Si salimos nos mata el virus, si nos quedamos nos mata el hambre

ethnography of coronavirus in Guayaquil

Abstract

On February 29, 2020, the government of Ecuador announced the first case of coronavirus infectionin a patient from the city of Guayaquil. A month later, more than 1,859 cases and 57 deaths were reported. As of May 29, the number of infected was around 15,000 and more than 2,000 deaths. Between March and April, according to data from the Civil Registry, there are more than 13,000 registered dead, evidencing an underreportingthat could place it as the city in Latin America with the highest number of infections and deaths per capita. Ecuador has resumed neoliberal policies that have systematically decreased the State's response capacity and priorities in the face of health crises and pandemics, showing how diseases related to poverty infect and kill the most deprived. This article presents an ethnographic account in the time of the pandemic, outlines the relationships between neoliberal policies, social inequality and disease, narrates the spaces where not only a virus is the one that kills, but stigma and social exclusion