First, it is worth recalling Ulrich Beck’s discussion of the risk society, which was broached since 1986 in his consecutive books, assuming a clearly global character. It concerned the environment, infections, instability in family life, the job market. The theory somewhat mixed too many things, but as for the coronavirus its foresight was radical. In fact, the World Health Organization has referred to pandemics as a global risk for some years.
Its latest document stressed that governments were far behind in preparing for a likely pandemic. The model itself – “Westphalian”, that is, dependent on national states – on which the WHO is based limits its actions, including monitoring, as seen in the case of the Chinese attempt to initially minimize the problem, in view of which it could do little.
But the fact is that risk is no longer risk and has become a concrete threat to individuals and populations in each country on the planet. If the fight against the virus within each one of them is decisive, only international coordination will consistently help to overcome this pandemic and, above all, to prevent others from occurring, with changes in the form of global health management. This stems not from a lack of capabilities. It is, therefore, first of all necessary to recognize that the risk society is brutally real and that risks depend on the socially constructed perception, but that they also assume a very material configuration: actually, they kill.
