SARS-CoV-2 in Latin America and the Caribbean: The three intersections for critical thinking in health

• Published in: Ciência & saude coletiva 2020-09, Vol.25 (9), p.3557
• Main Author: Basile, Gonzalo
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Subjects: Capitalism; Caribbean Region - epidemiology; Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology; COVID-19; Family Characteristics; Global Health; Health Status Disparities; Humans; Latin America - epidemiology; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology; Public Health; Thinking
• ISSN: 1678-4561
• DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232020259.20952020

Thinking about the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic implies the study of general and unique dimensions for the historical evolution of Latin America and the Caribbean. From the individual to the collective, from biomedical sciences to social sciences and collective health, from risk groups to exclusive societies and the inequities constituting the colonial, patriarchal, modern capitalist heritage in the State and societies. The objective of this article is to review what are called the three intersections for Latin American critical health thinking. Seeking to analyze and reflect on the assumptions and logic present in the responses to the health emergency with reference to: 1. Critical health theory and its intersections with Latin American critical thinking; 2. The decolonial implications of problematizing the State and public health systems; and 3. The geopolitics of global health security as a roadmap for the global North. They outline approaches on the risks of capitalism's acceleration of the post-pandemic disaster and the alternative ways of addressing creative tensions in the reconstruction of emancipatory processes for regional health sovereignty and Health from the South.