Flu pandemic, world power, and contemporary capitalism: building a historical-critical perspective

Objectives To present a historical-critical analysis of theconfiguration processof the 2009-2010 flu pandemic in order to show the relationships between thisprocessand the organization of world power, and to promote social and political mobilization. Methods Primary and secondary sources on the dynamics of the 2009-2010 flu pandemic were studied. The sources were validated by plausibility assessment and historiographical analysis. From a historical-territorial and critical approach, the relations between the worldconfigurationof the pandemic and the economic, political, and ideological power relations of contemporary capitalism were identified. Results It is revealed that the expanding monopoly of the pig industry provided favorable conditions for the evolutionary explosion of the influenza A(H1N1) virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) made decisions that were inclined toward the economic interests of the pig and pharmaceutical industries within the framework of financial-cognitive capitalism. Conclusions The modes of conduct of these institutions and companies materialized the world relations of economic, political, and ideological power of our time, which determined theconfiguration processof the pandemic. The worldwide spreading of the virus is barely a trail of theprocess.