How "Just-In-Time" Capitalism Spread COVID-19

https://spectrejournal.com/how-just-in-time-capitalism-spread-covid-19/
Date Written:  2020-04-08
Publisher:  Spectre
Year Published:  2020
Resource Type:  Article

Capitalism has accelerated the transmission of diseases. Historically, most epidemics have spread geographically through two common forms of human long-distance movement: trade and war. The timing, however, changed dramatically with the rise of capitalism.

Abstract: 
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Capitalism has accelerated the transmission of diseases. Historically, most epidemics have spread geographically through two common forms of human long-distance movement: trade and war. The timing, however, changed dramatically with the rise of capitalism.

In the Middle Ages, it took a decade or so for the Black Death (bubonic plague) to spread from China via the Silk Roads and Mongol conquests to Europe. Then, years to move from Sicily to Britain and beyond, via established trade routes and the movement of armies during the Hundred Years War. With capitalism well established, the “Spanish Flu” of 1918 spread in months from Spain, through France to Britain by Mid-June, and then to the US and Canada in September. To a large extent, it followed the course of battle lines, troop movements, and military logistics during WWI.