There is no crisis management in the fight against the corona virus in the South American country. And so Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga now had to announce that more than 500,000 COVID-19 fatalities have been registered in Brazil since the beginning of the pandemic. The minister also assured him via Twitter that he was working tirelessly to ensure that all Brazilians could be vaccinated in the shortest possible time. The nation with 210 million inhabitants reported over 2,000 corona deaths every day in the past few days. If things continue at this pace, Brazil will soon replace the USA as the country with the most corona deaths worldwide, as virologists have calculated. In the United States, more than 600,000 people have died from or with the coronavirus to date.
Many Brazilians – here in Rio de Janeiro – blame Bolsonaro for the corona deaths
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Out of anger about the corona policy of right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro, tens of thousands of people took to the streets again on Saturday. In the capital Brasília and in 14 provincial capitals, they called for Bolsonaro to resign, for more vaccinations and economic support in the Corona crisis, and for greater efforts in the fight against hunger and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples.
“500,000 fatalities – Bolsonaro out!” Calls this demonstrator in Cuiaba
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Experts are concerned about the high number of new infections in Brazil: with 98,135 cases within 24 hours, an absolute daily record was set on Friday. Microbiologist Natalia Pasternak said that due to the sluggish vaccination campaign – so far only a good eleven percent of adults have been fully vaccinated – it is difficult to make a prognosis about the further course of the pandemic.
Experts see responsibility in the Bolsonaro government
For the scientist, responsibility for the mass extinction lies with the Bolsonaro government. “What went wrong here in Brazil was the way this government, which denies the knowledge of the coronavirus, managed the pandemic. It goes to work completely unprepared and is helping the virus.”
Also in many European cities – here Berlin – there were rallies against Bolsonaro
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The right-wing populist president has always downplayed the virus, sabotaged measures by mayors and governors and even threatened the use of the military to end lockdowns. On Thursday, the ex-military announced that the coronavirus infection would produce more effective immunization than vaccinations. To combat the disease, he continues to recommend the anti-malarial chloroquine and a wormer.
A Senate parliamentary committee of inquiry is now looking into the government’s response to the pandemic. It also came out that Bolsonaro had ignored several offers from BioNTech / Pfizer for millions of vaccine doses in mid-2020. The government has only been seriously trying to get vaccines since March, it said.
se / bru (ap, dpa, kna, afp)
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