Early Home Therapies against Covid-19. An Italian Case of Politicisation of Science?

Since February 2020, strategies aimed at containing and managing the Covid-19 syndemic have been developed by the governments of European countries. Among these measures, the possibility of an early treatment of the disease has been considered of fundamental importance, both for curing the disease and governing the syndemic. Despite their potential, early therapies received a somehow unexpected treatment in Italy and the debate around them gave rise to a very evident conflict between proponents and opponents of those treatments, to the point that some of the former organised a properly political movement in order to promote the integration of early home therapies in the official health protocols. Not surprisingly, the issue of early therapies has been considered an exemplary case of politicisation of science. However, the assimilation of the early therapy controversy to the frame of politicisation of science cannot fully explain why these protocols were discarded by political and health authorities. Rather, the consideration of health protocols as socio-technical objects shifts the attention on the vast range of cultural, political and economic factors that contributed to the general resistance towards those treatments. Therefore, we aim to analyse the media coverage of the phenomenon, and investigate the protocols of home treatment of Covid-19, paying attention to the interaction of the factors that contributed to the exclusion of home therapies into national guidelines.

自2020年2月起，欧洲多国政府相继制定了用于防控和管理新冠协同疫情（syndemic）的相关策略。在上述防控举措中，针对该病的早期治疗方案被视作兼具治愈疾病与管控协同疫情的核心关键手段。尽管早期治疗方案具备应用潜力，但在意大利，此类方案的推进却遭遇了始料未及的阻力；围绕其展开的争论催生了支持派与反对派之间的激烈对立，甚至有部分支持者组建了正式的政治运动，以期推动早期居家治疗方案纳入官方卫生规程。毋庸置疑，早期治疗方案争议已被视作科学政治化的典型案例。然而，仅将早期治疗方案的争议归因为科学政治化框架，无法充分解释为何政治与卫生主管部门最终摒弃了此类方案。反之，若将卫生规程视为社会技术对象，则可将研究焦点转向广泛存在的文化、政治与经济因素——正是这些因素共同催生了公众对该类治疗方案的普遍抵触。因此，本研究旨在分析该现象的媒体报道情况，并对新冠居家治疗方案展开调研，重点关注推动居家治疗方案被排除在国家卫生指南之外的各类因素间的相互作用。