{"id":59602,"date":"2020-05-19T14:32:31","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T17:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=59602"},"modified":"2020-05-21T11:40:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T14:40:32","slug":"covid-19-provides-12-pieces-of-evidence-of-necropolitics-at-play-in-rio-favelas-voicesfromsocialmedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=59602","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 Exposes 12 Proofs of Necropolitics at Play in Rio Favelas #VoicesFromSocialMedia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is our latest article on the <\/i>new coronavirus as it impacts Rio de Janeiro\u2019s favelas<\/a> and is also part of RioOnWatch\u2019s #VoicesFromSocialMedia<\/a>\u00a0series, which compiles perspectives posted on social media by favela residents and activists about events and societal themes that arise.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

The Covid-19 pandemic<\/a> has cast a bright light on Brazil’s social inequality. Covid-19 was, at first, spoken of as a disease caused by a “democratic” virus, given that, supposedly, it affects all people without discriminating by race, color, social class, age, or sex. RioOnWatch<\/em>‘s monitoring of favela voices on Twitter and Facebook between April 24 and May 8, however, has revealed a very different reality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Favela residents, raising their voices on social media using the hashtag #Covid19NasFavelas<\/a>, called attention to inequality in access to basic rights in Brazil, in cities like Rio de Janeiro, and how the coronavirus pandemic has further accelerated the state of exception in the favelas as a State policy of death. This holds true even as Brazil remains the only +100 million population country with a public universal health system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Based on the social media posts cited below, all from favela residents, we highlight twelve pieces of evidence of necropolitics<\/a> in relation to the increasing number of Covid-19 deaths in the favelas. These twelve truths show how necropolitics, reflected in policies whereby the state actively chooses who lives and who dies<\/a>, not only robs residents of their right to life through armed violence<\/a>, but kills and renders even more precarious the act of survival<\/a> in the favelas by denying full access to the right to health care even amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, on top of denying the minimum conditions for living a dignified life.<\/p>\n

1. No Hospital Beds or Ventilators: The Collapse of Public Health<\/h3>\n

Journalist and Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a> resident Daiene Mendes<\/a> used social media on April 24 to denounce a lack of hospital beds with ventilators, even for patients in the public health system’s (SUS) priority list (SISREG<\/a>). She asked for help and reported the collapse, all the while seeking care for her own grandmother. Mendes’ tweets are devastating.<\/p>\n

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Minha v\u00f3 ta precisando de um leito em hospital que tenha respirador! To correndo atr\u00e1s com todas as minhas for\u00e7as, se alguem nessa rede puder ajudar, eu agrade\u00e7o muito!
\nEla ta no sisreg como prioridade, mas n\u00e3o tem leito e respirador dispon\u00edvel. Algu\u00e9m pode ajudar?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Daiene (@Daienemendes) April 24, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n