Pictured: Communist “barefoot doctors” brought health care to rural China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s
USA, April 1— The plague that is late-stage capitalism is spreading its havoc more than ever. As always, the working class finds itself on the frontlines dealing with the consequences.
The resurgence of preventable diseases and the widespread rejection of scientific truth in the United States is not a coincidence. Rather, it is a symptom of the contradictions inherent in capitalism. The need to continually produce profits versus the needs of the worker.
Vaccine hesitancy, the return of diseases like measles and polio, and the suppression of scientific truth. These are all consequences of a system that prioritizes private profit over collective well-being.
The spread of vaccine misinformation is not simply the result of ignorance. It is a direct product of capitalist institutions manipulating the people.
Pharmaceutical giants, which hold patents on life-saving vaccines, have long prioritized profits over universal access to healthcare. They don’t ensure that vaccines are freely available to all. Instead, large corporations benefit from a system that allows wealth to dictate health outcomes.
Meanwhile, the capitalist media landscape thrives on sensationalism. This allows social media platforms to serve as breeding grounds for conspiracy theories.
Misinformation is an unfortunate byproduct of modern technology. It is a feature of an economic system that benefits from keeping the working class divided and distracted. By fostering distrust in science, the ruling elites weaken the solidarity needed for collective action against systemic injustices. Those include healthcare inequality and worker exploitation.
The resurgence of preventable diseases in the United States is a glaring example of capitalism’s failure. Measles was eradicated in the US in 2000. But it has recently returned as vaccination rates have declined because of rampant vaccine misinformation.
The same is true for polio. This disease had been nearly eliminated. But it is now spreading in impoverished and war-torn communities such as Gaza. These outbreaks are not simply the result of individual choices. Rather, they are the predictable outcome of a system that refuses to guarantee healthcare.
In communist society, public health will be prioritized, and profits won’t exist. Vaccine distribution and education will be handled as collective responsibilities.
The capitalist United States, in contrast, has allowed private corporations to dictate healthcare policy. This ensures that only those who can afford medical care will receive it.
The anti-vaccine movement is a tool used by a system that does not care to invest in scientific literacy but willfully allows misinformation to flourish unregulated.
Beyond vaccine misinformation, the broader attack on science in the US is fueled by capitalist interests. These seek to maintain economic and ideological control over the population. Climate change denial is a prime example. Fossil fuel corporations spend billions to suppress scientific consensus to continue their destructive, profit-driven industries.
Similarly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate interests actively resisted public health measures that would have limited business operations. They prioritized short-term economic gain over millions of lives.
This suppression of science is deeply political. A well-informed, scientifically literate population would be less susceptible to exploitation. It would be more likely to demand systemic change. By keeping workers misinformed and skeptical of scientific institutions, the ruling class ensures the continuation of a system that benefits the few at the expense of the many.
The only solution lies in dismantling the capitalist system. Capitalism only knows how to perpetuate inequality and uses science as a weapon of exploitation. Only in communism will science truly serve the masses as a tool of liberation.