Abstract
A fierce debate arose in Brazil on how to manage and mitigate the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic—a debate derived from a dissonant perception by society about the actual significance of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brazilian population has divided into two contrasting philosophical approaches: the universalism—understanding life as an asset of infinite value and, therefore, more important than the country’s economic preservation—and the utilitarianism—where the focus is on the mitigation of the COVID 19 pandemic-enabled economic crisis, due to its potential devastating effect on people’s lives, thereby leaving health issues in the background. The main cause for these different sensemakings is associated with the lack of a monosemic definition for the “COVID-19 pandemic” construct. Thus, the objective of this article is to investigate the social representation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil through the Social Representation Theory operationalized by the word’s evocation technique. The results show that Brazilian society privileged prophylaxis and health, via social isolation, to the detriment of the country’s economic preservation. In addition, trends emphasized by experts, such as a post-pandemic “new-normal” and the digital transformation of society, played a peripheral role in the social representation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.
Highlights
The evolution of a pandemic is one of the most dangerous and complex problems for society, and its management and mitigation by governments are challenging [1,2]
The aim of this paper is to analyze the perception of the Brazilian population about the real significance of the COVID-19 pandemic, since in Brazil, society, media, medical associations, and municipal, state and federal governments have been divided between two contrasting philosophical approaches: utilitarianism and universalism [4,5]
To improve the understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic phenomenon, this study aims to identify how Brazilian citizens perceive the same by using the Social Representation Theory [13] as this is an efficient approach to better understand constructs [14,15]
Summary
The evolution of a pandemic is one of the most dangerous and complex problems for society, and its management and mitigation by governments are challenging [1,2]. On 7 January 2020, Chinese scientists isolated a new virus—severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)—from patients with symptoms of this disease. This virus was named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in February 2020, by the World Health Organization (WHO), which decreed, on 11 March 2020, COVID-19 as a pandemic to be confronted by humanity. The aim of this paper is to analyze the perception of the Brazilian population about the real significance of the COVID-19 pandemic, since in Brazil, society, media, medical associations, and municipal, state and federal governments have been divided between two contrasting philosophical approaches: utilitarianism and universalism [4,5]. The universalist philosophical approach argues that human life is priceless and a full social isolation (with the exception of absolutely essential activities)
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