SHS (Humanities and Social Sciences) - Tester le coronavirus au Brésil : politiques de santé et capacité diagnostic dans un pays du Sud Testing coronavirus in Brazil: healthcare policy and diagnostic capacity in the South

This research project aims to investigate the different aspects (political, economic, industrial, historical and geographical) related to the implementation of SARS-COV-2 (covid-19) testing in Brazil. It addresses special attention to three aspects: creation of diagnostic capacity in the absence of a national political coordination; intellectual property management and diagnostic companies' business models in times of a pandemic; and regulation of both tests and patients' health data.It will employ a methodological approach that suits its dual concern of following real time response to coronavirus in Brazil to data collection that is adapted to a pandemic that requires restriction in circulation of populations. Our methods will be two-fold: document analysis and expert interviews. We will complement data with in presence techniques, in particular participation observation, interviews in person and visits to industrial sites and clinical facilities.These different research activities will provide a number of different outcomes that will enable a comprehension of the different aspects interfering with the implementation of testing technologies and infrastructure in Brazil. These outcomes will also have use for crafting public policies to improve the testing policies for coronavirus and other infectious diseases epidemics in the country. Moreover, these results will be available to non-professional actors serving to promote debate on this crucial issue and potentially engage new actors in the discussion of testing policies, such as patients groups and other civil society movements.