The Daily Beast
How Bolsonaro grabbed Trump’s crown as the world’s worst COVID leader
Carl De Souza / GettyRIO DE JANEIRO – Spurred on by the abuse and relentless bravado of President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s latest COVID boom, threatens to sweep the country to the forefront of the deadliest coronavirus outbreaks. Desperate medical professionals and local officials struggling to counter Bolsonaro’s antipathy to face masks, obstructions and until recently more vaccinations have told The Daily Beast that the virus is now completely out of control and they fear the death toll will continue to explode. . “The situation is desperate,” Dr Gerson Salvador, who works in the emergency room of a São Paulo hospital, told The Daily Beast. “And what we got here is the attitude of the president.” This week, for the first time since the pandemic began more than a year ago, Brazil surpassed 4,000 deaths in a single day – and experts warn that the worst is yet to come. . Across the country, cemeteries are running out and some cities have opened mass graves. In São Paulo, authorities believe they intend to bury victims in ‘vertical graves’ in drawers. Bolsonaro – who claims COVID was just a ‘little flu’ early in the pandemic, fought against isolation measures, arguing that it only harmed the economy. His disastrous handling of the crisis gave his approval rating a blow and weakened him politically. But in a country where millions work in the informal sector – as cleaners, taxi drivers or fruit sellers – many frustrated employees reflected his message, but mayors and governors still teased Bolsonaro and tried to impose restrictions trying to delay infections. In the run-up to Easter, cities like Rio de Janeiro imposed partial exclusions that closed bars, restaurants and beaches, but such measures remain very difficult for many Brazilians. Faced with pressure from frustrated voters and a sluggish economy, authorities in a number of states – including Ceará and Santa Catarina – will alleviate them in the coming days. In Rio de Janeiro, Mayor Eduardo Paes reopened schools across the city this week. , after a bitter court battle with opponents who fought to keep the lock in place. A partial exclusion of businesses in the city will also be lifted on Friday. Millions are being re-locked up due to failure of vaccination by Canada due to lack of national strategy and the premature reopening of many cities, the catastrophe will only deepen, said dr. Paulo Pinheiro said. , a Rio de Janeiro councilor at the left-wing PSOL party and a member of the city’s health commission. “What we have today is that each municipality and each state is handling the crisis in their own way,” Pinheiro told The Daily Beast. ‘There’s no way it can work. And the picture is frightening, with no better prospect. In a crowded hospital in São Paulo, dr. Vanessa Dinis a relentless stream of patients infected with COVID-19. When a bed is released with critical care in the emergency where she works, it is quickly filled by another patient who is struggling to breathe. “This is by far the worst situation we have experienced,” Dinis said during a shift at one of the three São Paulo hospitals where she works. “We see whole families being taken into critical care.” Dinis is one of thousands of health workers fighting on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, where the crisis has spiraled out of control in recent weeks. The virus has so far claimed 341,000 lives and infected more than 13 million Brazilians, quickly becoming the world’s worst outbreak. The country is now on track to break the U.S. record for weekly average deaths set in January (3,285), according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Infections in Brazil have exploded in part due to ‘ an extremely contagious variant, which was first detected in the Amazon city of Manaus earlier this year and has since swept the country with lighting. the experiment says that the variant, known as P1, could possibly evade the immunity and even infect those who were already sick by the virus. Increasingly, the profile of patients rushing to emergency rooms is also changing, according to Dinis, as COVID-19 infects younger Brazilians. “Fathers who have already been vaccinated or had a milder case of COVID last year,” she said. “Now they see their sons being hospitalized and incubated.” The dramatic increase in cases in Brazil has overwhelmed the health care system and collapsed it in some regions. It scrambled hospitals for critical care beds, oxygen supplies and important medicines. At the São Paulo Hospital where Salvador works, patients are visited in every free corner, including consultation offices and corridors. “We had to put patients, even in severe conditions, in makeshift rooms while waiting for an ICU bed.” ICU capacity is at more than 90 percent in 21 state capitals across the country, including Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and Porto Velho. . In the federal district of Brasília, hospitals’ critical care beds have run out completely. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, more than 600 people are waiting in line for ICU care – a waiting list that is three times the total capacity of the state. In Vitória, a coastal city in the state of Espírito Santo, dr. João Ferraz said the hospitals where he works are struggling to obtain drugs needed to intubate patients. It is also difficult to find beds with critical care in Espirito Santo, where the occupancy rate is about 93 percent. Why this Coronavirus boom is different from the rest “It’s really busy, it’s almost impossible to find a place,” Ferraz said in an interview with The Daily Beast before going to an overnight shift. ‘In the morning there are no beds. In the afternoon, a patient is discharged or someone dies. And these spaces are immediately filled. ‘In the hospitals where Dinis works, the ICU bed capacity has recently been increased, which has eased the pressure on emergency rooms. She says hospitals in São Paulo – the state with the most cases – are now struggling with staff shortages. “We are struggling to cover shifts in hospitals,” she said. “They increase the number of beds, but do not increase the number of health workers.” Doctors and nurses, meanwhile, are exhausted, Ferraz said. “We are completely drained. And without stronger restrictions or a vaccine, our hope that we will soon see an improvement is fading. ‘In Brazil, the vaccine has been delayed amid a shortage of doses. The country has so far struggled to get enough vaccines to immunize the population of 211 million, after Bolsonaro turned down early deals with vaccine manufacturers such as China and India last year. So far, less than 3 percent of Brazilians have received both doses. Salvador, meanwhile, says Brazil’s only hope of bringing the crisis under control is to eventually impose stricter closure measures across the country. “The answer is not in the health care system – we have already reached the limit. We have no more human capacity, “he said. We need a real exclusion, we need to stop the transmission of the virus. Without one, things will only get worse in the short term. And we will probably lose many more lives. “Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside delves deeper into the stories that matter to you. Learn more.