Covid-19: Social murder, they wrote—elected, unaccountable, and unrepentant

[rangerrebew]

Covid-19: Social murder, they wrote—elected, unaccountable, and unrepentant
BMJ 2021; 372 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n314 (Published 04 February 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;372:n314
 

What went wrong in the global governance of covid-19?

 
After two million deaths, we must have redress for mishandling the pandemic

Murder is an emotive word. In law, it requires premeditation. Death must be deemed to be unlawful. How could “murder” apply to failures of a pandemic response? Perhaps it can’t, and never will, but it is worth considering. When politicians and experts say that they are willing to allow tens of thousands of premature deaths for the sake of population immunity or in the hope of propping up the economy, is that not premeditated and reckless indifference to human life? If policy failures lead to recurrent and mistimed lockdowns, who is responsible for the resulting non-covid excess deaths? When politicians wilfully neglect scientific advice, international and historical experience, and their own alarming statistics and modelling because to act goes against their political strategy or ideology, is that lawful? Is inaction, action?1 How big an omission is not acting immediately after the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020?

At the very least, covid-19 might be classified as “social murder,” as recently explained by two professors of criminology.2 The philosopher Friedrich Engels coined the phrase when describing the political and social power held by the ruling elite over the working classes in 19th century England. His argument was that the conditions created by privileged classes inevitably led to premature and “unnatural” death among the poorest classes.3 In The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell echoed these themes in describing the life and living conditions of working class people in England’s industrial north.4 Today, “social murder” may describe the lack of political attention to social determinants and inequities that exacerbate the pandemic. Michael Marmot argues that as we emerge from covid-19 we must build back fairer.5

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n314

[PeteS in CA]

China's bears a lot of blame, but by the time Wuhan doctors had seen enough patients with similar symptoms to recognize Wuhan was experiencing an outbreak of something, the virus had already spread to the US and parts of EuroLand. The blame China bears is in how they handled the outbreak and how they and their running dog WHO lied to the world, allowing the virus to spread even more and misleading the world about how to handle outbreaks.