The Viral Underclass

I don't usually enjoy non-fiction, but this book is written in such a clear, conversational way that you forget that you're reading factual information and feel more like you're sitting down to have a chat with a friend.

One of the key things that makes it so accessible is that every chapter includes stories of real people, and actual accounts either from, or about them. There is also the narrative of one specific person, their court case and experience with injustice, as a thread that runs through most of the book, which also helps to humanise the whole.

While there are many details and statistics that are confronting (HIV/AIDS, swine flu, Covid), they are not there to be salacious or horrifying but rather serve to highlight the throughline - being that rampant consumerism and unchecked capitalism is the virus that actually holds humanity in its grip.

This is not, however, a railing against the corporate system, but more a compassionate plea to remember that we are all interconnected and dependent on each other. That if we are to thrive as humanity, we need to stop placing people into classes that are ‘less than' and treat each other as equal - as human.