Epidemics and Pandemics Under Capitalism

Using Marxist perspectives to analyse the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics, and pandemics more broadly, this volume provides an illuminating look at how social structures and processes affect public health.Drawing from historical sources, epidemiology, the social sciences, public health, and clinical knowledge about infectious diseases, the authors approach the topic through a multidisciplinary lens and seek to address the development of disease within the body over time, key aspects of virology, and how socially-induced changes in face-to-face social networks and niches of high viral transmission can shape viral evolution and thus also shape the potential for viruses to become more infectious and more virulent. Sufficient time has now passed since the initial shock of both epidemics to allow for a deeper consideration of broader issues than those addressed in earlier studies. Rather than universalize the behavioural aspects of transmission between two people, the authors’ holistic look at these prevailing phenomena draws attention to the roles of social structures and processes in the emergence and proliferation of infections.Scholars and students across the social sciences and humanities with an interest in infectious diseases and pandemics will find valuable insight in this book, as will public health scholars, practitioners, and activists who are concerned about the social and political conditions affecting their work and general well-being.