Da Sava said in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that the US has a surplus of vaccines and suggested that the surplus could be donated to countries in need.
“One suggestion I want to make to President Biden through your program is: it is very important to convene a G20 meeting urgently,” da Silva told Amanpour. “It’s important to call the world’s leaders and put just one thing, one thing, around the table. Vaccination, vaccine and vaccine!”
He added: “The responsibility towards international leaders is enormous, that’s why I ask President Biden to do this because I can not … I do not believe in my government. And I could not ask that of Trump, but Biden is a breath of fresh air for democracy in the world. ‘
‘If now is the time to take part in the election, and if my party and the other allied parties understand that I can be the candidate, and if I am healthy and my health with the energy and power I have today have, I can assure you that I will not deny the invitation, but I do not want to talk about it. This is not my main priority. My main priority now is to save this country, “said da Silva.
The Brazilian research institute Oswaldo Cruz Foundation called the current emergency in the country on Tuesday ‘the biggest health and hospital collapse in the history of Brazil’.
But in a surprise move last Monday, a Brazilian judge of the Supreme Court annulled his convictions and ordered that the cases be heard again in the Federal Court of Brasilia. If the verdict is upheld – and if Lula is not convicted again before the candidate’s deadline, he could technically be in office again and challenge current president Jair Bolsonaro in 2022.
Political clash on the horizon?
Da Silva, who helped found the left-wing Labor Party, largely refused to run for office, saying last Wednesday that he did not have time to think about a 2022 candidacy.
“If we had a president who respects the people, he would have created a crisis committee to lead the Brazilian society that they have to do every week,” the former president added.
Bolsonaro defended his handling of the health crisis in the light of da Silva’s remarks and told CNN Brasil last week that his government empowered local officials, arguing that the imposition of lock-in measures – which he refused to do – would only hurt the citizen. leads to a situation of poverty. ‘
Bolsonaro had earlier said he hoped the Brazilian Supreme Court would restore da Silva’s conviction, accusing his predecessor of 2022 ambitions. “Former President Lula is starting his campaign now. Because he has nothing good to show for it, it is the [Workers Party] “Their campaign is based on criticism, lies and misinformation,” he said.
While the election is still 18 months away, the coronavirus outbreak in Brazil is likely to play into voters’ sentiment. Bolsonaro’s disapproval ratings have reached their highest level to date at 54%, according to the latest results from the Datafolha polling institute released on Wednesday.
Brazil has the second highest number of Covid-19s in the world, with 11,603,535 cases and 282,127 coronavirus-related deaths as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Hospitals are flooded with cases across the country. The latest analysis from CNN shows that the occupancy rate for ICUs in 25 of the 26 states in Brazil plus its federal district is 80% or more. Of these, 14 countries have ICU occupancy rates of more than 90%, which puts them at risk of collapse.
The governor of Brazil’s second most populous state, Minas Gerais, said on Tuesday that the health care system simply could not support new patients.
“I do not want Minas Gerais to become a horror film,” Romeu Zema told a news conference announcing the implementation of the ‘press phase’ throughout the state, the most restrictive of the Minas Gerais plan to to deal with the pandemic.
“Any new infected person could mean one more death because the state does not have the capacity to admit new patients,” Zema said.
Bolsonaro’s crisis management under fire
As the country’s coronavirus exceeds its vaccinations, criticism increases. According to the same poll by the Datafolha Institute, which conducted telephone interviews with 2,023 people on March 15 and 16, 54% of Brazilians found Bolsonaro’s performance bad or bad – compared to 48% at the end of January.
The poll report also said that 43% of Brazilians blame Bolsonaro, while 20% blame their state governors for the current state of the pandemic in Brazil.
As for Bolsonaro’s presidency, 44% of respondents think it’s bad or terrible, four points higher than in the previous poll, and the highest since he took office in January 2019. Thirty percent of respondents rate Bolsonaro’s right as good or good and another 26% consider it regular.
Queiroga quoted the president in an interview with CNN Brasil on Tuesday, saying that lock-in only applies in “extreme situations” and that the federal government will not impose it.
Journalists Rodrigo Pedroso and Marcia Reverdosa contributed to this report from Sao Paulo, Brazil. CNN’s Caitlin Hu also made a contribution from New York, Matt Rivers from Rio De Janeiro and Vasco Cotovio from London. CNN’s Lauren Said-Moorhouse wrote from London.