'Great Reset' and resistance

According to the latest International Labor Organization reports, as job losses escalate due to lockdowns aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19, nearly half of the global workforce is at risk of losing livelihoods, access to food and the ability to survive.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has stated, "With some 2.6 billion people around the world in some kind of lockdown, we are conducting arguably the largest psychological experiment ever." As governments and corporations tighten political authoritarianism and technological surveillance, curtailing privacy and democratic protest, much of humanity is succumbing to anxiety, depression and a sense of powerlessness. Countries with some of the harshest lockdowns, such as India, have seen significant increases in suicides.

Dominant global political and economic institutions and the media present their pandemic narrative as based on scientific authority. However, there is increasing disagreement on the origin and prevention of the virus within the biomedical profession.

Many physicians and scientists are questioning whether Covid-19 is a natural occurrence or the product of a leak from a lab experimenting with coronaviruses and bioweapons. There is concern over the accuracy of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and false positives, as well as the classification of deaths simply as caused by Covid-19 when an overwhelming number of fatalities are related to pre-existing illnesses or co-morbidities, such as diabetes and heart disease.

Even according to statistics released last Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Covid-19 was mentioned as the sole cause of death in only 6% of the cases. The disproportionately higher rates of Covid deaths among native Americans and Alaska Inuit, for example, are due to their higher rates of obesity, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease than among more privileged US communities.

The Covid pandemic has not been the "Great Equalizer" as suggested by the likes of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and members of the World Economic Forum. Rather, it has exacerbated existing inequalities along gender, race and economic class divides across the world.

Just as unemployed and uninsured Americans are pleading for support, the combined wealth of US billionaires "surpassed $1 trillion in gains since March 2020 and the beginning of the pandemic," according to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies. The top five US billionaires - Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison - saw their wealth grow by a total of $101.7 billion, or 26%, during this period.

Among the pandemic profiteers are chief executives of companies like Zoom and Skype providing videoconferencing, and Amazon providing online shopping to citizens under lockdown. Yet the success of these companies has not translated into better wages and safety conditions for their employees.

However, the political and ideological power of the billionaire class and their influence over domestic and global policymaking are increasing. Relevant in this regard is billionaire Bill Gates' central role in the development and marketing of vaccines and interest in use of vaccines as a method of population control. The pharmaceutical industry, ie Big Pharma (including vaccine manufacturers), are known for inflating prices, avoiding taxes and manipulating the political process to maximize profit. Unfortunately, this corrupt industry is a key player in the race to end the Covid-19 pandemic.

The incoming Joe Biden administration in the US has received extensive funding from the pharmaceutical industry, yet it has not agreed to cut the cost of a possible coronavirus vaccine developed with federal research dollars. Rather, the Biden administration, also heavily funded by the big tech, finance and defense sectors, is poised to facilitate "The Great Reset," a WEF initiative to remake the post-pandemic world order.

The WEF, which identifies itself as "the international organization for public-private partnership" (that is, like the Council on Foreign Relations, a geopolitical corporate power agency), sees the social and economic devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic as a "unique window of opportunity to shape the recovery."

Speaking at a conference organized by the WEF in June, former US secretary of state John Kerry expressed concern: "Forces and pressures that were pushing us into crisis over the social contract are now exacerbated.… The world is coming apart, dangerously, in terms of global institutions and leadership."

The "Great Reset" envisaged by the WEF seeks to address these challenges through radical global restructuring. It seeks to reinvent "the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons … to build a new social contract," with sustainable development and resilience as its ultimate objectives.

At its next annual gathering of the rich and powerful in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2021, the WEF is expected to adopt the Great Reset and also incorporate youth leaders from around the world into the initiative through a virtual summit.

The stated goals of sustainability and resilience are laudable, but many are questioning the true objectives of both the WEF and the Great Reset.