Emerging complexities and rising omission: Contrasts among socio-ecological contexts of infectious diseases, research and policy in Brazil.

Leandro Luiz Giatti,Alessandra Ferreira Dales Nava,Jutta Gutberlet,Ricardo Agum Ribeiro

doi:10.1590/1678-4685-gmb-2020-0229

Abstract

In this article, we explore elements that highlight the interdependent nature of demands for knowledge production and decision-making related to the appearance of emerging diseases. To this end, we refer to scientific production and current contextual evidence to verify situations mainly related to the Brazilian Amazon, which suffers systematic disturbances and is characterized as a possible source of pathogenic microorganisms. With the acceleration of the Anthropocene's environmental changes, socio-ecological instabilities and the possibility of the emergence of infectious diseases merge into a background of a ´twin insurgency´. Furthermore, there is a tendency to impose economic hegemony in the current Brazilian context, corroborating discourses and pressures to a scientific simplification and denial. With this, we assert that developmental sectoral actions and monoculture of knowledge characterize an agenda of omission, that is, a process of decision making that indirectly reinforces ecological degradation and carelessness in the face of the possibility of the emergence and spreading of new diseases, such as COVID-19. Tackling the socio-ecological complexity inherent in the risk of the emergence of infectious diseases requires robust co-construction of scientific knowledge, eco-social approaches, and corresponding governance and sophisticated decision-making arrangements.

Highlights

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic brutally interferes with all segments and dynamics of human activities in the critical current context
It is imperative to consider the Amazon and other Brazilian biomes, which are suffering an intensification of impacts due to deforestation, forest fires, mining, extensive single-crop agriculture, cattle raising, biodiversity loss, changing of human ecological interactions, and hunting for bushmeat consumption; since the related ecosystems are biologically diverse and possibly reservoirs of innumerable pathogens at risk of spilling over to human populations (Daszak et al, 2001; Patz et al, 2004; Wolfe et al, 2005; van Vliet et al, 2014; Nava et al, 2017; Cyranoski, 2020; Ellwanger et al, 2020)
We focus on Brazilian contexts such as those inherent to the Amazon region

Summary

Introduction

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic brutally interferes with all segments and dynamics of human activities in the critical current context. Faced with this high complexity, we emphasize the need to explore and discuss two relevant axes of problematization in relation to the Brazilian context, which inevitably interact globally regarding vulnerability in the face of any emerging disease as impactful as COVID-19.

Results

Conclusion