Interfaces and “silver bullets”: Technologies and policies

Abstract

This paper discusses the understanding of complex health events, such as the pandemics involving SARS-CoV-2. It supports that simplifying the issue to the point of considering it just a consequence of contact between a pathogen and a susceptible human being overly weakens the effectiveness of the mitigation strategies. It sustains the need to emphasize the interfaces underpinning the construction of the pandemic complexity and considers them as central elements in its coping. It understands these interfaces as structuring elements of the process and relativizes the simplification strategies expressed in “silver bullets” – usually an industrial health product. Finally, it circumscribes this viewpoint by examining the interface between industrial health technologies and political variables that modulate people’s access to them.