Viral Neoliberalism: The Road to Herd Immunity Still A Rocky One

The objective of this article is to assess the dominant global economic system and the resulting power relations from the perspective of the strategies used worldwide against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The predominantly biomedical approach has not sufficiently taken into account the actual dimension of COVID-19 as a syndemic. While the much longer-term pandemic caused by the neoliberalism virus has not been systematically considered by public and global health scholars in the context of COVID-19, it exhibits essential characteristics of an infectious pathogen, and the symptoms can be described and detected according to biomedical criteria. Even more, the severity of leading symptoms of neoliberalism such as growing inequities calls for immunization campaigns and ultimately herd immunity from viral neoliberalism. However, achieving worldwide immunity would require an anti-neoliberal vaccine, which is extremely challenging to develop vis-a-vis the power relations in global health.

Automated summary

The article assesses the global economic system and power relations in light of strategies used against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The biomedical approach fails to fully recognize COVID-19 as a syndemic. The long-term pandemic caused by neoliberalism exhibits characteristics of an infectious pathogen, and combating it requires immunization campaigns. However, developing an anti-neoliberal vaccine is challenging due to power relations in global health.