Archiving the Pandemic

CES (com)vida 2020

As tentativas de explicar o caos: a ciência, a política e a pandemia da COVID-19

Kenneth Rochel de Camargo Junior

Cadernos de Saúde Pública

Overview

In the light of Paula Treichler’s proposal of HIV/AIDS pandemic as an “epidemic of meaning” and from the sociology of specialised knowledge (expertise) of Harry Collins, the author proposes a discussion of the proliferation of comments and ways of interpretation about the current pandemic, with particular attention to the problems of the production of scientific knowledge, its circulation and public appropriation and the relationship between science and politics. Controversial, certainly, both in the analysis and in the answers it proposes, this article suggests steps towards a possible work agenda in the social studies of science, technology and health on the place, relevance and limitations of science in conditions of uncertainty and emergency.