The event will be hybrid. Please register by writing to korsbaek@cas.au.dk to get the zoom link. You are also very welcome to join the seminar at Moesgård (4235, 133).

Abstract

Mass testing is a controversial COVID-19 pandemic response strategy. The effectiveness of population-wide testing programs is influenced by multiple factors, including the public’s attitude towards COVID-19 viral tests. This study takes an interdisciplinary approach to public health, science and technology studies (STS), and cultural studies and investigates public attitudes towards free, mass COVID-19 testing programs and factors that shape people’s attitudes in China. The study focuses on pandemic responses during the first wave of the Delta variant outbreak in southern China and explores how residents responded to population-wide mass COVID-19 testing programs. This research collects data from short videos recording residents’ experiences of being in lockdown, media reports, and semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the data.

The study finds that residents actively participate in mass testing campaigns as mass viral tests are associated with positive emotions, hope, and trust. Massive viral tests, as an assemblage of material forms and networks of significance, assemble and mobilize hope and trust technologically, culturally, and politically. Specifically, the Reverse Transcription–Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) experiment, lockdown policy, media representations, queue times, medical staff and memes are actors assemble and generate hope and trust. They shape people’s attitudes towards mass testing. Finally, this study discusses how viral tests constitute a material feedback loop of hope and trust without guarantee, which further makes ‘affective biopolitics’ visible. I argue that ‘affective biopolitics’ provides a lens to elucidate the complex nexus of biomedicine, affect and biopolitics in China’s pandemic response.