Bolsonaro and its coronavirus management divides Brazil even more – Leo Correa / AP / SIPA
Truncated and increasingly late assessments, divergent figures: data on the dead and cases of contamination of the
coronavirus have been broadcast for several days in the most total confusion by the government
Brazilian, sparking an avalanche of criticism.
Denouncing a “statistical coup”, the daily Folha from Sao Paulo accuses far-right president Jair Bolsonaro in a virulent editorial this Monday of wanting to “stifle” the data from the Covid-19, “as if he could censor it”.
Small flu and big numbers
In open war with the media, the Head of State has unambiguously justified his intention to disseminate the data after the main television news: “there will be no more subject (on the official figures) in Jornal Nacional “, He declared Friday evening, quoting the TV broadcaster TV Globo.
President Bolsonaro has repeatedly played down the pandemic, calling it a “little flu” and calling for the resumption of economic activity as the curves continue to climb, with more than 36,000 deaths.
Increasingly incomplete balance sheets
Since the beginning of last week, the official report of the Ministry of Health, which was made public at 5 p.m. at the start of the health crisis, has not been sent to the press until around 10 p.m. And as of Friday, the bulletin no longer showed the total number of confirmed cases and deaths, presenting only the figures for the past 24 hours.
Worse still, Carlos Wizard, a business man tipped to fill a high-profile post in the ministry, announced Friday evening to the newspaper O Globo that the official balance sheet was going to be revised down due to “fanciful and manipulated” figures.
The outraged regional health authorities
A statement that outraged regional health officials responsible for compiling the data, who lambasted “an authoritarian, inhuman and unethical attempt to make the coronavirus dead invisible”.
Carlos Wizard denied on Saturday any intention to revise the figures already announced and ended up giving up his job in the ministry on Sunday after calls on the Internet to boycott his companies. “The manipulation of statistics is a maneuver worthy of totalitarian regimes,” said Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes on Twitter on Saturday.
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