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El objetivo de este trabajo es realizar una reflexión crítica sobre la idea de un mundo postpandemia, a partir de la deconstrucción de genealogías discursivas sobre la pandemia de la covid-19. Se utilizó como punto de partida la idea de Michel Foucault de historia del presente, en términos de la deconstrucción de los relatos que dan cuenta tanto lo novedoso, en esta caso de la pandemia de la covid-19, como de las inercias discursivas del pasado que perviven en el presente. Se deconstruyeron cinco genealogía discursivas sobre pandemia. En primer lugar, se abordó el problema de la propia definición de pandemia, a partir de la crisis de la gripe A, gripe porcina o H1N1. En segundo lugar, se reflexionó sobre el impacto que tuvo la gestión de la crisis del H1N1 en las representaciones y prácticas discursivas de la pandemia de covid-19. En tercer lugar, se discutieron los marcos interpretativos y epistemológicos del gobierno de las crisis pandémicas en las sociedades del Norte Global. Por su interés discursivo se analizaron, por una parte, la construcción discursiva del gobierno de las epidemias, considerando las ideas de confinamiento y vacunación y, por otra parte, el gobierno de las infraestructuras vitales, como origen de la utilización metáfora de la guerra para el gobierno de riesgos y amenazas. En cuarto lugar, se reflexionará sobre el discurso de la (in)seguridad y sus dificultades pragmáticas en el gobierno de este tipo de crisis. Se utilizará la idea de la disonancia pragmática para dar cuenta de los problemas del discurso de la seguridad. En quito lugar, se criticó el discurso de la salud global y sus implicaciones en esta crisis, tomando como referencia tres relatos o narrativas: el relato sobre la seguridad en salud global, el relato sobre el mercado de productos sensibles, como los equipos de protección personal (mascarillas) y el relato sobre la producción de vacunas. A partir de la deconstrucción de estas genealogías discursivas plantearemos, a manera de conclusión, la idea de la crónica de un fracaso global, en relación con el gobierno de la crisis de la covid-19, agravada por la irrupción de una nueva crisis, la guerra de Ucrania. Proponemos finalmente una reconstrucción del discurso virus-céntrico, a partir de la idea de una espacialidad territorial y simbólicamente constituida organizada, configurada y materializada por múltiples tecnologías de significación, vinculadas bajo la figura de una red de actores propuesta por Bruno Latour.
The objective of this paper is to carry out a critical reflection on the idea of a post-pandemic world, based on the deconstruction of discursive genealogies on the Covid-19 pandemic. First of all, attention is drawn to the fact that the countries of the Global North, apparently better prepared to face this crisis, have experienced a severe impact, particularly in the so-called first wave. This fact becomes even more relevant if we consider that the different indices that predicted a better capacity of these countries to face this type of crisis were initially distorted by the cases of Italy and Spain and, later, by other Global North countries such as the United States. To carry out these discursive genealogies, Michel Foucault’s idea of the history of the present was used as a starting point, in terms of the deconstruction of the stories that account for both the novelty, in this case of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the discursive inertias of the past that survive in the discourses on the representations and the government of this type of phenomena. Five discursive genealogies on the pandemic were deconstructed. In the first place, the problem of the definition of a pandemic was addressed, based on the crisis of influenza A, swine flu or H1N1 and the criticism made by the Council of Europe in 2010 of the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Secondly, we reflected on the impact that the management of the H1N1 crisis had on the representations and discursive practices of the Covid-19 pandemic. The dissonance between the low impact of this crisis and the high spending by the countries of the Global North marked the initial management of the Covid-19 crisis, particularly in terms of reducing the perception of insecurity and the overvaluation of capacities. It became evident how the story of the impact of the crisis in Italy and Spain deeply marked the representations that were initially held about this crisis. Third, the interpretive and epistemological frameworks of the governance of pandemic crises in societies of the Global North were discussed. Due to its discursive interest, we analyzed, on the one hand, the discursive construction of the government of epidemics, considering the ideas of confinement and vaccination and, on the other hand, the government of vital infrastructures, such as the origin of the use of the metaphor of war to the governance of risks and threats in these societies. Fourth, we reflected on the discourse of (in)security and its pragmatic difficulties in governing this type of crisis. The idea of pragmatic dissonance is used to account for the problems of the security discourse. In fifth place, the global health discourse and its implications in this crisis were criticized. The survival of colonial and neocolonial narratives in global health, the weakening of the WHO due to the incorporation of interests of private actors such as multilateral agencies, banks linked to development discourses, multinational corporations and philanthropic companies were highlighted. The relevance of the biotechnological and biomedical discourse was also evident, based on the idea of the magic bullet. The critique of the global health discourse had three stories or narratives as its central reference: the story about global health security, the story about the market for sensitive products, such as personal protective equipment (masks), and the story about the production of vaccines. The problematization of the discursive genealogies related to the Covid-19 crisis made it possible to highlight the great difficulties we currently have in building a discourse that gives intelligibility to this type of crisis, especially from a global perspective. This difficulty allowed us to propose, by way of conclusion, the idea of the chronicle of a global failure (everything that could go wrong finally did go wrong), in relation to the government of the Covid-19 crisis, from the idea of the infelicity of the speech act proposed by Austin. This chronicle has been aggravated by the emergence of a new crisis, the war in Ukraine. We also propose the irruption of a disaster capitalism whose discursive performativity in relation to the pandemic was felicity, which is to say they achieved what they wanted: to significantly increase their profits. Finally, we propose as an alternative a reconstruction of the virus-centric discourse, which has permeated the discourse of experts, proposing the idea of a discourse based on territorial spatiality and symbolically constituted, organized, configured and materialized by multiple technologies of meaning, linked under the figure of a network of actors proposed by Bruno Latour. The virus is one more actor in this human and non-human network. What the virus does is expose the power relationships (knowledge/power) that account for the way this network is configured. More than the virus, it is these power relations that account for the vulnerabilities we experience due to the Covid-19 crisis. Everything seems to indicate that the new discursive practices in relation to this type of crisis should point in this direction.
