For Science, against scientists? Science denial and the disputes over health policies during the pandemic

Abstract

The politics of Covid-19’s pandemic control in Brazil has been engulfed in disputes, with local authorities disagreeing about alternatives of health treatment and the effects of social distancing strategies. Recent analyses have characterized such disputes as Bolsonaro’s “ideological battle” against “rational arguments” of specialists and the WHO. Also, critics have described Bolsonaro as a representative of “scientific populism” who produces fake news to support his anti-science politics. In this article, we engage with the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) to observe the multiple uses of science during the pandemic. We argue that Bolsonaro does not deny scientific statements in toto but seeks to legitimize his government’s health politics based upon public controversies about science. Bolsonaro explores the interstices of the making of scientific facts to question WHO’s credibility and to accuse his adversaries of politicizing scientific research during the pandemic. Thus, Bolsonaro sustains a transcendental image of science, which reifies the modern separation between science knowledge and culture, to criticize the ideological contamination of certain institutions. This posture reveals the epistemic dispute intrinsic to contemporary debates on post-truth, which postulates that ideology, esoterism, and anti-reason are always attributes of others.