COVID-19 has highlighted both the role of political leadership in public health - and the tendency of leaders to engage in simplification, spectacularization, and forging of divisions in responding to the pandemic. What are the specific conditions of possibility in the Global South that enable medical populists to thrive? My presentation will make use of illustrative examples in the Asia Pacific that illustrate different instantiations of medical populism as well as alternative styles of health governance.
The event was hosted by University of Toronto's: School of Cities, Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, Institute for the History of Philosophy of Science and Technology, and Department of Political Science.