Caparros Column: The word disease | Weekly El Pais

The word “illness” haunts me and speaks of absence. There are words that are defined by what they cancel: disease is, first of all, any process that leaves a person without health. The disease has endless forms: between colon cancer and colitis it is difficult to establish an equivalence that is not spatial, but what they have in common is that they are ways in which their victim is no longer healthy.

The word disease is capricious: it is not used in other Romance languages. The French and Italians call it harshly: disease, malattia“anything that changes men’s health.” The presence of Evil in him is so noticeable that it is almost frightening. However, we still have an old Latin word:infirmity, in the companythe one who is not strong is the one who has no strength. We are not talking about the disease, but about those who suffer from its consequences; The French and Italians, on the contrary, give it a name, give it an essence that frightens us.

In any case, few vicissitudes of life are more dangerous than illness. Not so long ago, people died without knowing why: they felt bad, disarmed, drank some kind of decoction, prayed, prepared for trial, clapped their hands. Now most diseases have been identified, and many of them have a cure. A common infection was easy to kill just a century ago; now almost never, and the same thing happens to hundreds of others. We get used to thinking of illness as a transitional state: a disruption of the normality that is health. Illness is no longer certain death; This is a threat that needs to be “fighted”. And this is no longer the responsibility of God, but of science.

I am told that there were times when the priest married people and told them that they should be together in health and in sickness; Now the one who should be on your side in illness is the state in our countries. This has been achieved through many years of claims and struggles: health is a right to which everyone is entitled, and therefore government agencies are obliged to treat any disease that afflicts it.

But in many places there is a violent reaction against the state in favor of the “Market”. It is true that many states do not function or function poorly and do not ensure, among other things, that their citizens are free from this disease. But supply is getting out of hand.

In Argentina, for example, and in many other countries, the States are blamed for what they did during the pandemic. Our new Caesar, Mister Miley, does this incessantly, insisting that the State is a criminal organization and that we must surrender to the Wise Hand of the Market. The next global Caesar, the other bleached blonde – and all his imitators – say this all the time.

Has anyone wondered what the coronavirus pandemic would be like if it fell into this hand? unholy? States were responsible for procuring vaccines for everyone, distributing them, ensuring that as many people as possible were immunized, and thus being able to contain the virus. If it were left to markets, a significant portion of humanity would not be able to pay for these vaccines, and therefore the virus would have large sanctuaries in which to grow and multiply – and even attack the vaccinated rich with renewed vigor. energy. If the pandemic has demonstrated anything, it is that there are situations in which individual rescue does not work; If there’s one thing we’ve forgotten about the pandemic, it’s this.

(Specialty drugs are usually very expensive. Their niche is the desperate, and it’s hard not to think that drug companies are taking advantage of that desperation. It’s terrible to think that drug companies are taking advantage of that desperation. It’s amazing to live in such despair. a world that allows it: a world where everyone the difference between life and death is summed up in your bank’s summary and property ideology.)

In the poorest countries (and others), the rich pay taxes so that the government supports the poorest. In poor countries this includes a little food, a little education, some clever story that sticks when you’re not out and about. In rich countries they should be offered health and care. If they don’t do this, they will be delegitimized, they will lose their raison d’être and, despite what some businessmen are now saying, the rich need the States to control others. Without this, everything will get out of control. This is the risk that these “libertarian” inventions run. Sometimes they don’t seem to notice; I find it hard to believe that they are so stupid and that the most serious disease of our time is that we are ruled by such hucksters. Let’s hope there is a cure or even a vaccine for this disease.