“PHARMACEUTICALS AND COVID- 19 PANDEMIC IN BRAZIL: ETHNO- GRAPHIC NOTES ON THE POLITICS OF ‘EARLY TREATMENT’”

During the years 2020 to 2022, the government led by Jair Bolsonaro defended a national policy to face Covid-19 characterized by three main elements: the idea that the expanded contagion by the coronavirus would promote a “natural im- munization” of the population; the spread questioning of the efficacy and safety of vaccines; and the promotions and distribution of different drugs for the “early treatment” (AE) of Covid-19 as a central public health strategy. This last aspect was based on a strong relationship with the field of medicine, in which several groups and associations were organized to promote AE and defend it against criticism from various scientific institutions. Based on an approach from anthropology of pharmaceuticals and STS, I discuss some notes from an ongoing ethnographic research on a set of strategies, techniques and values that characterized the defense and promotion o EA drugs, having as main focus: a) the composition of a political lexicon marked by hostile relations with sec- tors identified as “communist”, “globalist” or “mainstream”, b) the characteriza- tion of the functioning of the pharmaceuticals through the articulation of mi- crobiological and molecular aspects and clinical intervention; c) the defense of individual, professional and market freedoms. I argue that AE allows charac- terizing the production of specific argumentative strategies on the part defend- ers of these drugs and to track the strengthening of the alliance between sec- tors of Brazilian medicine and conservative governmental leaderships.