This past week, Folha de São Paulo, one of Plataforma’s partners, did the math and presented a number. After 100 days, since the first confirmed case of Covid-19, this disease was killing one person per minute in Brazil.
These accounts could intersect with a more in-depth article in the New York Times, where it could be read that four populist world leaders corresponded to the four countries, where the Coronavirus spread more quickly and lethally. The NYT said that, in the opinion of the political scientists that I had heard, this pattern was not a coincidence. They are liberal politicians, who tend to reject the opinions of scientists in favor of some conspiracy theories, sometimes based only on the “common sense” of these leaders. The countries concerned, Brazil, the United States, Russia and Great Britain are really the four who paid the highest bill for a late – or less adequate – response to the emergence of this pandemic outbreak.
In Brazil – where every two people infected pass the virus to three more – the disease is still far from reaching its peak. The Pan American Health Organization says that the number of deaths by August will be around 100 thousand – in an encouraging scenario – admitting that it can rise more, much more, reaching 300 thousand deaths. In other words, twice as many fatalities across Europe.
On top of a jet ski, or on the back of a horse, Jair Messias Bolsonaro spends many minutes saluting supporters, at sea or on land, encouraging them to save the Brazilian economy that is galloping towards a crisis that is already going on. it comes from behind and keeps getting worse. It is good not to ignore the importance of the health of the economy, but the president of Brazil must not know the old Portuguese saying … it is better to lose a minute in life, than life in a minute.
And every minute that passes is fatal for a Brazilian.
*Plataforma Director
