The Right to Health and Paradoxes in Effectiveness of Fundamental Social Rights: Public Policies in COVID-19 Times

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in the markets of Wuhan province, China, daily denounces an unprecedented political, economic and social crisis in Brazil and the world. Therefore, this study presents an analysis of the political and ideological discourse —found in Brazilian newspapers— that surrounds the confrontation of this pandemic based on the assumption of defense of fundamental social rights through a legal and doctrinal positioning centered on the importance of public policies. Following these dictates, many questions arise that highlight the problem on the fact that public policies are (or are not) effective mechanisms for the protection and assurance of fundamental social rights, in the sense of establishing a balance between the recovery of the economy and the preservation of health and life. Thus, the proposed study constitutes a bibliographic review of printed Brazilian doctrines and newspapers from the perspective of the dialectical method. It was found that the politicization of the debates surrounding the implications of the pandemic, with regard to respect for life and the resumption of the economy, indicate a convergent position, since one must seek public policies to battle COVID-19, protecting social rights fundamentals, such as life, health and, equally, work and income.