It has been said that crises allow us to see what is not evident, even though it lays before our eyes. Hannah Arendt wrote that only when an instrument breaks down, are we able to perceive it, and so we can repair it, we are concerned in how it is made, its structure and functions.
The present health crisis displays what is not working, not only in our health systems, but in the societies in which we live, and in the relationship with nature and with our fellow human beings. It highlights the failures of our health systems, which have been forsaken by the austerity policies applied in almost all the countries of the world as our governments give primacy to the interest of international finance over the well-being of its citizens.
It exhibits the social effects of an economic system that accentuates inequalities and that implies higher health risks for the poor and the migrants. All of this has already been widely discussed and it is hoped that, in the face of the current health crisis, the governments of our countries will mend course, as Alain Touraine has said.
