Battling Coronavirus in Brazil under Bolsonaro
A multi-perspective take on the coronavirus crisis in Bolsonaro's Brazil.
In a nutshell
Today BBC News reported that Brazil is the second country to reach 50,000 deaths due to Covid-19, and signs show that infections are still climbing. According to The Washington Post, projections show there may be as many as 100,000 deaths by August. Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been heavily criticised by many for his handling of the pandemic, yet some still ardently support him. BBC News report, ‘A lack of testing suggests the true figures are higher and experts say the outbreak is weeks away from its peak.’
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Bolsonaro’s response to coronavirus - a timeline
On 25 February, the first Covid-19 case was confirmed and, in early March, state governors began implementing quarantine measures, shutting down non-essential businesses and activities.
CNN reports that on 15 March, Bolsonaro’s reaction to these measures was, ‘When you ban football and other things, you fall into hysteria. Banning this and that isn’t going to contain the spread… The virus could turn into a fairly serious issue. But the economy has to function because we can’t have a wave of unemployment.’
During March, land and air borders were closed and the finance minister announced a fiscal stimulus package to help cushion the blow financially for those who were out of work.
Bolsonaro’s responded to local governments’ efforts to stop the spread of the virus on 24 March saying, ‘Our life has to go on. Jobs should be maintained.’ He also tweeted pictures of himself visiting shopping districts and encouraging people to go back to work. He also promoted the use of chloroquine as a coronavirus cure despite it being unproven. As a result, Twitter removed his posts on 29 March.
At the end of March, in a televised broadcast, Jair Bolsonaro announced that ‘given my athletic history, if I was to be infected it would not necessarily concern me. I wouldn’t feel anything other than at most a little cold or be under the weather.’ He also went on to say, ‘What we have to contain at the moment is panic, hysteria and at the same time map out a strategy to save lives and avoid mass unemployment. We have gone almost against everything others are doing. A lot of the media have gone against the grain. They have spread fear.’ He then went on to urge states to abandon lockdown measures.
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Also at the end of March, The Guardian reports he said that Brazilians never catch anything because they have special antibodies. He went on to say that they could bathe in a sea of excrement and nothing would happen.
His government went on to boost severance funds for laid-off workers and inject more money into an emergency fund for the country’s poorest and informal workers. Yet, on 9 April he was seen meeting with supporters in the streets and hugging people, in defiance of social distancing. According to Sky News, in early April Jair Bolsonaro again rejected fears around coronavirus, comparing it to ‘a little flu.’
On 16 April, after weeks of infighting, Bolsonaro fired the health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who had greatly supported social isolation and shutting businesses and schools.
On 29 April, when asked to respond about the spike in deaths to 5,000, Bolsonaro said, ‘So what? I’m sorry, but what do you want me to do?’ He later went on to say, ‘I’m sorry for the situation we are currently living with due to the virus. We express our solidarity to those who have lost loved ones, many of whom were elderly. But that’s life, it could be me tomorrow.’
On 7 May, Boslonaro and Paulo Guedes, minister of the economy, released a statement insisting quarantine measures be relaxed or the economy could collapse.
On 14 May, he added beauty salons, barbers and gyms to the expanded list of essential services, telling journalists, ‘The story about lockdown, closing everything, that is not the path.’
On 15 May, the new health minister, Nelson Teich, resigned after less than a month in post, reportedly due to clashes over Bolsonaro’s coronavirus response. Bolsonaro chose Eduardo Pazuello to be the next health minister who, according to CNN, is a military general with no background in medicine or public health.
On 17 May, Bolsonaro was again seen meeting with supporters in the street and was photographed holding a child wearing a military uniform.
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On 5 June, federal prosecutors warned that the government was failing to protect indigenous people from coronavirus, The Guardian reports.
On 7 June, the health ministry stopped releasing coronavirus data into how many cases and how many deaths the pandemic had caused. Two days later on 9 June, a Supreme Court judge ordered the government to release the figures amid accusations of censorship, according to BBC News. Bolsonaro argued the stoppage was due to trying to improve reporting.
On 10 June, retailers opened again in Sao Paolo after two months of lockdown. This went against the advice of many health experts, according to AP News, with shops busy and buses packed, social distancing guidelines were reportedly not being enforced.
Image credit: AP Photo/Andre Penner
What have responses been to Bolsonaro’s handling of coronavirus?
Former health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta said after being fired by Bolsonaro in April, ‘We were clearly on opposite sides. They thought there wouldn’t be more than 1,000 cases. And I think we are going to be way over this. I think that Brazil can become one of the highest numbers of cases in the world.’
Ted Martins, a congressional aide and supporter of the President said, ‘We understand this virus exists, but the country cannot stop. This isolation is anti-human. Humans were born to interact,’ reports The Financial Times.
Some supporters of Bolsonaro have called for military intervention to overthrow governors and law and policymakers, with one of Bolsonaro’s political allies, Roberto Jefferson, tweeting a picture of himself holding a gun and saying,’I’m prepared to fight the good fight.’
Rallies have taken place against the government’s response to the outbreak, with Aljazeera reporting one protestor saying, ‘I’m here because thousands of people are dying of coronavirus and the government doesn’t care about it. This is a genocide.’
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Bolsonaro supporters have staged counter-rallies against Covid-19 restrictions, with one protester reportedly saying, ‘It’s an epidemic. It’s killing people. But it’s not that much. I don’t think that coronavirus by itself kills that much. I think that most people that die from it have another kind of disease.’
Image credit: Reuters
According to The Financial Times, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice, Gilmar Mendes, responding to Covid-19 deaths and cases recording being stopped, said, ‘The manipulation of statistics is a manoeuvre of totalitarian regimes… Attempts are made to hide the numbers in Covid-19 to reduce or control health policies. The trick will not remove responsibility for the eventual genocide.’
How has the pandemic highlighted racial inequality and poverty in Brazil?
The Guardian argues that the pandemic has put a spotlight on racial inequalities that exist in Brazil. Poverty, poor access to healthcare, overcrowding and more health issues lead to more virus deaths. Poor black Brazilians are disproportionately affected by the pandemic; statistics show a black patient who cannot read is more than four times more likely to die than a white graduate. Brazilians who identify as black or mixed-race earn 60% less than white Brazilians and are more likely to live in houses that lack basic sanitation, such as in favelas. Without access to basic sanitation, The Guardian argues, it is harder for people to self-isolate and control the spread of the virus. To compound the problem, 80% of black Brazilians do not have a health plan and rely on the public health system, which is right now very overstretched.
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Folha de S.Paulo reports that a poll of community leaders revealed hunger, lack of income and misinformation prevent people in impoverished areas from complying with social distancing measures. Food security was consistently pointed out as the primary concern in these communities. Rio Times reports one favela resident as saying, ‘For many people here, if you’re hesitating between buying food to feed your family or buying hand sanitiser, the choice is quickly made.’
This video from The Guardian follows a day in the life of community activist, Buba Aguiar, who is soliciting online donations to buy food parcels, soap and masks for her neighbours who cannot afford to stop working and self-isolate. She feels the government has not done enough to help residents living in Acari, one of Rio’s poorest favelas, where people are living in overcrowded conditions and lack sanitation.
The Financial Times reports that indigenous communities in the Amazon region of Brazil are under threat from Covid-19. The Amazon is a vast, isolated and impoverished area with little access to healthcare. Climate scientist, Carlos Nobre, was quoted as saying, ‘Fears of genocide are not exaggerated… The risk to indigenous peoples of this pandemic and the threats of invasions is very serious and could spell the end of indigenous culture, if not stopped.’ While Marciviane Satere, a leader from the Sateremaué tribe was quoted as saying, ‘I don’t understand how this virus arrived and spread so quickly, but the fact is that many of the villages have no infrastructure, personnel or equipment to offer service to indigenous people. You have to come to Manaus and that can take five days or a week by boat. Covid is demonstrating the fragility of the whole state.’
Image credit: Bruno Kelly/Reuters
What else is there to know about?
Jair Bolsonaro became President of Brazil on 1 January 2019. He was formerly a Captain in the Brazilian Army. According to BBC News, he is pro-gun ownership, anti-abortion, wants to drive economic efficiency, believes there should be less state intervention in the economy and is pro-developing the Amazon rainforest. The far-right leader has been hailed ‘Trump of the Tropics’ for his affinity to Donald Trump.
In August 2019, Bolsonaro was in the international spotlight over his response to fires ravaging through the Amazon rainforest. Protests were held worldwide condemning Bolsonaro’s environmental policies. BBC analysis found that the huge number of fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest coincided with a sharp drop in fines for environmental violations - with the number of fires in Brazil increasing by 84%. According to CNBC, in September 2019 Bolsonaro told the UN that the Amazon ‘remains pristine and virtually untouched.’ According to Survival International, there are approximately 900,000 indigenous Brazilians living in the Amazon rainforest.
Image Credit: André Cran/Folhapress
Folha de S.Paulo reports that deforestation increased by 27% between 2018 and the first year Bolsonaro was in power. Folha de S.Paulo also argues that Bolsonaro is now using quarantine as an opportunity to ease restrictions and dismantle environmental legislation.
Rio Times reports that 2019 saw a huge increase in police killings, the highest on record, and double the number of police killings in the US during the same time period. 80% of the people killed at the hands of the police were people of colour. During April 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, there was a 58% increase in police killings.
Folha de S.Paulo reports that the government excluded data on police violence in 2019 from its annual human rights report. While Folha argues there is evidence to suggest police brutality in Rio de Janeiro increased by 92% in 2019, the government argues they’ve not released the data due to inconsistencies in the records.
In video footage recently released Folha de S. Paulo, Bolsonaro is seen at a cabinet meeting on 22 April insulting governors, threatening public policies and making negative statements towards the Supreme Court. He then goes on to confirm suspicions that he would like to interfere with the federal police. In the video, he is seen saying, ‘I already tried to switch our police person in Rio de Janeiro but I wasn’t able to... I will not wait until my entire family or friends are fucked just because I can’t influence the police on the frontline.’
Global News reports that tensions are running high in Brazil due to a political ‘standoff’ between Bolsonaro and the Supreme Court, which some believe may lead the military to pick sides if the situation worsens. The president is facing multiple impeachment proposals that have not yet gotten off the ground.