Abstract
Abstract This paper uses the lens of medical populism to analyze the impact of biocommunicability on COVID-19 testing through a case study approach. The political efficacy of testing is traced through two mini-case studies: the Philippines and the United States. The case studies follow the approach of populism scholars in drawing from various sources that ‘render the populist style visible’ from the tweets and press releases of government officials to media reportage. Using the framework of medical populism, the case studies pay attention to the ways in which coronavirus testing figured in (1) simplification of the pandemic; (2) spectacularization of the crisis; (3) forging of divisions; and (4) invocation of knowledge claims. Identifying and critically analyzing how knowledge is generated is an essential step to recognizing the impact that political styles have on the COVID pandemic. The political actors in each case study have shaped knowledge of the epidemic, in the way they construct the idea of ‘testing’, and in how they mobilize testing as an ‘evidence-making practice’. Their actions shaped how the pandemic—as well as their responses—is measured. This framework contributes to public policy debates by providing evidence of the impact of medical populism on pandemic response efforts.
Highlights
As the COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the world, we have seen drastic differences in responses to this unprecedented health crisis along political lines
Given the central role of information in the pandemic, this paper uses the lens of medical populism to analyze the impact of biocommunicability—that is, the production, circulation, contestation, and materialization of medical knowledge—on COVID-19 testing through a case study approach
Though the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the potential global pandemic on January 30th and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that ‘It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen” (CDC, 2020), the country was still underprepared for testing
Summary
As the COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the world, we have seen drastic differences in responses to this unprecedented health crisis along political lines. In the United States, the simplification of the crisis through a denialism of its severity slowed the government’s ability to ramp up testing, likewise raising critiques of a failed response—and demands for scaled up testing as key to controlling to the pandemic. Both case studies show that the efficacy of coronavirus testing lies. Analyzing the public policy-making process using the medical populism biocommunicability concepts, this paper illustrates the impacts of individual political actors on effective response efforts during a pandemic
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