RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll, which exceeded 250,000 on Thursday, is the second highest in the world for the same reason that its second wave has not yet faded: prevention has never been a priority, mean experts.
Since the start of the pandemic, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has mocked the ‘small flu’ and scolded local leaders for imposing restrictions on activities; he said the economy must continue to hum to prevent worse suffering.
Even when he approved pandemic welfare payments for the poor, it was not announced as a way to keep people at home. And Brazilians are still moving in that direction as vaccination begins – but the rollout is much slower than expected.
“Brazil simply did not have a response plan. We’ve been through this for the last year and we still do not have a clear plan, a national plan, ‘Miguel Lago, executive director of the Brazilian Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health officials, told the Associated Press. “There is no plan at all. And the same goes for vaccination. ”
While daily falls and deaths have fallen in other countries, the largest country in Latin America stands on an elevated plateau – a gloomy repeat of mid-2020. In each of the past five weeks, Brazil averaged more than 1,000 had daily deaths. Official data showed a confirmed number of 251,498 on Thursday.
At least 12 Brazilian states are even worse off in the middle of a second wave than in 2020, says Domingos Alves, an epidemiologist who has been tracking COVID-19 data.
“This scenario is going to get worse,” Alves told the AP, adding that the virus is spreading faster among the population. In the state of Amazonas, where the capital, Manaus, ran out of oxygen last month, there were more than 5,000 deaths in the first two months of the year, about as many as in 2020.
“This is the most difficult moment we have had since the confirmation of the first case,” Carlos Lula, chairman of the National Council of Health Secretaries, was quoted as saying by the newspaper O Globo on Thursday. “We have never had so many states with so many problems at once.”
Alves and other public health experts said the spread was exacerbated by authorities’ unwillingness to follow recommendations from international health organizations to enforce stricter restrictions.
Governors and mayors must lock up or impose other restrictions to contain the virus. The states of Sao Paulo and Bahia have recently introduced nightclub trips, but experts believe the moves are too late and inadequate.
“These are not restrictions; these are palliative measures that are always taken, ”says Alves, who is also a deputy professor of social medicine at the University of Sao Paulo. “Lockdown ‘has become a curse word in Brazil.”
Miguel Nicolelis, a leading Brazilian neuroscientist, warned in January that Brazil must either shut down or “we will not be able to bury our dead in 2021.” He advised the northeastern states on how to combat COVID-19, but recently left his position, dissatisfied with their refusal to close, the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported.
“At present, Brazil is the largest outdoor laboratory, where it is possible to observe the natural dynamics of the coronavirus without any effective restriction,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “Everyone will witness the epic devastation.”
There are a few exceptions, but it remains marginal and has not inspired a broader movement.
Sao Luis, capital of the northeastern state of Maranhao, was the first Brazilian city to close in full last May. It was successful, despite Bolsonaro’s efforts to undermine the restrictions and cast doubt on its effectiveness, according to the governor of the state, Flávio Dino.
“It was very difficult to manage distance and prevention measures,” Dino said, adding that the first hurdle was an economic and social one, especially after the federal government’s emergency pandemic program ended last year.
Lago noted that Bolsonaro rarely first commented more on the pandemic, and that he had effectively moved on to other priorities, including ensuring support in Congress for the weakening of arms control laws and the adoption of economic reforms. His administration wants to reintroduce COVID-19 welfare payments, but for a smaller group of needy Brazilians.
The only preventative measure that Bolsonaro consistently supported was the use of treatments such as hydroxychloroquine, which in careful studies showed no benefit.
The government of Bolsonaro has also taken a practical approach regarding the vaccination campaign. It mostly relies on a deal to buy a single vaccine, AstraZeneca, which is slow. The national immunization effort to date has relied primarily on the Chinese-made CoronaVac shots secured by the state of Sao Paulo, although the federal government is now trying to buy others.
Brazil’s decades of experience with successful vaccination programs and its large nationwide public health network have led many experts to believe that vaccination – even if it starts with a delay – would be a relatively quick affair. In previous campaigns, the 210 million country could vaccinate as many as 10 million people in one day, health experts noted.
Five weeks after the first shot, Brazil vaccinated only 3.6% of its population. That’s more than double Argentina and Mexico, but less than a quarter of Chile, according to Our World in Data, an online research website that compares official government statistics.
‘There is no way to be quick with a shortage of vaccines; that’s the crucial point, “said Carla Domingues, who coordinated Brazil’s national vaccination program for eight years until leaving her position in 2019.” Until there is a bigger offer, the speed will be slower, because you have to keep choosing who can be vaccinated. ”
Meanwhile, the virus is still spreading across Brazil and taking its toll.
In the city of Sao Paulo, Araraquara, there have been more deaths so far this year than the whole year ago, and the intensive care unit has exceeded full capacity, with people on waiting lists to enter ICUs and receive treatment. Local authorities responded on Sunday by announcing a complete exclusion, making Araraquara only the second city to impose such a restriction.
“We never thought we would get this far,” said Fabiana Araújo, a nurse and a coordinator of the city’s committee to fight COVID-19. “It was the only option.”
—— AP writers David Biller contributed from Rio and Mauricio Savarese from Sao Paulo.