Mosquitoes, Precarity, and the Dismantling of the Healthcare System: The Making of Brazilian Science / Science in Brazil in the Search for Global Health Solutions

• In Event: Latin American Entanglements of Gender, Sexuality, Race, Ethnicity, Coloniality - I

Abstract

What are the conditions of doing science in Brazil? Who defines “Brazilian science”? This paper examines the field of medical entomology in Brazil, as both nationalistic imaginaries and austerity measures increasingly define the relationship between state and science. In 2016, the Aedes aegypti mosquito rose to international notoriety as the Zika virus vector; Brazil was marked as the epidemic’s epicenter. Within a diminishing budget for research, Brazilian scientists define mosquito-borne diseases as an opportunity to advance national science. Simultaneously, they frame these diseases as (potential) world problems, advocating for foreign investments into research developed in the country. But how do efforts to have a national stature or to establish international collaborations influence the still timid attempts to address elitism and whiteness within Brazilian science?

The paper zeroes in on efforts to release A. aegypti infected with Wolbachia bacterium in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, in the hopes of curtailing the mosquito’s ability to transmit viruses. Part of an international project, the strategy is conducted in Brazil by Fiocruz, a research institute linked to the Ministry of Health. The project also depends on the cities’ health agents, who during fieldwork had their salaries delayed and were on strike. Drawing on interviews with scientists and government employees, as well as ethnography with the Wolbachia team and with health agents, I ask how national deficiencies and capacities are mobilized in the making of “Brazilian science.” Who and what is made (in)visible in the efforts to do science and health in Brazil?

Author

• Luisa Reis Castro, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)