Abstract
The recurring expressions of Covid-19 negationism in Brazil are connected to the growth of the extreme right and produces a significant expansion of necropolitics. We realized a “crisis of interpretation” according to which “ignorance” is responsible for the spread of negationism. We sought to go beyond this interpretation, as we problematize the phenomenon in its complexity. Anchored in an absence of a shared world, negationism grows out of the “deficit in common practices”. However, it is necessary to differentiate the positions involved: there are those who deny seeking profit, from a desire for death and extermination, and those who enter into denial because of such a harsh reality of which they are victims. In view of this, education actions that have popular health education as a reference are important strategies to face this phenomenon, mobilizing the freirian notions of dialogue and conflict. These actions allow not to “deconstruct” health care, but “add reality” to them, bringing the importance of considering the living conditions of the popular classes. Finally, understanding the inseparable link between popular education and social movements, we present how favela movements have faced negationism in defense of life.
negationism; Covid-19 pandemic; popular health education; favela movements