3 ms·
Covid19 has been extremely politicized in Brazil. President's supporters were mostly against vaccine until coronvac (sinovac vaccines) was approved by anvisa, B
by marcodiego 6y ago
Covid19 has been extremely politicized in Brazil. President's supporters were mostly against vaccine until coronvac (sinovac vaccines) was approved by anvisa, Brazil's equivalent to FDA.
In Brazil this pandemic took ridiculous proportions. In the beginning, it was said that it wouldn't kill even 800 people[0]. It was said that it would be no more than a little flu and that children should not skip schools[1]. After thousands deaths, the president said, when asked about it, "So what?"[2].
Parallel to that, special secretary of culture, (which was once ministry of culture), was ousted[3]. She was replacing the previous secretary who (SERIOUSLY) emulated Goebbels on an official announcement[4]. On the education side, a "twitter-boy" with spelling difficulties[5] replaced the previous minister who was very weak technically[6]. It was then replaced by a liar[7] and then by an homophobic[8].
Some states then started restrictive measures to control the spread of the virus. The president was against it, the supreme court had to intervene to guarantee that states could apply restrictive measures[9]. A false narrative started trying to blame problems during the pandemic on governors because the president "couldn't act". A false dichotomy also spread by supporters saying that restrictive measures hurt economy and that it could kill more people than the pandemic. It actually is the opposite, but it has grown among his supporters.
Then came choloquine, hidroxicloroquine, ivermectin, and nitazoxanide, not exactly in this order. The Chloroquine 'venture' was the most interesting. The president pressured the health minister to encourage it. As he refused, he was ousted[10]. The same pressure was tried on the next minister. He was ousted too[11].
Things got worse and his supporters began anti-democratic demonstrations asking for a pro-president coup[12]. Supreme court was attacked and people were arrested[13].
While the president discouraged the use of masks and social distancing, the number of daily deaths stayed on an elevated plateau[14]. Debauchery of sick and dead became common[15].
By the end of the second half of 2020, some vaccines were offered but refused[16][17]. The minister asked "why such a hurry?"[18] and the president said "The hurry is not justified"[19].
Things improved a little by the end of the year, people relaxed and met their relatives on year end's festivities. This had consequences and 2021 arrived. New variants surged and number of deaths started to rise again. In Manaus, hospitals run out of O2 and people suffocated to death[20]. Variants continued spreading and another health minister was replaced. Vaccines were approved and people began to be vaccinated.
By the end of April with around 14% of the population having at least one vaccine dose, numbers of daily deaths began to fall.
Some facts were not listed on the correct order, but today is April 28 and, according to worldometers.info, we're now at position 14 and soon there will be more deaths per million than in the UK. Brazil has the lowest median age population among nations with the most deaths.
No other country handled the pandemic worse than brazil.
[0] https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-bolsonaro-lets-100000-die-of-covid-19-in-brazil/a-54533605 https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-bolsonaro-lets-100000-die-of-c...
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/23/americas/brazil-coronavirus-hospitals-intl/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/23/americas/brazil-coronavir...
[2] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31095-3/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...
[3] https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/culture/2020/05/regina-duarte-leaves-position-as-brazils-secretary-of-culture.shtml https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/culture/2020/...
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/17/brazil-culture-minister-goebbels-roberto-alvim-nazi https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/17/brazil-culture...
[5] https://www.france24.com/en/20200110-brazil-s-education-minister-mocked-for-twitter-spelling-error https://www.france24.com/en/20200110-brazil-s-education-mini...
[6] https://brazilian.report/power/2019/03/28/brazil-disastrous-ministry-education/ https://brazilian.report/power/2019/03/28/brazil-disastrous-...
[7] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/01/brazil-education-minister-carlos-decotelli-resigns https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/01/brazil-educati...
[8] https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/brazil-education-minister-inquired-after-homophobic-statements-20200929-0004.html https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/brazil-education-ministe...
[9] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/20/bolsonaro-asks-supreme-court-to-reverse-covid-19-restrictions https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/20/bolsonaro-asks-supr...
[10] https://brazilian.report/liveblog/coronavirus/2020/05/21/former-health-minister-president-tried-to-change-chloroquine-label/ https://brazilian.report/liveblog/coronavirus/2020/05/21/for...
[11] https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/bolsonaro-s-love-for-hydroxychloroquine-costs-brazil-another-health-minister/story-jkEFmRFR4sZYneLZxQjb1J.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/bolsonaro-s-love-f...
[12] https://www.dw.com/en/brazilian-president-bolsonaro-sides-with-anti-democracy-protesters/a-53235241 https://www.dw.com/en/brazilian-president-bolsonaro-sides-wi...
[13] https://brazilian.report/liveblog/coronavirus/2020/06/14/brazil-another-weekend-protests-despite-pandemic/ https://brazilian.report/liveblog/coronavirus/2020/06/14/bra...
[14] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/23/brazilian-judge-tells-bolsonaro-to-behave-and-wear-a-face-mask https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/23/brazilian-judg...
[15] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/08/bolsonaro-masks-slur-brazil-coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/08/bolsonaro-mask...
[16] https://theconversation.com/brazils-president-rejects-covid-19-vaccine-undermining-a-century-of-progress-toward-universal-inoculation-150821 https://theconversation.com/brazils-president-rejects-covid-...
[17] https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-brazil-state-governments-health-sao-paulo-b7b5b620ba54f402dbf803e26fe6b842 https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-brazil-state-gover...
[18] https://www.nytimes.com/article/brazil-coronavirus-cases.html https://www.nytimes.com/article/brazil-coronavirus-cases.htm...
[19] https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-brazil-idUKKBN28U01B https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-brazil...
[20] https://www.caritas.org/2021/02/oxygenformanaus/ https://www.caritas.org/2021/02/oxygenformanaus/
- Clewza313 6y ago> No other country handled the pandemic worse than brazil. Yup, even Bloomberg agrees: Brazil is at the very bottom of the resilience rankings. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/ https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/
- meepmorp 6y agoYou make a good case, but you do have to admit that Narendra Modi is also a solid contender for shittiest handling of COVID. Just letting the Kumbh Mela go ahead this year earns him a spot near the top.
- inglor_cz 6y agoLive by ideology, die by ideology. I am not trying to defend the Indian PM, whom I barely know by name, but it is not as if the West does not have similar weaknesses. Mass BLM rallies were allowed to go forward because the political price for banning them and enforcing the ban through use of force would have been too high. Even though it was already known that going to rallies is a risky behavior. Fortunately for the U.S. at that moment, no extra infectious variant was in circulation. AFAIK India has a nasty variant that makes things worse.
- 19f191ty 6y agoIndia is catching up
- randomsquared 6y agoThat is not mutually exclusive to investigators finding problems with Sputnik V.
- marcodiego 6y agoAnd...?
- rbanffy 6y agoIt’s being said they didn’t actually test it.