A Pandemic Foretold

Thirty years ago, an urgent report about microbial threats to public health was ignored by policymakers.

When the “Unskilled” Become “Essential”

World War II made the economically impossible suddenly possible. As our capitalist states mobilize for the pandemic, the Left has another golden opportunity for worker empowerment.

Interpreter of Maladies

Here’s a guide to the words you should probably know, even if you don’t want to think about them.

Every Economic Question Is a Question of Power

The links between business, finance, and the state do not represent a perversion of liberal democracy — they are an unavoidable feature of capitalist political economy.

Viral Socialism Now!

Class struggle will shape how this crisis plays out, and the world that’s created in its wake.

The Black Death Helped Bring About the Modern World

The Black Death wiped out a third of Europe’s population in just a few years. But the peasants and laborers who survived wielded newfound power over their masters.

Millions Die, But They’re All Liberals

On the literary destruction of Los Angeles and the nervous breakdown of American exceptionalism.

Jacobin’s Quarantine Movie List

A new canon for those stuck indoors.

No Act of God

Hurricanes, pandemics, and droughts are acts of God. Private markets in housing, health care, and food — and the resulting deaths — are not.

Pretty Faces Who Care

Why we all hate celebrities right now.

It Came From Canada!

David Cronenberg’s first three films track the progress of epidemics “from the perspective of the disease.” What they reveal is a North American society already on the brink of disaster.

Beautifying the Apocalypse

In films like Annihilation and Ex Machina, director Alex Garland knows how to make the end of the world look majestic. But his new show, Devs, gives a grace and dignity to the apocalypse that you won’t find in our own world.

Letters + Celebrities Speak

Life is better if you own a yacht.

The Market Is Leaving Us Unprepared for a Pandemic

As we face down what the World Health Organization calls “a new normal” of high-impact epidemics, researchers and public health officials find themselves at war with for-profit pharmaceutical companies.

If Neoliberalism Were to End, How Would We Know?

What will decide the fate of neoliberalism today is not the extent of the economic damage the virus wreaks — it is the extent to which the virus transforms popular expectations.

Is This the End of Neoliberal Globalization?

The coronavirus has scattered the pieces on the geopolitical chessboard, revealing the fragility of just-in-time global production. Getting back to normal is the last thing we need.

It Takes a Herd

Simply put, vaccination saves lives.

We Need Better Drugs

We’re in a race with bacteria to develop new classes of antibiotics. The free market isn’t helping.

Virulence and Contagiousness

Deadly pathogens may kill their host before the host has a chance to pass on the pathogen. That’s why there tends to be a trade-off between virulence and contagiousness.

Krona Virus

A magic money tree does exist — and not just in Scandinavia. The question is who gets to shake it first.

We Set Amazon on Fire

Millions of people stuck at home means more orders for Amazon. But squeezed Amazon employees in France and Italy didn’t want to be “essential workers” — and they launched a wave of strikes to demand a shutdown.

An Urgent Appeal for Your Support

We’ve avoided making an appeal up to this point, but if you’re able, we’d appreciate your support.

Corona C.R.E.A.M.

With the appalling Senate scandal over coronavirus insider trading, it is no longer possible to deny it: we are governed by a caste of the unimaginably rich, far removed from our realities.

The New Thatcherites

“We’re Not Heroes, We’re Health Workers”

While most politicians quarantine in safety, La France Insoumise’s Caroline Fiat is risking her life on the front lines as a health worker.