What motivates those who deny the pandemic? To understand Brazil´s Besieged citizanship

Abstract

The Brazilian population has been caught in the crossfire of drastic binary alternatives between social isolation and denialist mobilisation, generating growing anxiety as no solution to the pandemic is seen in the medium term. On the one hand, we see the "stay at home" campaign and social confinement, which seeks to prevent the accelerated spread of the coronavirus, inviting individuals to assume individual and collective responsibility for public health and following scientific and health recommendations. On the other hand, we see the "Brazil cannot stop" campaign, which preaches the resumption of "normality" in life and work, minimizing the risks of the pandemic and following the denialist guidelines of bolsonism.