A relação de causalidade entre Zika vírus e síndrome congênita: análise de uma controvérsia em meio a uma crise de saúde pública

Abstract

Currítulo Lattes 4172 O problema é uma variante do "Paradoxo de Mênon", descrito por Platão no diálogo com Sócrates. "E de que modo procurarás, Socrátes, aquilo que não sabes absolutamente o que é? Pois procurarás propondo-te <procurar> que tipo de coisa, entre as coisas que não conheces? Ou, ainda que, no melhor dos casos, a encontres, como saberás que isso <que encontrastes> é aquilo que não conhecias?" (PLATÃO, 2001, 80d)

Zika virus epidemic legacy: the impact of causal association beyond laboratory science

“…Based on the Social Studies of Science and Technology, the research presented here is part of an investigation carried out for doctoral research approved by Conep (National Research Ethics Committee), with process number 01208718.9.0000.542 (Oliveira, 2021). The investigation consisted of collecting varied reports and materialities about the causal association between Zika and the outcome of SCZ, without stabilizing actors, in the sense that, regardless of specialty or profession, all those who were associated with the epidemic -with impact actions on its coursehave a positional experience on the subject, in addition to a consistent approach with the STS (Latour, 1994(Latour, , 2012Woolgar, 1997).…”

“…At the same time that families report anxiety for information and for the feedback of the tests they had taken; from a practical point of view, they mention the discovery of the cause as information that is not so important for their routines -although the causal relationship facilitated the entry of children into the health system and mediated access to social benefits (Oliveira, 2021). In the conversation held in Paraíba, causality and factors associated with the formal description of cases, although relevant for dealing with the health system and other institutional demands, were not so required.…”

“…In Brazil, the Zika virus has mobilized the scientific community since its identification in the territory, in April 2015; and, mainly, when it was credited with being responsible for the changes in the nervous system observed in infants in November of that year, with the main characteristic being microcephaly -decreased head circumference -(or "small head", as popularly referred to at the time) (Oliveira, 2021), an aspect characterized by inadequate brain development (Zika, 2019). During the analyzed period, the causal relationship between Zika and these changes in fetuses and infants was disclosed by the Brazilian government with preliminary evidence -such as the coincidence between the first months of pregnancy and the greater circulation of Zika in the Northeast of the country, as well as the presence of the virus in the amniotic fluid in two pregnant women and in one stillbirth (Brasil, 2015).…”

Epistemological disputes in the causal link between Zika virus and congenital syndrome: a controversy analysis

“…This article is an excerpt from a broad mapping of controversy conducted in Brazil in the course of doctoral research and provides a causal association between the Zika virus and visible birth defects in newborns 14 . For this reason, the method used here consists of two steps: 1) a mapping conducted within a doctoral thesis with a variety of resources (interviews, observations, analysis of documents, and scientific articles) and based on the ANT, and 2) a selection of twenty-two interviews from this mapping presented in this text, using oral history.…”

Disputas epistemológicas na associação causal entre Zika vírus e síndrome congênita: uma análise de controvérsia

“…Esse artigo é um recorte de mapeamento amplo de controvérsia sobre a associação causal entre o vírus Zika e más-formações em bebês, feito no Brasil para pesquisa de doutorado 14 . Por esse motivo, a metodologia para esse texto possui duas etapas: 1) um mapeamento realizado em tese de doutoramento com uma variedade de recursos (entrevistas, observações, análise de documentos e artigos científicos) e com base na Teoria Ator-Rede (TAR); e a etapa 2) uma seleção de 22 entrevistas desse mapeamento apresentada nesse texto, utilizando como metodologia a história oral.…”