Beyond the Image of COVID-19 as Nature’s Revenge: Understanding Globalized Capitalism through an Epidemiology of Money

Public discussion of the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic has reproduced several recurrent and interrelated topics in discourses on sustainability and the Anthropocene. First, there is an ambiguous concern—sometimes ominous, sometimes hopeful—that the pandemic will precipitate radical social transformation or even collapse. Second, there is widespread reflection over the risks of economic globalization, which increases vulnerability and undermines local food security. Third, the pandemic is frequently imagined as nature’s revenge on humankind. This metaphor reflects a fundamental conceptual dualism separating nature and society that continues to constrain our efforts to understand the challenges of sustainability. To help transcend the epistemological and ontological dichotomy of nature versus society, the article proposes an epidemiological approach to all-purpose money. Conventional money is an artifact with far-reaching repercussions for global society as well as the biosphere. To approach it as the source of behavioral algorithms with severely detrimental consequences for both social and ecological systems might provide a middle ground for natural and social science.

Analysis of Deaths Occurred in Households during the Pandemic by COVID-19 in a Brazilian Amazon Region: An Epidemiological Approach

In the absence of an analysis of deaths at home from an epidemiological perspective, this study aims to analyze and describe the epidemiological profile of deaths at home assessed by the Death Ceremony Service (DCS) during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the metropolitan region of the Brazilian Amazon, Belém do Pará. A descriptive, quantitative, secondary-based study based on the databases of the Mortality Information System (SIM), referring to the deaths that occurred from March 1 to March 27 June 2020. The variables worked were related to the profile and the causes in the death certificate. The causes of home deaths in 2019 were used to compare with 2020. In the indicated period, 1,203 deaths occurred, an increase of 454% in relation to 2019. The male gender (57.30%), the age group of 60+ (80.80%) and brown race (77.70%) were the most frequent. The main cause of death Acute myocardial infarction (15.05%) followed by COVID-19 (10.29%). During the pandemic, the majority of home deaths were not directly caused by COVID-19, however, they were influenced by it due to the need for social isolation, with the impossibility of obtaining the proper diagnosis or proper treatment, due to the impossibility of on-site care or lack of immediate response.