Conferència “Disputed expertise and chaotic disinformation: Covid19 and denialistphysicians in Brasil”

Conferència "Disputed expertise and chaotic disinformation: Covid19 and denialistphysicians in Brasil" a càrrec de Kenneth Rochel de Camargo

In this presentation I will show how incorrect ideas about COVID-19 were promoted by physicians inBrazil, contributing to a catastrophic response at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives andexamine the implications of this episode for the social studies of science, technology and medicine.
The literature on the relationship between science and society takes two broad approaches, whichare sometimes at odds with each other: (i) there is a traditional critique of science that points tounsupported claims of certainty and thus undue interference in general human affairs; (ii) there aremany examples of attempts to undermine reasonable scientific claims, when they clash witheconomic and/or political interests of certain groups. Navigating those extremes is particularlycritical in situations in which accurate knowledge is necessary for intervening in people's lives, as isthe case in health-related issues. Determining who has actual epistemic expertise is a key factor insolving this conundrum. An instructive example of such developments was the chaotic response tothe pandemic challenge in Brazil, which saw, among other unfortunate situations, physicians alignedwith the denialist federal government advocating for unproven - or proven as ineffective -treatments and disseminating unfounded doubts about vaccines. Presumed expertise on the basisof professional training clearly did not translate into actual expertise in the necessary domains toascertain the validity of such claims and scientific advice was overridden by ideology.

*Conferència impartida en anglès

• Dia: dijous 30 de novembre
• Hora: 12h
• Lloc: Virtual via Teams en aquest enllaç

Activitat organitzada pel MARC - Medical Anthropology Research Center

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