Governing COVID-19 without government in Brazil: Ignorance, neoliberal authoritarianism, and the collapse of public health leadership

Abstract

Brazil's governance of the COVID-19 pandemic has been described as nothing short of tragic by several commentators. President Jair Bolsonaro's dangerous brew of neoliberal authoritarianism, science denialism and ableism has plunged this country into catastrophe. In this article we argue that this form (or lack) of public health governance can best be described as governance without (central) government. We begin with an overview of public health governance in the country before introducing the main theoretical concepts that guide our analysis, namely the notions of 'government by exception' and 'strategic ignorance'. Finally, we sketch the main features of this emerging form of (non)governance of COVID-19. We highlight the new forms of solidarity and mutual aid that have emerged in favelas and Indigenous communities, which have stepped in to fill the void left by a limited federal presence. The article concludes by reflecting on what this collapse of public health reveals about the limitations of democratic governance in the age of Bolsonaro.

Violência contra idosos durante a pandemia de Covid-19 no Brasil: contribuições para seu enfrentamento

“…The world has experienced not only a health crisis with the pandemic of the New Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that caused COVID-19, but also an unprecedented economic, political, and ethical crisis [1][2][3] . From the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 to July 23, 2020, 15,012,731 cases and 619,150 deaths have been confirmed worldwide 4 , with 2,287,475 confirmed cases and 84,082 deaths in Brazil 5 .…”

Brazil’s policies threaten Quilombola communities and their lands amid the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In times of pandemic, the Brazilian government's actions are widely considered by the international community as negligent with respect to scientific guidelines to deal with COVID-19 (Polidoro et al 2020). The effects of this negligence on quilombola communities have been tragic (Ortega and Orsini 2020), as attested by the lethality rate among the quilombolas (11.1%) being more than double the national average (4.9%) (Brasil de Fato 2020). In this context, there is an urgency to implement social policies that minimize the impacts of COVID-19 on quilombolas that safeguard not only the lives of these people, but also their connection with their land, and socio-environmental justice.…”

Societal Responses and Household-Level Determinants of Coronavirus Preparedness in Rural Ethiopia

“…Many of the research work on COVID 19 have targeted the socioeconomic impact of coronavirus [4,8,12,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. The available works on COVID 19 in Ethiopia focused on the probable impact of COVID 19 by employing desk review and experts point of view, without empirical evidence.…”