A study published by the WHO (World Health Organization) about ten years ago made me nauseous. At that time, US$2 billion was spent researching drugs to treat baldness. Investments were just $1.8 billion for malaria, which devastates all parts of the world, killing 600,000 people a year and infecting 200 million more.
In 2020, Americans spent $36 billion on food for their pets, while WHO was begging to buy Covid-19 vaccines from the world’s poorest countries for a fifth of that amount.
That same year, investments in research and development to find cures for 17 neglected diseases totaled $3.9 billion, according to the WHO. These diseases affect 1.7 billion people worldwide, always in the most miserable corners of the planet. But the resources allocated to them are lower than the income of the next World Cup in Qatar.
Since the mid-20th century, some of the deadliest diseases in the world have ceased to be the research target of large multinational companies that considered it unprofitable to work in fields such as malaria, Chagas disease, and other diseases currently centered in the United States. the poorest regions of the world. Investments are no longer made with economic calculations. The money invested will not result in a profit, as the buyers will be one of the most miserable communities on the planet.
Traveling around some places that are not on the power map, I discovered that there was no such “neglected disease”. Existing is the sad category of neglected peoples.
It was abandoned because it had nothing to do with anyone in power. Because this is not a vote. Because they don’t even represent a consumer market. Because they are disposable for both capitalism and the responsible regime. Do they die of drug abuse or injustice?
On this frozen night in São Paulo and other cities in Brazil, it’s not the cold that threatens. But abandonment and statelessness.
A body trembling on a pavement in the center of the city feels neglect as cold in its bones. What is frozen is your citizenship.
Whoever dies from the cold today is killed.
source: Noticias
