Medicina, biopolítica e pan-ótico: (re)visitando Foucault em tempos de pandemia de COVID-19

ABSTRACT

This article aims to reflect on the concepts of medicine, biopolitics and panopticon, present in the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984), in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic context. The present article also aims to provide a reflection on the impacts and consequences that the measures adopted to face this pandemic have had on societies, as well as on the possibility and implications for life and social dynamics of some of these measures to remain in force in a post-pandemic context. For this purpose, it is divided into three parts. The first part addresses the transition from species or classical medicine, based on Natural History, to modern or clinical medicine, based on Biology, as well as what was behind that change a medicine of epidemics. The second part introduces the concepts of biopolitics and panopticon, trying to demonstrate that measures similar to those that have been taken in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic have also been taken by modern medicine previously. The third part introduces a reflection on the social impacts of the pandemic, taking into consideration that health and illness are social constructs, transformed by the action of individuals and their experiences in society. © 2022 Universidade da Beira Interior. All rights reserved.