Społeczny wymiar pandemii. Biopolityka i medykalizacja w czasach COVID-19
The social dimension of the pandemic. Biopolitics and medicalisation in the era of COVID-19

Summary/Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how social responses are influenced not by objective data but by people’s subjective beliefs. The author draws on social constructionism to analyse how biopower and medicalisation influenced social behaviour during the COVID-19 crisis. In the management of social reactions, the information policy of governments, consistency in the discourses of experts and biopower, and consistency in explaining the political actions became key factors. The trend towards the medicalisation of societies had many dimensions, including the creation of policies based on expert power-knowledge, the application of epidemic restrictions, the recommendation of vaccinations, etc. However, this approach has met with social resistance due to a sense of frustration, social inequalities, lack of trust in elites, misunderstanding of medical discourses by ordinary citizens and a growing trend towards de-medicalisation resulting from, among other factors, anti-vaccination initiatives. This article provides an analysis of the problems and conflicts arising from the ways in which COVID-19 is defined and constructed by different social groups.

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