Medicine as a Belief: thoughts about the Relationship between Science and Faith in Pandemics

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a complete change in the forms of social interaction and behavior, as containing the virus became a global priority. The State, together with medicine, began to determine the health protocols followed by the community. Based on the philosopher Giorgio Agamben's question about the ease with which a society allowed itself to consider itself infected and understanding how a period of calamity triggers the fragility of scientific rationality in the face of the demand for a cure, this article aimed to analyze whether medicine has responded to the mystical demands requested of it, or even if it has forged mystifying demands that reinforce its place of social power. To this end, notes and documents and positions from political figures and Brazilian medical institutions will be put on the agenda here as a showcase that allows the analysis of the presence of the mystical character in the discourse of medicine. Here is an opportunity to consider the consequences arising from the lack of questioning about the scientificity of medical institutions and their influence on contemporary society. Exploration encompasses not only knowledge-based functioning but also highlights the influence of faith. Therefore, it is an invitation to reflect on how medical practice invites us to believe in science.