The color of death in the COVID-19 pandemic: critical social epidemiology, intersectionality and necropolitics

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the morbimortality of COVID-19 in Brazil, according to race/color aspects, problematizing the concept of race as a structuring factor for equitable care in the pandemic. Exploratory and reflective research, with analysis of 43 epidemiological bulletins and 15 articles selected from a narrative literature review. We discuss elements concerning critical social epidemiology, intersectionality, and necropolitics, in the face of health inequities. The results indicate that in a society intersected by racism, sexism, and poverty, the risk, incidence, and mortality of the disease are socially unequal, given that the black, poor, and peripheral city population has higher epidemiological indices. A State with necropolitical technologies is revealed, with the pandemic being another modus to produce death. It concludes by evoking the insurgency of a complex epidemiology of COVID-19, combining health policies with social protection and economic development.

Keywords:
COVID-19; Health information system; Morbimortality; Social vulnerability; Racism