‘This is just a little flu’: analysing medical populist discourses on the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of medical populism to examine how Brazil has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. Recognising the centrality of discourses in framing health policy, we employ Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to identify and analyse (1) what were the main discursive frames that characterised medical populism in Brazil’s Covid-19 crisis? and (2) how were these frames constructed, legitimated and reproduced in discursive meanings, structures and schemes of argumentation? Our study is an effort to inform the literature about medical populism and, more broadly, public health policymaking, administration and governance of health crises. Specifically, we seek to uncover the underlying discursive features of medical populism and expose how they frame public health policy. Our case study shows ample evidence that the main discursive frames underpinning medical populism during the Covid-19 crisis in Brazil reflected the most widely agreed attributes of populism as a strategic political discourse, notably an antagonistic depiction of the health problem, overpoliticisation and moral interpretation of political actors. However, our findings challenge some theoretical assumptions of extant conceptualisations of medical populism, thus providing greater insights into the concept of medical populism by demonstrating how this type of political discourse may incorporate different discursive meanings, structures and schemes of argumentation into its populist repertoire. This can help us anticipate patterns of action and narratives for preparing responses to future public health emergencies in an era of increasing post-truth politics, as populist discourses seem likely to influence public policy and governance for some time.