While a new variant of the coronavirus is spreading across the country, many Brazilians continue to defy the mobility restrictions of mask mandates, following the example of President Jair Bolsonaro, who recently said that people should “stop being sissy” and “moan” “about the virus.
The consequences of the combination are deadly, experts say. “We are going through the worst case scenario since the start of the pandemic. You just have to look at the trends in the average number of deaths,” Gonzalo Vecina Neto, a professor of public health at Sao Paulo University, told Reuters television recently. . “It could be avoided and the most important factor is gatherings.”
Brazil broke its own record of deaths three times in a 24-hour period this month. The Brazilian Ministry of Health on Wednesday recorded a devastating new high – 2,286 lives lost by the virus. In total, it is known that more than 270,000 people died due to Covid-19, making Brazil the second highest national death toll after the United States.
In 22 of Brazil’s 26 states, ICU occupancy exceeded 80%. In the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, hospital patients have to stand in line to wait on beds as occupancy rates in intensive care units rise past 103%. The neighboring state of Santa Catarina has already exceeded 99% of the population and is on the verge of collapse as cases increase throughout the country.
One hospital in Santa Catarina’s capital, Florianopolis, is already out of capacity. David Molin, the hospital’s chief nurse, told CNN that his team was exhausted and overwhelmed.
“I was here during the first wave and it was not like that. We are completely overwhelmed, with our occupancy rate at over 100%. Many of the patients waiting for an ICU do not make it,” Molina told CNN . during a telephone interview.
Health workers blame rallies
Molina and other health professionals blame the recent surge of Covid-19 cases at large parties and gatherings that began around New Year’s Eve and continued through the carnival holiday before Spring to this day. Many of these were held in defiance of local city and state restrictions.
Last week, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes announced a new evening clock for bars and restaurants in the city, which limited working hours from 6:00 to 17:00. But hundreds of people stayed outside anyway – according to the city government, only 230 fines and closings of the curfew were issued from Friday to Saturday. At one bar, more than 200 party-goers were found mostly without masks at a party that lasted seven hours, reports CNN subsidiary CNN Brasil.
Many municipal and state health officials and lawmakers blame the Bolsonaro government for undermining their efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. And the country’s National Board of Health Secretaries (CONASS) has called on the federal government to take stricter measures to support hospitals and enforce social distance.
“The health care system in Brazil is on the verge of collapse,” Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria told CNN’s Becky Anderson during a recent interview. “There is no national coordination to fight the pandemic in Brazil. It would be important for the president and the governors to send the same message to the people, but unfortunately this is not happening in Brazil.
The issue of social distance and measures has become a political football in Brazil. While Doria last weekend ordered the closure of non-essential businesses in his state for two weeks, Bolsonaro claims such restrictions will slow down the Brazilian economy and lead to an increase in suicides and depression. He made disobedience to health education a point of pride and congratulated agricultural workers at an event last week for not staying “like cowards” at home.
“We have to face our problems. Stop being sissy, moan enough, how long are they going to keep crying? We have to face the problems, with respect for the elderly, people with diseases, chronic conditions. But where does it go? “Brazil will end if we all stop?” He said.
This week, Bolsonaro declared that he has the “power” to declare a national exclusion – but will never do so. “My army is not going to force people to stay home,” he said.
Fears of new variant
With Brazilian hospitals overloaded and government officials divided over lock-in measures, the country has little defense against a coronavirus variant that could be even more contagious.
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal, suggests that even people who have already had the coronavirus may be vulnerable. The same study showed that the P.1 variant can evade immunity against previous Covid-19 infection by up to 61%.
According to a study released earlier this month by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a research institute of the Ministry of Health, this variant is now common in Covid-19 patients in at least six Brazilian states. P.1 was also detected in the United States, the United Kingdom, and neighboring Venezuela.
“The emergence of new variants, which combine the possibility of more transmissibility and the absence of broad and articulated mitigation and suppression measures, is very worrying,” the study authors wrote, urging Brazil to encourage behaviors that spread viral restricted.
“The data showing the prevalence of this variant in several states and its distribution throughout the country, as well as the challenges presented due to its high transmission, reinforce the immediate need to take non-pharmaceutical measures to address the reduce speed or its distribution and increase in cases. ‘
Felipe Naveca, virologist and researcher at Fiocruz Amazonia and one of the lead authors of the study, told CNN that the Covid-19 virus and the various variants and strains are likely to get stronger if it does not stop.
“This is what viruses do: they develop, they become stronger. The only way to stop them is to limit their spread. Therefore, restrictive measures are needed – there is no other solution. Even if the government decides a “National exclusion, we have to support the people. The actions of each of us will affect everyone,” Naveca said.
Vaccination
Hope may be on the way, in the form of vaccines. But the vaccination of Brazil was slow compared to other countries, including others in the region, such as Chile and Mexico.
In January, health regulator Anvisa approved the use of vaccines by Sinovac and Oxford / AstraZeneca. Since then, about 4% of Brazil’s 211 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, and 2.3 million have had two doses.
According to the Ministry of Health, Brazil has negotiated to buy Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen, Sputinik and Covaxin vaccines, although only the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine has been granted with the permission of Anvisa.
Bolsonaro has long promoted the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine as the only one he would support, and he has rejected and discredited many of the other vaccines on the market, including Pfizer. Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello even turned down an offer from Pfizer in August to buy up to 70 million doses of the vaccine.
“Pfizer says it very clearly about the contract: ‘we are not responsible for any side effects.’ If you become an alligator, that’s your problem,” Bolsonaro said in December. “When you become Superman, or when a woman grows a beard, or when a man’s voice grows high, they say they have nothing to do with it.”
But a New England Journal of Medicine study now suggests that the Pfizer / BionTech vaccine could ‘effectively’ neutralize the P.1 variant. The news came when Bolsonaro held a virtual meeting with Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer Global, and other executives on Monday to negotiate the purchase of 100 million vaccines.
“I thank you for this meeting and we recognize Pfizer as a great global company,” Bolsonaro said during an excerpt from the meeting posted on his official Twitter account. “We would like to conclude these transactions with you, even more given the aggressiveness of this virus in Brazil.”
For now, Brazil’s failure to contain the virus is increasingly a warning to the world. Dr Michael Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergency program, said at a briefing last week that he was concerned that the country’s increase in cases could be repeated elsewhere.
“The story in Brazil can and will be repeated elsewhere if we stop implementing the measures, as we have to implement them,” he said. “Countries are going to move again in the third and fourth boom if we are not careful.”
To Molina, the exhausted nurse from Santa Catarina, the future of Brazil looks darker than ever.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think we learned our lesson,” Molina said. ‘We [health workers] is tired, exhausted and becomes ill. We feel powerless. We need more coordinated action if we are to prevent this from happening again.
Journalist Marcia Reverdosa reports from Sao Paulo and CNN’s Flora Charner reports from Atlanta.