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The Worst Is Not over Yet: The Lives and Deaths of the ‘Self’ and ‘Others’ in Brazil's Response to the COVID ‐19 Pandemic
Author(s) -
Hatzikidi Katerina
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
bulletin of latin american research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1470-9856
pISSN - 0261-3050
DOI - 10.1111/blar.13187
Subject(s) - contempt , pandemic , covid-19 , politics , reification (marxism) , political science , political economy , administration (probate law) , transition (genetics) , sociology , development economics , virology , law , medicine , economics , outbreak , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
This paper focuses on the politics of life and death in Bolsonaro's Brazil during the COVID‐19 pandemic. It is argued that while this administration, and the president himself, have long supported violence against individuals and social groups they did not see as fully human, their response to the pandemic marked a public transition from valuing certain kinds of lives as opposed to others, to a general contempt for human lives. The paper explores this transition by discussing the reification of the economy to the detriment of the people who produce and consume.