People collapsed in the streets: rumor, body, and power. Reflections on the COVID -19 pandemic in Mexico and Ecuador

Abstract

This article reflects on the dilemmas faced by countries like Ecuador and Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a scenario in which how people became infected was still confusing, and what should be done with those sick with the virus and the dead bodies resulting therefrom, rumors contributed to create panic and insecurity for people within any given community. This was even more evident when reports surfaced about "corpses abandoned in the streets." 

The paper goes on, using data collected, to expose the ways in which the state generated a discourse in which the sick and dead dies were suspected as being the "public enemies" of the population. It also reflects on the crucial role of the body to understand the funeral ritual and the different ways in which some patients and relatives faced illness and death in that context lacking certainties.