Brazil registered this Friday 1,327 deaths and 63,908 positive cases of covid-19. The South American giant accumulates 252,988 deaths and 10,457,794 positive cases and is going through the worst moment of the pandemic, a year after the first infection was detected. It is the second country in the world with the most fatalities, after the United States. Until now, 6.4 million people have been vaccinated, 3% of the population. The rate of immunization is slower than expected. “Without a doubt, (Jair) Bolsonaro is a potential killer. A cocoon that never tires of trampling corpses and their mourners. A despicable being, incapable of saying a single word of comfort on the day we celebrate one year of coronavirus in Brazil, “said Ricardo Kertzman, columnist for the weekly Istoé.
The Brazil of February 2020, when a 61-year-old man returned to São Paulo from Italy with symptoms of carrying the virus, little resembles that of this present pandemic. The public health system faces its most difficult moment, with record rates of bed occupancy in intensive care units (ICU) in almost 20 capitals. Last Thursday was the deadliest day since the start of the health crisis, with 1,582 deaths in 24 hours. The figure did not surprise the specialists: during the last five weeks a average 1000 deaths per day.
The “little flu”
The Ultra-right government faced the crisis erratically. The president fired two health ministers who questioned his reluctance to confinement and his predilection for the use of chloroquine to treat the sick, despite the contrary recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). Bolsonaro even trivialized the pandemic to the point of calling it a “little flu.” The fact that he had been infected and he was cured without major complications allowed him to relapse into underestimation. On the day an unprecedented number of deaths were reported, he once again defied common sense by question the use of masks. “I’m not going to go into details because everything ends in criticism of me. Everyone has their opinion, we await a more in-depth study on this,” he told his followers on Facebook.
Bolsonaro prioritized managing the economy over health. However, GDP fell by more than four points. Unemployment reached record levels of 14%. The Government had to distribute millionaire subsidies among the socially vulnerable population to mitigate the effects of the restrictions. But those benefits are over and have activated a social bomb.
The current Minister of Health is Eduardo Pazuello, a general without experience in the matter. He watches almost helplessly as the second wave of the pandemic progresses. In Brasilia, the Federal District, only four ICU beds remained this Friday. The authorities were forced to take drastic measures to reduce activity in the capital. Events and classes are suspended, as well as cinemas, theaters, shopping centers, including bars, beauty salons and kiosks. Restaurants must also be closed, with permission to operate delivery and pick-up services on site. The sale of alcoholic beverages is also prohibited.
Crushing criticism
Covid-19 has killed in Brazil more than any type of tumor (235,000 people in 2019) and other diseases of the respiratory system (162,000 thousand). “The Government has the greatest responsibility for the lives whose losses could have been avoided, “said the São Paulo daily Folha in its recent editorial. The preservation of Pazuello in office, he added,” testifies to the indifference to the rampant epidemic. No symptom of incompetence is more scandalous than delivering 78,000 doses of vaccine to the battered Amazon in Amapá, with more deaths from covid-19 in 2021 than in all of 2020. “For Folha, the reason for the fiasco lies in the shortage of vaccines , “since Bolsonaro has been more dedicated to doubting its safety and efficacy than giving (purchase) orders. Even at the height of the carnage, the president has ridiculous contractual objections against suppliers. ”
It may interest you
The official disregard for the covid-19 had as its counterpart a constant collective disobedience of containment measures. “We’ve never done decent social distancing, we have not tracked contaminants to isolate them and we remain unprepared for genomic surveillance capable of detecting new varieties of the virus. We make mistakes at all levels of government and as citizens, “concluded Folha.
– .
