Unban health, epidemics, sanitation, inequalities

Abstract

Throughout the evolution of hominids, Homo sapiens presents a way of privileging the development of the brain, a highly expensive structure from the point of view of energy expenditure for fetal development. The valorization of brain development at the expense of muscles led, as an immediate consequence, to the reduction of the capacity to be potent natural predators, leaving us with the alternative of working in groups, collecting fruits and hunting small animals. Hunter hunters were organized into small groups of no more than a few hundred individuals, where survival was determined by cooperation and not by struggle. In places where the availability of the necessary resources for the maintenance of human groups was scarce, we were challenged to exercise the creativity made possible by the large number of neural connections, beginning to dominate processes of food production and domestication of service animals. The availability of nutrients resulting from agriculture and livestock has led to an increase in the number of inhabitants of those small nuclei of hunter gatherers. As a consequence, the first cities appeared. These then allowed men to exchange experiences and ideas among themselves, enabling the elevation of the human spirit through arts and knowledge. Paradoxically, in addition to the exchange of ideas, there were exchanges of microorganisms between domesticated animals and men, which, combined with population densification and poor sanitary conditions, formed the perfect scenario for the development of epidemics, which did not exist for hunter-gatherers. The population density, the deepening of intra-urban social inequalities and the growth of global mobility have led us to move away from a situation of 2 pandemics due to respiratory viruses in the 20th century to a frequency of 2 pandemics per decade in the 21st century. Viruses no longer travel on steamships, but cross the continents on board jet flights. When they land in their new destinations, they find different environments at their mercy, where propagation is more efficient. Viruses are nourished by the inhabitants who live in places where housing, transportation, housing, access to health and the economic resilience of families is most precarious. A true and human city can only be built from the bottom up, making decisions about its destiny around one theme, namely the quality of life of its inhabitants. These are the ones who will define who the city belongs to and how it will be in the future.