2 That the medicalization of politics has colonized not only the political but also the social and literary imaginary is exemplified by the fact that the major threat to the body politic is symbolized by the plague, which marks political discourses as well as powerful political fables such as, for example, Camus’ The Plague or Saramago’s Blindness, which everybody rushed to re-read in this troubled year.īut the COVID-19 disease is not an exception either: as the name of the virus causing it clearly reveals, SARS-CoV-2 is the second severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, following the first one (SARS-CoV or SARS-1) that caused the 2002-2004 outbreak.
It is in modernity that the medieval metaphor of the “body politic” takes on its full meaning and “disease” becomes not only the main metaphor for disorder but also the literal object of power’s actions and preoccupations and another medical metaphor, immunity / immunization / autoimmunity, can be used as the model of its pathogenic drift. 1 The medicalization of politics and the politicization of medicine are what defines modern politics as such, hence the exceptional political measures adopted around the world to fight the pandemic are not the exception but rather the paradigm of politics in modernity. As Roberto Esposito remarked in the early months of this annus horribilis, modernity itself is marked by the indissoluble entwining of medicine and politics, whereby politics, unlike in classical or medieval paradigms, shows itself as more and more dedicated to “curing” its citizens and their health, and medicine, on the other hand, is invested with tasks of social control. The Medicalization of Politics IN the records of political history, the year 2020 will certainly be remembered as the annus horribilis of the COVID-19 pandemic leading to crucial political events and decisions, but it will not be remembered as an exception. His recent and much criticized attacks against the exceptional anti-COVID-19 measures must thus be read and understood within the wider context of his politico-philosophical project. In Agamben, the medicalization of politics analyzed by Foucault is complemented by a theory of sovereignty derived from Carl Schmitt that identifies in the state of exception the original political relation. Carlo Salzani COVID-19 and State of Exception: Medicine, Politics, and the Epidemic State The article analyzes the paradigm of the state of exception which has been evoked in relation to the exceptional measures adopted against the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, with particular reference to the works of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben.
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