COVID-19 in working-class neighborhoods of two Argentine cities

Abstract

This paper presents a synchronic analysis of the diseases during the emergence of COVID-19, the management and impact of the lockdown, and how the media narrated these events in working-class neighborhoods of the met-ropolitan areas of Buenos Aires and Gran Resis-tencia from March to November 2020. We resort-ed to quantitative methods on secondary sources to describe poverty and syndemics and conducted week-by-week ethnographic and media research on 38 neighborhoods with water shortages and critical overcrowding. As a result, COVID-19 syndemically emerged with dengue, measles, and tuberculosis, and the preventive measures exac-erbated institutional and gender violence, the Werther effect, and the neglect of other illnesses. Ethnography revealed syndemics with noncom-municable diseases and the influence of structural violence on health. The media analysis shows interest in the districts associated with the fear of contagion, but they disappear from the media agenda once dispelled.