ABSTRACT
How can a political and economic philosophy make someone sick? This chapter explores factors that impact on population health and also at specific conditions that can be seen as “neoliberal epidemics”. Distal influences on health including inequality and austerity are examined and their differential impact on population health is considered. Both these factors predate neoliberalism but have been amplified by the enacting of its assumptions about how economies should work. Proximal factors that impact on individuals, and that can be considered neoliberal epidemics, are then considered. The chapter includes a specific focus on stress and on Covid-19 arguing that the pattern of Covid’s spread and the limitations on effective responses to it are shaped by the accumulated legacy of 40 years of neoliberalism. But Covid-19 also has characteristics that suggest it may also be understood as a populist epidemic. The chapter includes a consideration of how populism can be manifest in health and medicine.
