Sao paulo – Brazil’s fight against dangerous coronavirus variant has left its hospitals at breaking point, with new cases skyrocketing and the death toll rising drastically. One expert told CBS News that Americans “should be very concerned about” the prospect of the mutant virus, or others not yet detected, and gaining a foothold on American soil.
The COVID-19 boom in Brazil is driven by both the highly contagious P-1 strain which was first detected in the country, and strong criticism of the government’s response to the pandemic. The variant has already been found in more than half of the US states.
As CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez reports, the situation in Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, and across the country is dire. When the P-1 variant began to take hold last month, the intensive care units in hospitals in more than half of Brazil were already 90% or more.
CBS News saw first-hand what the situation looks like is getting worse, pushing the strong health care system in Brazil to the brink. Every patient in Sao Paulo Hospital Geral de Vila Penteado suffers from COVID-19. There is no room for others.
De Jesus told Bojorquez that in her experience, less than half of the patients she treats are likely to recover from the disease. Surprisingly, she said that more and more of the patients are in their twenties, thirties and forties.
Unlike ICUs in the US, the wards in her hospital are open, with no barriers between patients. It feels like a worst case scenario for medics desperately trying to save lives. Bojorquez watched people intubate to sit on ventilators while a patient gets chest pressures in another room. It is a daily struggle that haunts those who work at the facility, and numerous others across Brazil.
“Most of the cases, the last thing they see is me, the nurses,” de Jesus said.
Scientists believe that the P-1 variant is fueled the boom. Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, a leading professor of neuroscience at Duke University’s School of Medicine, told CBS New that the strain is two-and-a-half times easier to transmit from person to person, and this is of concern to everyone. , even outside Brazil’s borders.
“If I were talking to anyone in Oklahoma, I would have told him or her to be very concerned about it,” Nicolelis told Bojorquez. “Because if Brazil is out of control, the world will be out of control in a few weeks. Because varieties that breed here every day, every week … they will escape.”
He said he had spoken months ago about the worsening threat in Brazil, but few had listened – especially President Jair Bolsonaro, who has criticized for disregarding the pandemic and combating restrictions imposed by some governors, including Sao Paulo’s.
“We are currently fighting two viruses, the coronavirus and the ‘Bolsonorovirus’,” Joo Doria, Governor of Sao Paulo, told Bojorquez.
Doria has drawn the annoyance of Bolsonaro’s supporters, but he believes the limited restrictions he was able to apply in Brazil’s most populous state – home to more than 46 million people – including the closure of shopping malls, have begun to show results.
But he said the measures he could take without the national government coming on board were simply not enough to combat the health crisis.
“We must be united at this moment against the virus, not divided, and we are divided,” he said. ‘We plead [for a] currently closing. We are currently in the red phase. It’s a closure, a local closure, to orient people to stay at home at the moment. Please stay home. ‘
Brazil’s health ministry says about 3% of the country’s population has been fully vaccinated. The country currently uses two vaccines that have not yet been approved for use in the US, but the drugs most commonly used in the US show mixed results in protection against the P-1 variant.