The country on Tuesday reported nearly 3,000 deaths, a rise that accelerated this month. Last week, Brazil set a record of 12,888 new deaths and more than 467,944 new cases, According to Johns Hopkins University figures. Experts warn that the hospital system in Brazil On the verge of collapseAs occupancy reached its peak near or exceeded capacity in more than half of the state’s states. Instead of rising, the daily numbers of coronavirus tests being conducted – the key to tracking and stopping the increase in cases – have It has decreased dramatically since December.
Part of the problem is the emergence of a more dangerous type of coronavirus in Brazil, whose rapid spread since January has caused global concern. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said: “If Brazil is not serious, it will continue to affect the entire neighborhood there – and beyond.” He warned earlier this month. “This is not just about Brazil. It is about all of Latin America, it is about what is behind it.”
“Patients are transported from state to state – sometimes traveling hundreds of miles – in a nationwide search for hospital resources,” My colleague Terence McCoy wrote last week. “Without ventilators, nurses are manually pumping injured patients’ lungs. Cemeteries are running out of space to place bodies. Refrigerated containers are waiting outside hospitals to bypass the surplus. All over the country people are dying at home, unable to get treatment.”
It is impossible to overlook the role that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro played. The far-right al-Mishaal Across the epidemic – We considered Corona virus as little more than a “minor flu” a year ago, and as recently as December, Declaring that fascism She reached her “tail”. He contracted the virus himself but continued to promote unproven treatments and raged against the social distancing measures and other precautions called for by regional officials and his political opponents. Under Bolsonaro’s direction, Brazil surrendered denialAnd the ChaosAnd the carelessnessAnd the hedonism And the Medical quackMcCoy Books.
Through Briefing TuesdayMarcelo Quiroga, a cardiologist who will move to the position of Health Minister in the coming days, has confirmed his loyalty to Bolsonaro. “The president is very concerned about the situation,” he said.
Critics question if this is true. Brazil’s lack of effective national coordination on the pandemic is, in part, Bolsonaro’s fault. Initially, he and his allies pushed for disinformation to downplay the virus threat and the effectiveness of social distancing and masks. Later, Bolsonaro questioned the value of vaccines, Inflaming anti-Beijing sentiments Even when a Chinese vaccine was undergoing trials in Brazil. Last October, it is Federal government plans blocked To buy tens of millions of doses of Sinovac vaccine.
But with Trump gone and contagion spread, Bolsonaro is in the midst of a humiliating transition. His government announced last week that it had ordered 10 million doses of the Russian vaccine. And it had to go to China, within reach, to order tens of millions of doses of a Chinese vaccine, as well as the raw materials for mass production on Brazilian soil.
China has spent months getting rid of resentment and distrust as the place where the epidemic started, but in recent weeks, its diplomats, drug company officials and other influential people have submitted dozens of requests for vaccines from desperate officials in Latin America, where the epidemic is spreading a devastating toll that is increasing day by day after a day , ” Note the New York Times. “Beijing’s ability to mass produce vaccines and ship them to the developing world – while rich countries, including the United States, Store millions of potions for themselves – It offered an opening in diplomatic and public relations, which China immediately exploited. “
Meanwhile, in Brazil’s turbulent domestic political landscape, Bolsonaro’s mismanagement has surfaced A new opportunity for his main rival. Former left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva mocked the “foolish” Bolsonaro’s handling of the crisis. “This country is in a state of complete turmoil and confusion because there is no government,” Lula announced last weekMourning the lives he could have saved and warning that “Covid is taking over the country.”
Medical workers in Brazil are trying hard to prevent this from happening. “We try to help people but this disease is much faster and more aggressive than the tactics we use,” Andre Machado, infectious disease specialist in Porto Alegre, He told the Guardian. “It’s like we’re flogging a dead horse. This disease is going to kill more people in Brazil.”
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