Hookworm, Pellagra and COVID
May 7, 2022 5:26 AM Subscribe
Diseases of Disfunction "Government investment in public health is a particular threat to predatory wealth because of the mindset it imbues. The more the public learns about hookworm, pellagra, teen pregnancy or COVID, the greater the awareness of our inherent, inescapable interconnectedness. Public health initiatives hinge on teaching basic biology. The more people understand our biology the harder it is to keep us divided and therefore politically weak."
Thanks, this is an excellent article.
Pellagra was a scourge that has already been largely forgotten in America. Purely by chance, I learned about the pellagra epidemic when I was younger, but I never learned about the campaign of pellagra denialism that this article details.
I think a lot about climate change denialism, because my job is in a realm adjacent to climate change. It was easy for me to assume that the oil companies' four-decade campaign to poison the well of public discourse about climatic warming was something new and somehow sui generis. But this article demonstrates that extractive capitalism has used denialist propaganda as a powerful tool in the court of public opinion for a long time, and that climate change denialism stems from that same practice. A hundred years ago, pellagra denialism amounted to "are you really going to trust this meddling Yankee -- who, by the way, is a Jewish immigrant -- when he insults our Cherished Way of Life and tells us we're dirty and poor?" And now it's "are you really going to trust a bunch of out of touch liberals when they try to attack our Cherished Freedoms?"
posted by cubeb at 6:57 AM on May 7, 2022 [19 favorites]
Pellagra was a scourge that has already been largely forgotten in America. Purely by chance, I learned about the pellagra epidemic when I was younger, but I never learned about the campaign of pellagra denialism that this article details.
I think a lot about climate change denialism, because my job is in a realm adjacent to climate change. It was easy for me to assume that the oil companies' four-decade campaign to poison the well of public discourse about climatic warming was something new and somehow sui generis. But this article demonstrates that extractive capitalism has used denialist propaganda as a powerful tool in the court of public opinion for a long time, and that climate change denialism stems from that same practice. A hundred years ago, pellagra denialism amounted to "are you really going to trust this meddling Yankee -- who, by the way, is a Jewish immigrant -- when he insults our Cherished Way of Life and tells us we're dirty and poor?" And now it's "are you really going to trust a bunch of out of touch liberals when they try to attack our Cherished Freedoms?"
posted by cubeb at 6:57 AM on May 7, 2022 [19 favorites]
From the article (which is from summer 2021):
"Like hookworm and pellagra, solid public health infrastructure can allow people to avoid this plague. Periodic lockdowns, mask rules, vaccinations and contact tracing will limit COVID’s reach until it’s constrained to our cultural and political backwaters. COVID-19 is on its way to becoming our newest pellagra, a disease we only worry about when we venture into the poorly governed hinterland."
Yeah, things didn't work out that way, at all. The denialism that we're now seeing with Covid is quite different from what's discussed in the article.
posted by ssg at 7:02 AM on May 7, 2022 [10 favorites]
"Like hookworm and pellagra, solid public health infrastructure can allow people to avoid this plague. Periodic lockdowns, mask rules, vaccinations and contact tracing will limit COVID’s reach until it’s constrained to our cultural and political backwaters. COVID-19 is on its way to becoming our newest pellagra, a disease we only worry about when we venture into the poorly governed hinterland."
Yeah, things didn't work out that way, at all. The denialism that we're now seeing with Covid is quite different from what's discussed in the article.
posted by ssg at 7:02 AM on May 7, 2022 [10 favorites]
Much of the west is, indeed, poorly governed.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:08 AM on May 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:08 AM on May 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
"Predators are thriving in this environment of weak public health. Professional grifter Joseph Mercola moved his phony medical practice from Chicago, where his business was threatened by relentless regulatory scrutiny, to the huckster paradise of Florida back in 2015. Safe now in the arms of Dixie, Mercola can rake in millions on phony COVID cures and vaccine denial becoming one of the country’s most prominent and successful COVID predators. His new home, Lee County , Florida, is logging more new COVID cases each day than Philadelphia and Boston combined." [Links deleted]
Well, hell.
posted by allthinky at 9:47 AM on May 7, 2022 [10 favorites]
Well, hell.
posted by allthinky at 9:47 AM on May 7, 2022 [10 favorites]
Asbestos, leaded gas, tobacco, black lung, fracking - corporate interests always seem to overrule public health.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:56 PM on May 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:56 PM on May 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
"Safe now in the arms of Dixie" is an amazing phrase.
Thanks for this post, I knew nothing about pellagra!
posted by emjaybee at 1:37 PM on May 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Thanks for this post, I knew nothing about pellagra!
posted by emjaybee at 1:37 PM on May 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
"Asbestos, leaded gas, tobacco, black lung, fracking - corporate interests always seem to overrule public health."
Well, they do until they don't. We have unleaded gas across the US and smoke-free workplaces in half the country (and note that in 2010, California wasn't even one of those states).
I think it's really important to talk about progress when it is made, to remind us all that progress IS possible, and - even if it's not fast enough or widespread enough - public interests CAN override corporate interests.
(And with the Republican party's recent hostility toward major corporations, like Florida's attack on Disney for daring to say anything at all critical of the horrific Don't Say Gay law, it will be interesting to see to what extent corporate politics change.)
hydropsyche, this is an EXCELLENT post, and I am looking forward to reading the article slowly and in depth. Thank you so much for posting this.
posted by kristi at 1:56 PM on May 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Well, they do until they don't. We have unleaded gas across the US and smoke-free workplaces in half the country (and note that in 2010, California wasn't even one of those states).
I think it's really important to talk about progress when it is made, to remind us all that progress IS possible, and - even if it's not fast enough or widespread enough - public interests CAN override corporate interests.
(And with the Republican party's recent hostility toward major corporations, like Florida's attack on Disney for daring to say anything at all critical of the horrific Don't Say Gay law, it will be interesting to see to what extent corporate politics change.)
hydropsyche, this is an EXCELLENT post, and I am looking forward to reading the article slowly and in depth. Thank you so much for posting this.
posted by kristi at 1:56 PM on May 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm so glad folks appreciate this article as much as I did. The author, Chris Ladd, retweeted it in a conversation about frustrations with COVID public health measures, again, in the face of rising cases, again, and I was just blown away. I've lived in the southeastern US most of my life and had vague ideas about malnutrition of sharecroppers and something about treating corn with lye, but no idea about actual attempts to suppress public health knowledge about pellagra. And I remembered the 2017 articles about the UN investigation into US poverty, including hookworm in Alabama, but again didn't know how hard snake oil types in the early 20th century had worked to stop public health education about hookworm.
Just so many interesting parallels with so many disasters, as others have noted, not just COVID.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:55 PM on May 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Just so many interesting parallels with so many disasters, as others have noted, not just COVID.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:55 PM on May 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
We have unleaded gas across the US for cars. We do not have it for general aviation. The EPA is going to get around to proposing a regulation on it by the end of this year.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 3:24 PM on May 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 3:24 PM on May 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
Compared to the amount of automotive gasoline that's burned in a day in America, the quantity of avgas used in a year is probably a rounding error. EPA has had more pressing concerns every one of the last 50 years.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 6:38 PM on May 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 6:38 PM on May 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
Good to focus on the racism inherent in this kind of effort, you have to keep the poor people fighting each other for it to work.
See: Cancer Alley..
Bad air kills, but because bad air is much more likely to be produced in Black towns, Exxon and Shell and Dow can call the respiratory problems and cancer a 'myth' -- it does not affect the white ruling caste, from local to state, national and international.
posted by eustatic at 7:05 PM on May 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
See: Cancer Alley..
Bad air kills, but because bad air is much more likely to be produced in Black towns, Exxon and Shell and Dow can call the respiratory problems and cancer a 'myth' -- it does not affect the white ruling caste, from local to state, national and international.
posted by eustatic at 7:05 PM on May 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
> Compared to the amount of automotive gasoline that's burned in a day in America, the quantity of avgas used in a year is probably a rounding error.
But that avgas consumption is not evenly distributed. The people living under the departure path of Palo Alto's general aviation airport are getting a disproportionate share of the lead from engines operating at wide open throttle. A lot of pilots are learning there, so they're flying the pattern and doing touch and goes, keeping the exhaust close by.
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 12:13 PM on May 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
But that avgas consumption is not evenly distributed. The people living under the departure path of Palo Alto's general aviation airport are getting a disproportionate share of the lead from engines operating at wide open throttle. A lot of pilots are learning there, so they're flying the pattern and doing touch and goes, keeping the exhaust close by.
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 12:13 PM on May 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
Ryan Cooper: "looks like we're not getting Omicron-specific vaccines because Congress can't get funding passed
Republican sociopathy plus conservadem filibuster fetish worship is a recipe for disaster"
posted by Apocryphon at 1:35 PM on May 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
Republican sociopathy plus conservadem filibuster fetish worship is a recipe for disaster"
posted by Apocryphon at 1:35 PM on May 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
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