ABSTRACT
Conspiracy theories (evidence-free, improbable narratives about powerful agents conspiring to harm people) circulated widely during the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and COVID-19 epidemics. They travelled over time and space, adapted to local conditions and anxieties, and were promoted for commercial and political purposes. Russian conspiracy theories claiming the viruses were United States bioweapons appeared in both epidemics. So did 'cultropreneurs' who, as a marketing strategy for their 'alternative' therapies, promoted conspiracy theories about scientific medicine. Pro-science activists sought to counter medical misinformation and debunk faux cures, but their task was harder in the 'post-truth' social-media driven context of COVID-19. Conspiracy theories about vaccines are an ongoing challenge for public health.
Subject(s)
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome , COVID-19 , Epidemics , Humans , United States , Communication , NarrationABSTRACT
The South African government presented its strategy for rolling out vaccinations against Covid-19 in 2021 as a comprehensive plan designed by technocratic experts working with the country's leading scientists. This imagery built on the government's prior claims that its responses to Covid over the previous year 'followed the science'. In 2021, as in 2020, this framing functioned ideologically to justify projects of expanded government control over the economy and the health sector. This article shows how the objective of the vaccination roll-out 'plan' was not simply to vaccinate people, but to build key foundations of the proposed 'national health insurance' system, including patient registration and procedures for channelling patients (and corresponding financial flows) between public and private health care providers. But the imagery of planned efficiency projected through PowerPoint presentations masked the reality that there was no detailed plan and most of the proposed roll-out scheme was unworkable. We contend, following James Scott, that this was an example of high modernist hubris and aesthetics that confused visual imagery with operational order. Almost every aspect of the supposed vaccination 'plan' was subverted, as scientists excluded from government advisory structures disputed aspects of vaccine procurement and use, people 'walked in' to vaccination sites where health care workers implemented informal systems to manage them, provincial governments failed to conform with national instructions, and special interest groups lobbied for privileges. The result was that a somewhat disorderly but more effective vaccination roll-out replaced the dysfunctional, overly ordered system set out by government planners.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges for healthcare systems and political leaders across the globe. In this case study of Brazil, we argue that leadership failings at the highest level contributed to Brazil's relatively high and escalating death rates during 2020. Drawing on an analysis of a large amount of textual documentation drawn from media reports, we emphasise the role and consequences of President Jair Bolsonaro's political discourse and prioritisation of the economy. We focus on the first wave that swept across the globe between January and late June of 2020, arguing that Bolsonaro underplayed the seriousness of the epidemic, leveraged misinformation as a political strategy, promoted pseudoscience, and undermined the Ministry of Health. He also confronted subnational governments for adopting lockdown measures - a move that enabled him to blame regional governors for the short-term economic costs of COVID-19 related restrictions. We suggest that his denialist approach to climate change paved the way for his subsequent denialism of the seriousness of COVID-19 and for his undermining of social distancing, mask-wearing and other preventative responses supported by science. These sobering findings highlight the role that national leaders can play in undermining scientific approaches to both public health and the environment.