The elixir of cure under suspicion: A dis of fake news about chloroquine checke

Abstract

This article attempts to analyze fake news about the use of chloroquine to combat Covid-19, aiming to describe the functioning of discursive strategies and the games of truths that are triggered in the constitution of these materialities. To that end, we have as corpus three fake news about the forenamed medicine, which were checked by Agência Lupa. The analysis tools come from Michel Foucault's “archeogenealogical” method, that culminated in the formation of the Foucauldian discursive studies, in which this work is inscribed. Methodologically, the proposed research is of the qualitative type, of an interpretative-descriptive nature. The discursive strategies employed on the fake news operate games of truths that try to build a favorable position for the use of chloroquine as an appropriate medication for the treatment of Covid-19, resorting to attacks to politicians, legal institutions and science. Therefore, false truths are printed, with the sole purpose of serving ideological and strictly personal interests, without any attention or care for the population's health.