Terry Conway is on a top secret mission to Latin America on behalf of Socialist Resistance and she is blogging about it here. Demonstrating that impeccable timing which is the left’s hallmark she has been in Mexic
o for the last couple of weeks. She sent me this from Mexico City earlier today.
Having been in Mexico City since the evening of Thursday April 23rd and read masses about swine flu since, I feel that I’m becoming quite an expert especially for a non-medic. I have been discussing the issue with friends here in Mexico and on line with people back home since then. I have also read the excellent article by Mike Davis.
My considered thoughts so far are
a) This is a serious disease which has made a major genomic shift in the last month or so and needs to be taken seriously in terms of health prevention and intervention measures taken to protect people.
b) Intensive farming methods are probably central to the development of viruses which can and do jump species barriers. They should be opposed by the left for these reasons – as well as many others. However we should not necessarily assume at this stage that the pig complex in Oaxaca is the cause of this outbreak. people should however demand public disclosure of investigations into it – as has not happened on many other occasions internationally (Bernard Matthews turkeys and ground water re avian flu?)
c) Much of the reporting of this disease has been racist. Mike Davis’s approach which talks about the spread of the disease across North America is accurate. The fact that the Israeli government decided not to refer to the disease as swine flu, it claimed in order not to offend either Jews or Muslims (who apparently prefer having white phosphorus dropped on them than hearing the name of an unclean animal??) but think it’s fine to call it Mexican flu sums it up..
d) More generally much of the reporting in Mexico, US and in Europe has been sensationalised. So actually the numbers of confirmed deaths from swine flu in Mexico seem to be somewhere between 7-22. However there are around 150 people who have died from flu like symptoms in the last month. It is one thing to say tests are still being done – another to include them in figures which creates panic…But most of the Mexican press have reported them as swine flu deaths.
I saw one report I think from a US paper after there was a minor earthquake (5.5 on Richter Scale but 25 miles underground and no damage to people or property reported) headlined something like Mexico hit by swine flu, earthquake and drug wars. When I read it there was no new info on drugs wars – just the stuff that went out on the wire around the time of Obama’s visit here (about 10 days ago).It also turns out that the story that the man from the Archaeological Museum who showed Obama around had died of swine flu is untrue – he died of a heart attack due to an preexisting long standing medical condition.
I see the Sun has had lots of coverage which I haven’t been able to bring myself to open – they come up on Google searches when you put in “swine flu”.
e) We don’t actually know whether the genomic shift happened in the US or Mexico. We do know that more people have died so far in Mexico – but there are are number of potential reasons for this.
- That people had been ill for some time before they sought hospital treatment because they were generally fit and healthy and didn’t know they had something serious.
- That the level of healthcare is Mexico is poorer than in other countries where cases have so far been identified
- That the level of poverty in Mexico is greater than in other countries where cases have so far been identified.
I suspect all these factors and possibly others that have not been mentioned probably play a role along with other things I have not thought of.
f) In terms of health prevention measures some of what is being done here and internationally is common sense, but there are big contradictions. In Mexico (and indeed in the US and maybe elsewhere) these are enhanced by political disagreements and opportunism (there are elections in most of Mexico at beginning of July) between national and city governments.
So advising people to adopt good hygiene practice makes sense always especially when there is a specific danger – but there was a major water shortage in Mexico City two weeks ago, and in Oaxaca next door to the Smithfield pig plant in the state of Vera Cruz, I have never seen so many dried up river beds.
Offering people face masks certainly won’t increase the spread of disease but it’s not a panacea
Shutting theatres, night clubs, museums, restaurants and schools and nurseries will have some preventative effect but shutting down public transport would have a bigger impact. But of course it would impact on the economy more too because no one virtually would be able to work.
The stipulation that people keep six feet distance from each other, which originally was advice from the US embassy in Mexico to their citizens here has now been picked up by everyone but is completely impractical for most people. Most people live with others in space that doesn’t permit that and those that work in either the formal or informal economy need to come closer to either workmates or clients to carry out their jobs.
g) Restrictions on travel?
These are complicated. The genome shift probably happened 1 month ago approximately and since then people have travelled across the globe spreading the infection. On the other hand if people receive decent medical care and don’t already have susceptibility (medical or social) most people will recover. I would argue therefore the priority should be for resources to places with less eg Mexico as in “natural” disasters like floods or hurricanes.
In addition most border crossings in the Americas probably take place by road not plane – although that’s obviously not true for Cuba which has imposed a 48 hour ban on flights to and from Mexico. Argentina has said 5 days. I am trying to find out more about why. Of course it is true that planes (and long distance coaches) are places where infections can be easily spread. But does this mean people should be prevented using them just because they have been in a country where there is an infection. I am not convinced it makes medical sense and I think the social consequences could be very dangerous.
Certainly having been involved in lots of work around HIV/AIDS the movement has always opposed such measures. Of course there is no medical analogy but I am not sure whether what drives most of these discussions is medical facts. It is rather a social crackdowns.
The decision of many governments and the WHO to advise people not to travel to areas where there are high numbers of cases seems sensible – although I would say this should also include the south of the US. Airlines deciding that people can change their flights is also to be welcomed (even though we know they have done it to halt furt
her drops in share prices which were badly hit over the weekend). There has been a reduction by 60% in economic activity in the capital since Friday – in a situation where the Mexican economy is already suffering as part of the world downturn.
People are being screened leaving Mexico – I will be able to tell you more about how that works in 24 hours time assuming I get out – I know that I have to swear a statement on entering Panama saying I am not ill – again more on this tomorrow. Other countries are heat screening those from Mexico and then further checking those with high temperatures. That seems sensible to me.
Of course I know I am biased – I want to continue my travels tomorrow but I do think it is more than that.
h) Civil liberties more generally
In Mexico certainly the government and the army have been granted powers which have currently not been used but could be if people started organising for their rights during the epidemic or to crack down on other struggles that take place alongside it. This is something people should be cautious of and I think reinforces my points above.
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It has of course been a strange experience being here and having masks handed to you by the army. Contrary to the first reports in the US press our experience was that initially lots of Mexicans didn’t wear masks – and were not offered them free as they were handed out in the tourist/middle class areas not on working class estates never mind the shanty towns. On the other hand we have not seen a single leaflet any language other than Spanish – discriminating both against those Mexicans who speak indigenous languages but at the same time hardly careful of the needs of tourists.
We have internet access so we are fine but if you don’t it must be v confusing and perhaps frightening.
Liam redux 
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