Pandemic Politics: Contested Expertise and Activist Perspectives with Gregg Gonsalves

Pandemic Politics: Contested Expertise and Activist Perspectives with Gregg Gonsalves

Pandemic Politics: Contested Expertise and Activist Perspectives with Gregg Gonsalves 724 1024 Susann Schmeisser

with Gregg Gonsalves, Rahel Jaeggi and Robin Celikates

 

In this roundtable, Gregg Gonsalves discusses with Rahel Jaeggi and Robin Celikates how to fight the denial of truth by right-wing movements and authoritarian governments without falling for the naïve belief in the objectivity of value free science. Drawing from his rich experience as an AIDS/HIV activist, Gregg Gonsalves describes the vital role of social and political movements such as Black Lives Matter, both for establishing a democratic system of public health beyond technocracy and for the global distribution of vaccines needed to end the pandemic. As Rahel Jaeggi sums up at one point, the position of Gregg Gonsalves is best described as: “The medical is the political.”

Gregg Gonsalves has been an AIDS activist for over 30 years. He is a global health activist and assistant professor at Yale School of Public Health.