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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Good Governance |
|---|---|
| located: | Brazil |
| editor: | Ellen Nemitz |
Brazilian scientists have sequenced the coronavirus genome just 48 hours after the first case in Latin America. The National Center for Research on Energy and Materials is investigating a medicine which can reduce virus levels in the blood by up to 94 per cent. Unfortunately, Brazil is on the front pages of several newspapers not for these achievements, but for the opposite: the President Jair Bolsonaro continues to ignore and attack social distancing recommendations for reducing the virus spread and fired the Health Minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, a great science advocate.
The discharge happens in the middle of the pandemic, when Brazil has not reached even its peak and some hospitals begin to catch sight of collapse. This is the same as changing the boat captain in the middle of a storm: no matter if the next one is good, the transition time will put the boat and the lives inside it under risk.
The Guardian, BBC, The Washington Post, Le Figaro, Deutsche Weller and many other international media highlighted the popularity of Mandetta, who had more than 76 per cent approval, and political disagreements that led him out of charge (not only social distancing, but also the use of chloroquine and related derivative, hydroxychloroquine, without further studies). The WHO’s executive-director, Michael Ryan, thanked Mandetta for his work and reaffirmed necessity of evidence-based decisions for all countries.
The new Minister – the oncologist doctor Nelson Teich, with long a history in private health – faces probably one of the biggest challenges in life: to defeat the coronavirus, for sure, but also to defend scientific recommendations of social distancing while Bolsonaro claims for the unthinkable choice between economic development and lives.
Even though schools, universities and shopping malls remain closed, non-essential commerce in many cities are already reopening under some conditions such as mandatory use of masks and people are resuming normal life. When going to supermarkets or drugstores, citizens of Brazil might see bars and restaurants open with customers inside – sitting side by side.
On Sunday, April 19, protesters went to the streets to ask for the end of social distancing, to attack important democratic institutions (the National Congress and the Supreme Court) and to ask for military intervention. They also claimed the return of AI-5, one the most censoring and deathly acts of the 1964-1985 dictatorship. No wonder the president went, once more, to the middle of the crowd. Without masks. Not even the military of his government approved this new public appearance at a pro-coup event.
When facing a pandemic, we need a strong and responsible leadership aligned with science. In Brazil, however, the stay-at-home recommendation is under dispute and those who support the president simply ignore it; some governors and mayors are also beginning to allow the reopening of non-essential business without any condition of the World Health Organization being achieved.
The result can be up to 1.1 million deaths, according to Imperial College London modeling in unmitigated scenery. Under Bolsonaro’s administration, coronavirus wins.
