Socialized medicine for all

Compulsory vaccination on collective farm in Turkmenistan. Photograph by Soviet Photo Agency. Found in Sir Arthur Newsholme's 1932 book, Red Medicine: Socialized Health in Soviet Russia.

 

Despite all advances made in modern medicine, and the fact that vaccination has consistently been shown to be one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding infection, why do irrational fears of modern medicine still persist? And since when did it become acceptable for calls for “herd immunity” and homeopathy fads, which are based in mysticism, to be presented as substitutes for defending or advocating public healthcare? Vaccines, which have historically been shown to dramatically improve human health and quality of life by helping to eradicate many diseases, should be seen as a collective and social responsibility to protect one another and millions from illness. This was exemplified by the Soviet public health system where vaccinations were made compulsory in April 1919 because “the health of the individual is the concern of society as a whole.” Vaccines are just one symbol of social progress as they saw their full potential under the Soviet Union where prevention, and not merely relying on waiting for a cure, was a major part of the goal in creating living and working conditions where illness is not a rampant occurrence that threatened human lives. In addition to being economical, vaccines are a material manifestation of preventative healthcare unlike curative drugs; as Tim Anderson writes:

“…[W]hile there can be no doubt that Big Pharma seeks to exploit the [Coronavirus] crisis, vaccines represent a small fraction of their revenue stream and profits. Vaccine revenue of around 35 billion is likely less than 3.5% of the total pharmaceutical revenue of around US$1 trillion (Evaluate Pharma 2017), highlighting the fact that curative drugs are far more lucrative than immunity inducing vaccines. There are only two vaccines in Big Pharma’s top 50 revenue earning medications, the vaccines for pneumonia and HPV (Evaluate Pharma 2017: 36-37).”

People deserve to live long lives and to enjoy the fruits of socialized public healthcare while they are still alive, and also to not suffer when they are reaching the end of their lives. Deadly diseases and preventable, needless deaths should never be normalized.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

U.S. Imperialism is the reason for the Taliban's recent successes in Afghanistan

Image
  The original, cringe-worthy dedication title card of Rambo III , before being edited out in subsequent post-9/11 DVD copies and television airings. The Taliban were one of the groups that sprang from the U.S.-created and U.S.-backed Mujahideen, who were made with the ultimate goal in mind of destroying the Soviet Union. The United States saw an opportunity for its anti-communist goals in the exiled, ousted, reactionary, neo-feudalist landowning class who were willing to betray their country, to undo all the revolutionary gains and progress (which included women's emancipation) made by the popular socialist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, and to bring the country back to what is essentially the stone ages. While the United States does not necessarily preach Wahhabist or Salafist ideology itself, they were very useful tools, due to their highly sectarian nature, in countering the progressive anti-imperialist forces -- whom they saw as foils and bitter 'archenemies...
Read more

Delta-COVID Fourth Wave Survival Guide (for Canadians)

Image
  Generally speaking, things are not going so well; and so we might as well prepare for survival. Here is a list of things that you could do. Suggestions are welcome, and more may be added later. 1. Get both doses of the vaccine AND continue wearing the masks regardless  of vaccination status.   The pandemic isn't over yet and the virus is still circulating, and it's not over until we've actually stopped it from circulating at such an astronomical rate. And like it or not, fully vaccinated people are still, figuratively speaking, inside "the eye of the storm" as much as the unvaccinated are; 'pandemic' means prevalent over a whole country and/or the world. COVID-19 has not even reached endemic levels. I don't think I need to explain why vaccines are great preventative measures, that should already be a given. Yes, of course the vaccines are still extremely helpful, very useful, and lifesaving; but it doesn't necessarily mean they will 100% stop yo...
Read more

The GameStop Saga and the Crisis of Capitalism

Image
"Imperialism, or the domination of finance capital, is that highest stage of capitalism in which this separation reaches vast proportions. The supremacy of finance capital over all other forms of capital means the predominance of the rentier and of the financial oligarchy; it means that a small number of financially “powerful” states stand out among all the rest. " —V.I. Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism . Ch. 3. At the time of this writing, most people by now are probably aware of the news story surrounding the "controversy" of a Reddit-based community called 'WallStreetBets' buying stocks on GameStop (and AMC) [1], hurting Wall Street short-selling hedge fund managers' profits in the process and pushing Melvin Capital to the brink of bankruptcy. These short-selling [2] billionaire investors have lost a staggering $70.8 billion during the month of January, 2021 [3]; this was partly because of a very determined group of small, amateur...
Read more