Latin America
Related: About this forumThe catastrophic Brazilian response to covid-19 may amount to a crime against humanity
April 5, 2021
In Brazil, the federal governments approach to the covid-19 pandemic has been to try to achieve herd immunity through contagion. This has so far led to the avoidable deaths of hundreds of thousands of citizens. On 5 March, we published an article explaining the strategy to allow covid-19 to spread, led by Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president himself. [1] Since then, as expected, Brazil has plunged into an unprecedented health catastrophe.
Last week, nearly one third of all daily covid-19 fatalities in the world were in Brazil, although Brazil makes up only 2.7% of the world population. On 2 April, there were 12.8 million cases and over 325 thousand deaths. In the week 21-27 March, there was a daily 0.8% rise in cases and 1.9% rise in deaths; lethality has risen from 2% to 3.3% since late 2020. [2] The new variants circulating in Brazil have become a serious cause of concern to neighbouring countries. [3]
The catastrophe could be much worse had there not been a national public health system (SUS) in place, based on universal coverage. Yet the system has reached the point of collapse.
On 29 March 2021, 17 out of the 27 federal states reached adult-ICU-bed occupation rates of 90% or more; among the 27 capital cities, 21 displayed the same rates, and seven of them had reached their full capacity or were working above it. [4] At most points of care, the number of available beds, although insufficient, results from successive expansions due to the high demand. Despite these efforts, by 25 March, 6,371 people were waiting for an ICU-bed. [5] In March, 496 people lost their lives while on the waiting list for ICU in the state of Sao Paulo alone. [6]
More:
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/04/05/the-catastrophic-brazilian-response-to-covid-19-may-amount-to-a-crime-against-humanity/
NJCher
(35,667 posts)every tactic, every move is trumpian: attacking the governors who shut down businesses--even trying to get the military to go after them.
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By late March, an alleged self-coup attempt by Bolsonaro failed against the resistance of Armed Forces, which have opposed the Presidents intention to militarily intervene in the states adopting quarantine measures.
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Then he had a health minister who had been in trouble for misuse of public funds. He appointed a new one who doesn't seem to be able to get anything done except arrange vaccines for the wealthier and more influential segments of their society.
At some point world leaders are going to have to do something about this. Bolsonoro could be hosting a national petri dish for outwitting every vaccine the rest of the world comes up with.
It looks like his wife takes the situation more seriously than he does, but she doesn't seem to have much influence with him. I took a look at her Instagram page and she seems to travel extensively promoting mask wearing and hand washing.