[Pandemia, ignorancia y sufrimiento evitable.] / Pandemic, ignorance and avoidable suffering.

COVID-19 pandemics gave us relevant lessons that are going to leave a durable mark in our individual and collective experience. Those lessons are both practical and endowed with a moral import. But the pandemic has left a trail of experiences poorly elaborated that leads, with some urgency, to forced silence and to the cancellation of emotional trauma. The aim of this paper was to disentangle the complex relationship that arises, under conditions of uncertainty, between knowledge and ignorance, both from the perspective of experts and of policy makers, and even of the ordinary people, struck or not by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. To that end, I distinguish between three different levels of analysis (agency, institutions, and ideological frameworks) so to argue that the mismatches that occur in all of them, and between them, are sources of avoidable harm. The purpose of this exploration was, therefore, to bring to the floor, relying on the conceptual tools of the political epistemology, both the aspects of the traumatic experience that still lack an adequate elaboration and the features that provide an improved resilience for individuals and societies in tackling with the frightful consequences of the pandemic.

La pandemia de la COVID-19 ha dejado lecciones relevantes que van a marcar, durante años, nuestra experiencia individual y colectiva. Son lecciones tanto prácticas como de orden moral. Pero la pandemia ha dejado también un rastro de experiencias pobremente elaboradas que conducen, con cierta premura, al silencio forzado y a la cancelación del trauma. El propósito de este trabajo fue mostrar la compleja relación que, en condiciones de incertidumbre, se establece entre conocimiento e ignorancia, tanto en la perspectiva de los expertos, como en la de los políticos e incluso de los ciudadanos corrientes, víctimas o no del virus SARS-CoV-2. Para ello se distingue entre tres diferentes niveles de análisis (de la agencia, de las instituciones y de los marcos ideológicos subyacentes) y se argumenta que los desajustes que se producen en cada uno de estos niveles, y entre ellos, son fuente de sufrimiento evitable. El propósito del trabajo fue, por tanto, sacar a flote, con los instrumentos conceptuales de la epistemología política, tanto los principales perfiles que siguen sin ser adecuadamente elaborados en esta experiencia traumática como los factores que hacen posible una mayor resiliencia, para los individuos y las sociedades, a la hora afrontar las consecuencias dramáticas de la pandemia.

Pandemia, ignorancia y sufrimiento evitable / Pandemic, ignorance and avoidable suffering

La pandemia de la COVID-19 ha dejado lecciones relevantes que van a marcar, durante años, nuestra experiencia individual y colectiva.Son lecciones tanto prácticas como de orden moral. Pero la pandemia ha dejado también un rastro de experiencias pobremente ela-boradas que conducen, con cierta premura, al silencio forzado y a la cancelación del trauma. El propósito de este trabajo fue mostrarla compleja relación que, en condiciones de incertidumbre, se establece entre conocimiento e ignorancia, tanto en la perspectivade los expertos, como en la de los políticos e incluso de los ciudadanos corrientes, víctimas o no del virus SARS-CoV-2. Para ello sedistingue entre tres diferentes niveles de análisis (de la agencia, de las instituciones y de los marcos ideológicos subyacentes) y seargumenta que los desajustes que se producen en cada uno de estos niveles, y entre ellos, son fuente de sufrimiento evitable. Elpropósito del trabajo fue, por tanto, sacar a flote, con los instrumentos conceptuales de la epistemología política, tanto los principalesperfiles que siguen sin ser adecuadamente elaborados en esta experiencia traumática como los factores que hacen posible unamayor resiliencia, para los individuos y las sociedades, a la hora afrontar las consecuencias dramáticas de la pandemia.(AU)

COVID-19 pandemics gave us relevant lessons that are going to leave a durable mark in our individual and collective experience. Thoselessons are both practical and endowed with a moral import. But the pandemic has left a trail of experiences poorly elaborated thatleads, with some urgency, to forced silence and to the cancellation of emotional trauma. The aim of this paper was to disentanglethe complex relationship that arises, under conditions of uncertainty, between knowledge and ignorance, both from the perspectiveof experts and of policy makers, and even of the ordinary people, struck or not by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. To that end, I distinguishbetween three different levels of analysis (agency, institutions, and ideological frameworks) so to argue that the mismatches thatoccur in all of them, and between them, are sources of avoidable harm. The purpose of this exploration was, therefore, to bring tothe floor, relying on the conceptual tools of the political epistemology, both the aspects of the traumatic experience that still lack anadequate elaboration and the features that provide an improved resilience for individuals and societies in tackling with the frightfulconsequences of the pandemic.(AU)

Un plaguicida en el franquismo: comunicación de riesgos tóxicos en España, 1945-1975 / A pesticide in Franco's regime: communicating toxic risks in Spain, 1945-1975

Resumen En este trabajo se analizan las representaciones de los riesgos tóxicos del hexaclorociclohexano, un ingrediente activo de plaguicidas de uso común en los campos españoles durante el franquismo. Se hace énfasis en las prácticas que visibilizaron e invisibilizaron dichos riesgos en España entre 1945 y 1975, buscando establecer los actores que las fomentaron y los medios que emplearon. Desde la perspectiva de la agnotología, se analizan los procesos de creación de ignorancia e incertidumbre relacionadas con este compuesto. Asimismo, se examinan las estrategias retóricas utilizadas para abordarlos. Para ello se utilizan tres fuentes primarias principales: la revista de agronomía dirigida a expertos Boletín de patología vegetal y entomología agrícola, la revista dirigida a agricultores Agricultura y el periódico ABC.

Abstract This work analyzes the representations of the toxic risks of hexachlorocyclohexane, an active ingredient of many pesticides commonly used in Spanish fields during Franco's regime. Emphasis is placed on the practices that visibilized and invisibilized these risks, seeking to establish the actors that promoted them and the mechanisms they used. From the perspective of agnotology, I analyze the generation of ignorance and uncertainty related to this compound. Likewise, I examine the most prevalent rhetorical strategies used in print sources. To do so, I consulted three main primary sources: Boletín de patología vegetal y entomología agrícola, an agronomy journal for experts; Agricultura, a magazine for farmers, and ABC, a newspaper.

Wilful Blindness: Sleeping Sickness and Onchocerciasis in Colonial Northern Ghana, 1909-1957.

As a contribution to the existing literature on deliberate or unintended neglect, concealment and ignorance regarding significant and enduring public health problems-produced by economic marginality, lack of political power and institutional failures affecting specific places and groups-this article discusses the history of epidemic sleeping sickness and endemic onchocerciasis in colonial northern Ghana from 1909 to 1957. Despite accumulating evidence of their serious impacts on the health of northern communities, and calls to action on the part of some health officials, both diseases were only officially recognised as significant risks when it was no longer politically possible to deny them. The particular histories of each disease, in the same region over the same decades, reveal two comparable and interrelated trajectories of neglect.

When do non-epistemic values play an epistemically illegitimate role in science? How to solve one half of the new demarcation problem.

Solving the "new demarcation problem" requires a distinction between epistemically legitimate and illegitimate roles for non-epistemic values in science. This paper addresses one 'half' (i.e. a sub-problem) of the new demarcation problem articulated by the Gretchenfrage: What makes the role of a non-epistemic value in science epistemically illegitimate? I will argue for the Explaining Epistemic Errors (EEE) account, according to which the epistemically illegitimate role of a non-epistemic value is defined via an explanatory claim: the fact that an epistemic agent is motivated by a non-epistemic value explains why the epistemic agent commits a particular epistemic error. The EEE account is inspired by Douglas' and Steel's "functionalist" or "epistemic constraint" accounts of epistemic illegitimacy. I will suggest that the EEE account is able to meet two challenges that these two accounts face, while preserving the key intuition underlying both accounts. If my arguments succeed, then the EEE account provides a solution to one half of the new demarcation problem (by providing a definition of what makes the role of a non-epistemic value epistemically illegitimate) and it opens up new ways for addressing the other half (i.e. characterizing an epistemically legitimate role for non-epistemic values).

Like mother, like daughter, like granddaughter Transgenerational ignorance engendered by a defective reproductive health technology.

From 1941, the synthetic oestrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES) was administered to millions of women around the world to prevent miscarriages. In 1971, a clear and direct link was shown between taking DES during pregnancy and its subsequent long-term morbid effects on offspring. In the last 50 years, the list of side effects of in-utero exposure to DES has grown to include cancer, infertility, significant prematurity and urogenital malformation, amongst others. Based on qualitative sociological research conducted between 2010 and 2013, compiling archives, judicial documents and 108 interviews, this article illustrates a continuous production of ignorance in France. By focusing on DES as a reproductive health technology, three aspects are stressed. First, in terms of recognition of adverse effects, despite DES being identified as a prototype for other technologies such as the contraceptive pill or hormone replacement therapy, there remained a strong reluctance to import knowledge from the USA on its dangers and risks. Second, there was indifference to transgenerational side effects: even when the most visible effects of DES were finally acknowledged, there was a lack of consideration of the health of descendants; an inability to deem the knowledge of these repercussions as emancipatory or potentially empowering for the offspring. Third, regarding the health care of DES daughters, an important propensity to undone science is highlighted, with notable indifference to the risks of hormonalization of the female body, even on the part of activists. Thus, decades after it was last given to pregnant women, the shadow of DES still lingers as a failed reproductive health technology.

Anilinas vs. organofosforados: la implicación de la empresa Bayer en las polémicas en torno al Síndrome del Aceite Tóxico / Anilines vs. organophosphates: the involvement of the Bayer company in the controversies surrounding the Toxic Oil Syndrome

La aparición de la intoxicación alimentaria en España en el año 1981, causante del Síndrome del Aceite Tóxico, unido a la imposibilidad de encontrar la toxina responsable de la enfermedad, potenció la posibilidad de señalar otros agentes causales, en particular un pesticida organofosforado de la casa Bayer, Nemacur. Se desarrolló así una línea alternativa a la decisión oficial, liderada por los médicos Antonio Muro y Luís Frontela, particularmente defendida, en España, por la empresa editorial Grupo 16. La polémica traspasó las fronteras españolas y se difundió a través de los medios de comunicación alemanes; los miembros del grupo político Los Verdes/Die Grünen tuvieron especial interés en servir de amplificador a estas suposiciones. La llegada de esta ola de acusaciones a Alemania, a principios de febrero de 1985, fue el detonante que alarmó a la empresa Bayer y le obligó a dar explicaciones para evitar poner en peligro la imagen corporativa de la multinacional química de Leverkusen. La documentación conservada en los archivos de la empresa alemana aporta nueva luz sobre esta polémica (AU)

COVID-19 Denialism, Vaccine Scepticism and the Regulation of Health Practitioners.

During a pandemic such as COVID-19 fear, anxiety and paranoia can become prevalent within the community. Agnotology has taught us that in such times science denialism and vaccination scepticism can gain a foothold and discourage the undiscerning and the uninformed from receiving the treatment and prophylactic public health measures that are essential to community health and safety. When health practitioners endorse such attitudes they pose a serious risk to not only their patients but the whole community. This requires a robust response from health practitioner regulators, disciplinary tribunals and courts. This column identifies such a sensible and proportionate response from the Irish High Court in Medical Council v Waters [2021] IEHC 252 when a general practitioner's registration to practise was suspended for promoting such views. The decision, along with a comparable decision by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2020 constitute potent international examples of a robust and commonsense regulatory endorsement of science during a time of public health crisis.

Wild Laboratories of Climate Change: Plants, Phenology, and Global Warming, 1955-1980.

Phenologists track the seasonal behavior of plants and animals in response to climatic change. During the second half of the twentieth century, phenologists developed a large-scale project to monitor the flowering time of the common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) across the United States. By the 1960s, this approach offered a potential plant-based indicator of anthropogenic climate change, a biological signal amidst the emerging narrative of increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. As a tangible representation of changes in climate-warmer temperatures lead to earlier blooming-phenology proved highly legible to scientists, politicians, and laypeople. Yet, as phenology gained broader repute in the 1960s, both in agricultural stations and as a component program of the International Biological Program (IBP), it struggled to align itself epistemically with the regnant disciplinary assumptions of mid-century ecology. Operating in the hinterlands between laboratory and field, biology and meteorology, ecological theory and agronomy practice, phenologists challenged prevailing notions of the model organism and what it meant to study biology in the field. Rebranding the discipline as a component of ecosystem modeling, scientists successfully brought phenology within the purview of mainstream ecology. In so doing, however, they obscured its climate-relevant meteorological character and stymied the development of a biological narrative of climate change.

Six hours to study: temporality and ignorance in medical education.

Individual scientists, clinicians, and other experts cannot have absolute knowledge of all of the theories, methods, models, and findings in their field of practice. Rather, these individuals make choices about the kind of information that will be most meaningful and impactful in their work, while choosing - or being compelled to choose - what knowledge to overlook or ignore: a process identified as sufficient knowledge. In biomedicine, medical students are socialized to deliberately decide what information matters most; so, too, do practicing physicians openly acknowledge that they make choices around knowledge in daily practice. Within this process, time is a critical factor that mediates epistemological decision-making. In other words, how does time bound or restrict what forms and depth of medical knowledge that physicians and future physicians prioritize? When would someone intentionally limit time in order to constrain the amount and types of information he, she, or they acquire? To answer these questions, this study draws upon interviews and participant observation conducted with students at a medical school in the American Midwest. This article seeks to answer the aforementioned questions and to provide a new framework for, and expand discussions of, agnotology in the anthropology of medicine.

Self-Illusion and Medical Expertise in the Era of COVID-19.

The Dunning-Kruger premise assumes that unqualified people are unaware of their limited skills. We tested this hypothesis in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this cross-sectional study, 2487 participants had to self-estimate their knowledge about COVID-19 in a questionnaire on the topic. Poor performers were more likely to use mass media and social networks as sources of information and had lower levels of education. The mean self-assessment (SD) was 6.88 (2.06) and was not linked to actual level of knowledge. This observation should prompt regulatory agencies and media to apply rules that limit dissemination of "infodemics" during global health crises.

For the Greater Good? The Devastating Ripple Effects of the Covid-19 Crisis.

As the crisis around Covid-19 evolves, it becomes clear that there are numerous negative side-effects of the lockdown strategies implemented by many countries. Currently, more evidence becomes available that the lockdowns may have more negative effects than positive effects. For instance, many measures taken in a lockdown aimed at protecting human life may compromise the immune system, and purpose in life, especially of vulnerable groups. This leads to the paradoxical situation of compromising the immune system and physical and mental health of many people, including the ones we aim to protect. Also, it is expected that hundreds of millions of people will die from hunger and postponed medical treatments. Other side effects include financial insecurity of billions of people, physical and mental health problems, and increased inequalities. The economic and health repercussions of the crisis will be falling disproportionately on young workers, low-income families and women, and thus exacerbate existing inequalities. As the virus outbreak and media coverage spread fear and anxiety, superstition, cognitive dissonance reduction and conspiracy theories are ways to find meaning and reduce anxiety. These behavioral aspects may play a role in the continuance of lockdown decisions. Based on theories regarding agnotology (i.e., the ways ignorance or doubt about certain topics is created by means of withholding or presenting information in a certain way), social influence, superstition and stress and coping, I seek to explain the social and behavioral aspects of human behavior in times of crises. Both the Covid-19 crisis itself as well as the resulting economic and (mental) health crisis are global problems that may require global solutions. I present a model of drivers and outcomes of lockdown behaviors and offer suggestions and a tool to counteract the negative psychological effects by means of online life crafting therapeutic writing interventions.

Yields and Rabbit Holes: Medical Students' Typologies of Sufficient Knowledge.

Given the vastness of bioscientific knowledge and regular changes in evidence and protocol, how do individual clinicians make decisions about what to know and what to ignore? In this article I identify a process termed "sufficient knowledge:" the prioritizing of medical knowledge perceived as most important, while ignoring information that is not deemed essential or applicable. Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork at an allopathic medical school in the American Midwest, I describe three typologies of sufficient knowledge that medical students devised to distinguish what to know and what to ignore or deemphasize: high yield knowledge, low yield knowledge and "rabbit holes." I aim here to contribute to a growing topical and theoretical discussion of ignorance by social scientists, especially to generate a more balanced picture of physician training and practice beyond depictions of knowledge and expertise.

Charlatan epistemology: As illustrated by a study of wonder-working in the late seventeenth-century Dutch Republic.

This article highlights the epistemic concerns that have permeated the historical discourse around charlatanism. In it, I study the term "charlatan" as a multivalent actor's category without a stable referent. Instead of defining or identifying "the charlatan," I analyze how the concept of the charlatan was used to make epistemic interventions about what constituted credible knowledge in two interconnected controversies. Focusing on these controversies allows me to thematize how the concept of "the charlatan" expanded beyond medical contexts and to bring a history of knowledge perspective to the history of medicine.The title of the article, "Charlatan Epistemology," indicates a historical epistemological approach to charlatanism as well as the existence of a charlatan's embodied epistemology. On the one hand, I historicize the epistemic characteristics of charlatanism, focusing on virtues as well as vices, knowledge as well as ignorance, by addressing the historical and contextual specificities of two case studies and the larger epistemic concerns at play. On the other hand, I show how references to charlatanism implied the existence of specific embodied knowledges, special skills and techniques to manipulate either natural secrets or the human psyche, and I explore the similarities and differences between charlatan epistemology and artisanal epistemology.

Nuclear science and technology in the Malaysian context: Three phases of technoscientific knowledge transfer (ETTLG).

This essay considers the development of the nuclear science programme in Malaysia from a transnational perspective by examining the interactions between state agents and other external nuclear-knowledge/technology related actors and agents. Going beyond the model of knowledge diffusion that brings together concerns articulated in Harris's (2011) geographies of long distance knowledge and Reinhardt's (2011) role of the expert in knowledge transfer, the proposed three-phase model of knowledge transfer theorises the pathways undertaken by a late-blooming participant of modern science and technology as the latter moves from epistemic dependency to increasing independence despite the hurdles encountered, and the underdevelopment of many areas of its technoscientific economy. The model considers tensions stemming from the pressures of expediency for meeting national developmental goals on the one side, and the call to support the objectives of basic science on the other. The three phases of the model are epistemic transition, epistemic transplantation and localisation, and epistemic generation (ETTLG). As additional support for the proposed model, three arguments are proffered as deeper explanations of the epistemic goal by using Malaysia as a case study: knowledge transfer for political legitimization, knowledge transfer for countering agnotology, and knowledge transfer for social engineering and science diplomacy.

Corporations' use and misuse of evidence to influence health policy: a case study of sugar-sweetened beverage taxation.

BACKGROUND: Sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) are a major source of sugar in the diet. Although trends in consumption vary across regions, in many countries, particularly LMICs, their consumption continues to increase. In response, a growing number of governments have introduced a tax on SSBs. SSB manufacturers have opposed such taxes, disputing the role that SSBs play in diet-related diseases and the effectiveness of SSB taxation, and alleging major economic impacts. Given the importance of evidence to effective regulation of products harmful to human health, we scrutinised industry submissions to the South African government's consultation on a proposed SSB tax and examined their use of evidence. RESULTS: Corporate submissions were underpinned by several strategies involving the misrepresentation of evidence. First, references were used in a misleading way, providing false support for key claims. Second, raw data, which represented a pliable, alternative evidence base to peer reviewed studies, was misused to dispute both the premise of targeting sugar for special attention and the impact of SSB taxes on SSB consumption. Third, purposively selected evidence was used in conjunction with other techniques, such as selective quoting from studies and omitting important qualifying information, to promote an alternative evidential narrative to that supported by the weight of peer-reviewed research. Fourth, a range of mutually enforcing techniques that inflated the effects of SSB taxation on jobs, public revenue generation, and gross domestic product, was used to exaggerate the economic impact of the tax. This "hyperbolic accounting" included rounding up figures in original sources, double counting, and skipping steps in economic modelling. CONCLUSIONS: Our research raises fundamental questions concerning the bona fides of industry information in the context of government efforts to combat diet-related diseases. The beverage industry's claims against SSB taxation rest on a complex interplay of techniques, that appear to be grounded in evidence, but which do not observe widely accepted approaches to the use of either scientific or economic evidence. These techniques are similar, but not identical, to those used by tobacco companies and highlight the problems of introducing evidence-based policies aimed at managing the market environment for unhealthful commodities.

Partisans and the Use of Knowledge versus Science.

This paper explores the kind of knowledge that partisans profess in order to contribute to our studies of what has usually been thought of as the "denial of science." Building on the research of Robert Proctor, Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, I show that the tobacco interests and climate science skeptics usually described as "doubt mongers" also purveyed forms of certainty and rested their arguments on three different registers of truth: that of narrowly defined "facts" that could sustain a controversy, ideological commitments to free enterprise, and the truths of self-conscious partisans engaged in battle. Thus, in many respects they have used elements of general knowledge, as well as social, economic and political commitments, to argue against specific scientific findings. Further, at least in the case of climate skeptics, this denial has been in the service of an image of the nature of science and its proper relation to politics. Analyzing significant dichotomies in debates that cross the terrains of science and politics, and knowledge and science, I will argue that a clear articulation of the relations amongst them will be critical to our work to understand the character of climate science denial, but also of the climate sciences themselves.

Beyond evidence versus truthiness: toward a symmetrical approach to knowledge and ignorance in policy studies.

Current political developments in established liberal democracies in both Europe and North America have fundamentally called into question the normative relations between truth, knowledge and politics. Whether labeled "posttruth" or truthiness, commentators lament the willful spread and deployment of nonknowledge and ignorance as important political forces. In this paper, we discuss ignorance in its strategic dimension by weaving together insights from the sociology of ignorance with a policy-scientific approach. By means of three empirical vignettes, we demonstrate that ignorance is more than the flipside of knowledge or merely its lack: it is a constitutive feature of the policy process and is thus not uniquely symptomatic of the current era. We conclude by arguing for what we call a symmetrical approach in which ignorance receives the same quality of attention that knowledge has historically received in the policy sciences. To make fully visible the different forms of ignorance that shape policy processes, policy scholars must hone their "agnoto-epistemological sensibilities" to cope with the current challenges and advance a policy science for democracy.