In Dec. 2020, the arrival of the Pfizer vaccine and the first administrations in the UK have sparked parallels with HIV/AIDS and disinformation has led people to confabulate conspiracy theories on why in 30 years there has been no vaccine for HIV and in a year, one is ready for Covid-19. While the scientific community explains why it is incorrect to propose a parallelism between the two viruses on this point, perhaps the two pandemics can enter into dialogue on other aspects: this is rightly the purpose of ABIA’s dossier “HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 in Brazil”.
Despite their differences, the accumulated experience that Brazil has in addressing HIV/AIDS at a medical, social, economic and political level, can be of great use for coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. Eight interventions from ABIA’s team and external guests are gathered in this publication to provide food for thought to organized civil society, the most affected populations, and health managers and professionals.
With a final section dedicated to ABIA’s position on the Brazilian response to Covid-19, the publication goes beyond the academical purpose and entirely becomes a political denunciation towards the Brazilian government in the face of the disastrous decisions taken for dealing with the pandemic. Following is a brief summary of the parallelisms that each intervention builds around HIV/AIDS and COVID-19:
- Richard Parker and how testing and treating can become dangerous instruments if they are not supported by a human rights-based narrative and community spirit.
- Jane Galvao and the defense of individual and collective rights through community involvement and infranational and international solidarity.
- Veriano Terto Jr and Jorge Beloqui and the dawn of multilateralism and civil society inclusion in the politics of the Covid-19 vaccine.
- Richard Parker, Veriano Terto Jr, Juan Carlos Raxach, Vagner de Almeida and Angélica Basthi on how Covid-19 is affecting the response to HIV/AIDS from access to treatment to civil society political governance.
- Angélica Basthi on structural racism and its brutal practices and how it has been observed on a big scale in the Covid-19-related crisis.
- Juan Carlos Raxach on the comeback of stigmatizing concepts such as risk groups and how they hamper a human rights based confrontation of the pandemic.
- Jean Pierry Oliveira and the impact of the pandemic on the lives of young people from communities and peripheries (interview).
- Pedro Villardi and Felipe Fonseca and the effort of civil society for universal access to testing, vaccines, and a possible cure of COVID-19.
- ABIA‘s position on the Brazilian response to Covid-19 and how the omission of data from the current pandemic reissues the slogan “Silence=Death”.
Read the abstract (English)
Read ABIA´s Dossier (Portuguese)
