Conference 2021 Hot-Doc Video

 

Project title

The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Vulnerable Groups: Brazilian Experience

 

Authors and Affiliations

Fernanda de Castro Nakamura1

1. Department of Postgraduation in Social Work, Faculty of human and social sciences, São Paulo State University

 

Abstract

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a global problem: the ability of States to keep their populations protected from the coronavirus through social withdrawal, in order to promote health and protect peoples. The political discourse has overlapped with world science, which has led to innumerable uncoordinated actions by governments, strongly impacting the public health system.

Methods

The analysis included the Brazilian political discourse about the defense that the economy could not stop and that the use of chloroquine was the best to be done by the population. With these actions, Brazil suffered from a deficient social withdrawal which mainly affected vulnerable groups: the blacks, the poor, the street population and the indigenous people were the bodies that marked COVID-19 pandemic. This scenario was written in the Recommendation nº 42 of 2020 edited by National Health Council in Brazil, making it clear that the political decision was going against the world’s recommendations for coronavirus disease prevention.

Results

In the covid-19 pandemic, the Brazilian people faced not only the coronavirus disease, but also the fight for democracy that culminated precisely in the defense of science in favor of life against the ideological political discourse of opening the economy and denying the existence of the pandemic. This dynamic profoundly affected the population, leading to a disbelief in public institutions and local governments that defended the position of the World Health Organization.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the actions contrary to the world health recommendations resulted in a dizzying growth of cases among vulnerable groups, making it clear that although the Brazilian health system is universal, it still needs strong investments to be able to serve as many people as possible. Likewise, it can be observed that the political ideological discourse made people unwilling to protect themselves because they did not believe in the real existence of a pandemic.