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International Journal of Public Health

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01-09-2020 | Influenza | Original article

Flu pandemic, world power, and contemporary capitalism: building a historical–critical perspective

Authors: Liliana Henao-Kaffure, Mario Hernández-Álvarez

Published in: International Journal of Public Health | Issue 7/2020

Abstract

Objectives

To present a historical–critical analysis of the configuration process of the 2009–2010 flu pandemic in order to show the relationships between this process and the organization of world power, and to promote social and political mobilization.

Methods

Primary and secondary sources on the dynamics of the 2009–2010 flu pandemic were studied. The sources were validated by plausibility assessment and historiographical analysis. From a historical–territorial and critical approach, the relations between the world configuration of the pandemic and the economic, political, and ideological power relations of contemporary capitalism were identified.

Results

It is revealed that the expanding monopoly of the pig industry provided favorable conditions for the evolutionary explosion of the influenza A(H1N1) virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) made decisions that were inclined toward the economic interests of the pig and pharmaceutical industries within the framework of financial-cognitive capitalism.

Conclusions

The modes of conduct of these institutions and companies materialized the world relations of economic, political, and ideological power of our time, which determined the configuration process of the pandemic. The worldwide spreading of the virus is barely a trail of the process.

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Title: Flu pandemic, world power, and contemporary capitalism: building a historical–critical perspective
Authors: Liliana Henao-Kaffure
Mario Hernández-Álvarez
Publication date: 01-09-2020
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Keyword: Influenza
Published in: International Journal of Public Health / Issue 7/2020
Print ISSN: 1661-8556
Electronic ISSN: 1661-8564
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01441-z

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Flu pandemic, world power, and contemporary capitalism: building a historical–critical perspective

Abstract

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

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