While most countries across the world implemented measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro dismissed concerns of the spread and refused to consider measures to safeguard the population. So far Brazil has registered 53,000 cases and over 3,600 people have died from the virus. Scientists believe the spread in Brazil has reached over 1 million people.
Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Brazilian journalist and researcher, Aline Piva, after Brazil’s Justice Minister, Sergio Moro, garnered…
The post How Bolsonaro and COVID-19 are pushing Brazil towards military dictatorship appeared first on The Grayzone.
The coronavirus pandemic has started to have another profound effect: The political leadership of the world is being transformed. No world leaders have as yet been actually killed by the virus. But several have been incapacitated, one major leader appears already to have been toppled with a second under sudden threat while the policies and world views of several others have been turned upside down and inside out.
Throughout the world in countries that elected right-wing anti-government libertarian leaders – from the United States and Brazil to the United Kingdom and Australia – incompetence and lack of preparedness for the Covid-19 pandemic will directly lead to hundreds of thousands of needless deaths. The political rhetoric of those leaders who practice “barbarian laissez-faire” policies have been exposed by Covid-19 as worthless pablum designed to enthrall their unthinking supporters.
teleSUR | April 2, 2020
The packed living conditions, poor sanitation, lack of healthcare and flouting of lockdown measures make Brazil’s slums – home to around 11 million people or 6 percent of the population – particularly vulnerable to the virus.
A couple of weeks ago I visited my doctor at the cancer hospital she works in. The policy there has always been to not admit anyone with infectious diseases. The hospital just cares for cancer patients and is also a major research center for cancer cures. A huge number of patients are immune-compromised and any kind of infection could be a death sentence. During our chat, she told me that doctors there had been asked-- I didn't ask by who but I assumed it was a government entity-- to start wrapping their heads around ceasing to treat elderly cancer patients. I think she said 60 or 65.
