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

Abstract

More than four years after the Zika virus epidemic, we are left with the task of investigating its legacy. Here, we describe the impact of the causal association between the Zika virus and the abnormalities seen in fetuses, a search that marked the scientific and press agenda at the time. By using the Social Studies of Science and Technology, which establishes the scientific fact as co-produced by science and society, we carried out 17 semi-structured interviews between scientists, managers, health professionals and families of the children in eight Brazilian cities. We observed that causality had a partial and dubious impact on the organization of services - with the overlap between surveillance and care initially generating asymmetries in the Brazilian Unified Health System. Between families and health professionals, there are demands for research on interventions and care, considered as not being prioritized among scientists. Among the researchers, we notice a gap between study and coping, with the social being constituted by demands that are not integrated into the scientific field. For future public health crises, we point to multiplying the number of research questions and study designs, so that social demands find flow in scientific doing.