Challenging contingency: Viruses and the nature of molecular life

Abstract

Understandings of the nature or inherent workings of molecular life in the field of biopolitical security studies have today been characterized predominantly in terms of contingency. This article challenges this characterization. It does so by identifying a particular logic of operation that organizes political action and intervention at both the level of the population and the molecular in response to the threats of smallpox, Ebola and pandemic influenza. It argues that, in fact, rather than securing by instantiating a general economy of the contingent, governing practices rely upon the characterization of the nature of molecular life in terms of its constant biological dynamics. Governments around the world, and the US government in particular, have reacted to the increased likelihood of the emergence of disease through the stockpiling of new pharmaceuticals, including the antivirals ST-246, ZMapp and Tamiflu. Antivirals represent a pharmaceutical tool stockpiled by governments to ensure that they can respond to the emergence of novel biological threats. The characterization of the nature of molecular life in terms of its constant biological dynamics is so important, then, as it is this that underpins political programmes of preparedness that utilize antivirals in the prevention of disease.

Bioactive Natural Antivirals: An Updated Review of the Available Plants and Isolated Molecules

“…Viral replication has various cellular targets starting from the release of the new viruses from the host cells. Many drugs were scientifically proven to inhibit M2 In the contingency of a flu pandemic with a new strain, antiviral drugs symbolize the primary line of defense [181,182]. Research on the development of anti-influenza medications was started a long time ago [183,184].…”

“…In the contingency of a flu pandemic with a new strain, antiviral drugs symbolize the primary line of defense [ 181 , 182 ]. Research on the development of anti-influenza medications was started a long time ago [ 183 , 184 ].…”

Bioinformational diplomacy: Global health emergencies, data sharing and sequential life

“…The French biochemist and Nobel prize winner Jacques Monod expressed this biochemical understanding of life particularly succinctly when he later proclaimed that all 'living beings are chemical machines' (Monod, 1997: 51). That moves biopolitics considerably beyond Foucault's original conception of biopower operating at the level of the body and the population, and pushes the management of 'life' towards a deeper form of molecular biopower (Elbe, 2014(Elbe, , 2018Long, 2019).…”

“…At the same time, this framework of bioinformational diplomacy builds upon recent social studies of science and technology, especially the rise of molecular biology as a powerful force within society, global health and international relations (Cooper, 2008;Dillon, 2015;Dillon and Reid, 2009;Elbe, 2014;Howell, 2014;Long, 2019). Particularly salient here is the concept of bioinformation recently defined by Bronwyn Parry and Beth Greenhough as 'all information, no matter how constituted, arising from analyses of biological organisms and their behaviour, that can be used to elucidate their structure or function, identify individuals, or differentiate them from each other' (Parry and Greenhough, 2017: 8).…”

Governing pandemic fatigue: an International Relations case of experiential biopolitics

“…However, the WHO's perspective on pandemic fatigue contrasts strikingly with how more detailed readings of the biopolitical in studies of global health have conceptualised an ever more thorough epistemic penetration of life as an object of governance (Elbe, 2005(Elbe, , 2014Harman, 2011;Lakoff, 2015;Long, 2020;Roberts and Elbe, 2017). Reflecting theoretical advances in biopolitics that suggest a transformation of the imaginary of life 1 under emerging molecular and informational terms Lobo-Guerrero, 2008, 2009; see also Braun, 2007;Cooper, 2006;Rose, 2007), critical studies of global health have underwritten a 'fundamentally bio-chemical' (Elbe, 2021: 664) understanding of life.…”