compressão espaço-tempo" e "crise estrutural do capital" traçando um percurso que ultrapassa os limites das Ciências da Saúde a fim de entender a saúde global, da qual a pandemia de COVID-19 é expressão. Posteriormente, faz-se o retorno ao campo da saúde, quando a categoria da "determinação social da saúde" permite elucidar as bases da pandemia estudada. Demonstra-se que, para além das características próprias do SARS-CoV-2 ou da dinâmica de rápido trânsito de pessoas e objetos pelo mundo, há outros elementos típicos da atual fase do capitalismo contemporâneo que se tornaram universais, unificando o processo de determinação social da saúde.

A radical imagination for nursing: Generative insurrection, creative resistance.

In the crucible of the pandemic, it has never before been clearer that, to ensure the relevance and even the survival of the discipline, nursing must cultivate a radical imagination. In the paper that follows, I trace the imperative for conjuring a radical imagination for nursing. In this fever dream for nursing futures, built on speculative visions of what could be, I draw on anarchist, abolitionist, posthuman, Black feminist, new materialist and other big ideas to plant seeds of generative insurrection and creative resistance. In thinking through a radical imagination, I unpack the significance of reparatory history for nursing, a discipline founded on normative whiteness. From there, I consider what it would take to shift the capitalist frame of healthcare to one of mutual aid, which requires the deep work of abolition. With a radical imagination that breaks down the enclosures that contain us through reparatory history, mutual aid and abolition, kinship becomes urgently possible.

Material Insecurity, Racial Capitalism, and Public Health.

In the influential 1995 article "Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Disease," Bruce Link and Jo Phelan described social and political factors as "fundamental causes" of death and disease. Whitney Pirtle has recently declared racial capitalism another such fundamental cause. Using the case of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, she has argued that racial capitalism's role in that situation meets each of the criteria Link and Phelan's article outlines: racial capitalism influenced multiple disease outcomes, affected disease outcomes through multiple risk factors, involved access to flexible resources that can be used to minimize both risks and the consequences of disease, and was reproduced over time through the continual replacement of intervening mechanisms. We argue for Pirtle's conclusion using the extensive literature on racial capitalism and case studies concerning housing in the United States and Brazil and what Naomi Klein has termed "corona capitalism" in India. If races correspond to hierarchies of material security, as suggested by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, then these hierarchies and their causal effects are fundamental determinants of public health.

The feminist political economy of Covid-19: Capitalism, women, and work.

Analysing the pandemic through a feminist political economy lens makes clear how gender, race, and class structures are crucial to the functioning of capitalism and to understanding the impacts of the pandemic. The way capital organises production and reproduction combines with structures of oppression, generating vulnerability among the racialised and gendered populations worst impacted by Covid-19. Using global data, this commentary shows that during the pandemic, women experienced relatively greater employment losses, were more likely to work in essential jobs, and experienced a greater reduction in income. Women were also doing more reproductive labour than men and were more likely to drop out of the labour force because of it. Analyses of capitalism in feminist political economy illustrate how capital accumulation depends on women's oppression in multiple, fundamental ways having to do with their paid and unpaid work. Women's work, and by extension their health, is the foundation upon which both production and social reproduction rely. Recognising the pandemic as endogenous to capitalism heightens the contradiction between a world shaped by the profit motive and the domestic and global requirements of public health.

Covid-19 as a 'breaching experiment': exposing the fractured society.

In this brief paper, I argue that the coronavirus pandemic is functioning like an ethnomethodological 'breaching experiment'. In short, it is putting a gigantic spanner in the works of neoliberal governance, in the process exposing the widening cracks and fissures of what I have called the 'fractured society'. I begin by recalling Garfinkel's notion of the breaching experiment and by listing the principal attributes of the fractured society. I then explore the response to the coronavirus in the UK, from the government's initial commitment to 'herd immunity' to its present policy of 'muddling through'. The bulk of the remainder of this contribution addresses precisely how this global health crisis shines a harsh and unforgiving searchlight on the strategies and policies pursued by governments in the UK since 2010, and most especially after the passing of the Health and Social Care Act of 2012. In the closing paragraphs, I examine possible scenarios for a post-fractured society, making particular use of Fraser's concepts on 'reactionary' versus 'progressive populism', and conclude with a comment on sociology and engagement.

Situating the Pandemic: Welfare Capitalism and Canada's Liberal Regime.

This article focuses on Canada's liberal welfare state and the COVID-19 pandemic, offering an overview of some of the unequal health and social effects of the crisis. It argues that the policy response to the pandemic should be situated within a broader pattern of welfare restructuring and organization that serves to instrumentalize economic insecurity and extend labor discipline. Without making firm predictions about the future, we argue that this is likely to reproduce increasingly unequal patterns of welfare access, providing benefits to some constituents while disciplining vulnerable groups to facilitate competitive gains.

Fundamentally uncaring: The differential multi-scalar impacts of COVID-19 in the U.S.

2020 in the United States was marked by two converging crises-the COVID-19 pandemic and the large-scale uprisings in support of Black lives. These crises were met with both a counterproductive and inadequate response from the federal government. We examine these converging crises at the individual, social, and political scales. The biological realities of COVID-19 impact different populations in widely varied ways-the poor, the elderly, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, and those living with comorbidities get sick and die at the highest rates. Social distancing guidelines shifted millions of people to work-from-home and millions more lost their jobs, even as care laborers, preponderantly women, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, were asked to put their and their loved ones' lives on the line for the continuation of all of our lives. These biological, social, and economic crises have been punctuated by civil unrest, as millions took to the streets for racial justice, noting the unequal impacts of the pandemic. These converging crises have laid bare decades of neoliberal and neoconservative policies and ideologies, undergirded as they have been by racial capitalism, for their fundamental uncaringness. In this paper, we argue that this pandemic not only made a wider population more acutely aware of the necessity and importance of the need to care and for caring labors, but also that we stand at the precipice of potentiality--of producing a more caring society. To frame our argument, we draw on Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margaret Lock's (1987) framework of three bodies-individual, social, and political-to unpack the multi-scalar entanglements in the differential impacts of COVID-19, questions of care, and their articulation in the current political-economic context.

COVID-19 as Cause versus Trigger for the Collapse of Capitalism.

According to the official narrative of COVID-19, the pandemic has caused the global capitalist economy to collapse, or at least to enter a deep recession and possibly a great depression. Assigning blame to a virus takes attention away from the structural contradictions and instabilities of capitalism that would have led to a crash in any case. This narrative also helps justify non-evidence-based public health policies, including lockdowns, travel bans, closed schools and factories, and forced quarantines of large populations rather than individuals and clustered groups who harbor the infection. Advantages of such drastic measures happen primarily in countries that did not prepare adequately, that did not respond quickly enough with more focused measures to test and isolate people infected with the virus, and that have health care systems either organized by capitalist principles or suffering cutbacks and privatization as a result of capitalist economic ideologies, such as austerity. Authoritarian tactics purportedly intended to protect public health pave the way to antidemocratic rule, militarism, and fascism. These harsh policies also exert their most adverse effects on poor, minority, incarcerated, immigrant, and otherwise marginalized populations, who already suffer from the worsening economic inequality that global, financialized capitalism has fostered.