Is the President of Brazil just as big of a threat to his country as COVID-19? By Iola King-Alleyne

Recently, Brazil’s far right-wing president has come under immense scrutiny for his disregard of the current COVID-19 pandemic and medical advice to place the country under lockdown restrictions.

Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, comes from a traditional, military background. Since he came into office on January 1st 2019, his beliefs have caused a lot of controversy. He is both hated and praised in Brazil for his stance on certain things, such as openly opposing same-sex marriage, homosexuality, abortion, affirmative action (policies favouring groups that have been widely discriminated against to increase their opportunities), drug liberalisation and secularism (the belief that religion should not be a part of affairs of the state or the education system).

Recently, The Lancet, a British medical journal, named Mr Bolsonaro as the biggest threat to Brazil’s COVID-19 response. This comes after the President was asked for his response on Brazil hitting a record in its daily death toll and he replied “So what? I’m sorry but what do you want me to do?”… rather ironic considering his job is to protect the citizens of Brazil and try his best to reduce the impact of the pandemic. Of course, he received a lot of criticism after saying that, but his disregard for the pandemic was shown again when he referred to COVID-19 as “a little cold”. Yet in the same week, Boris Johnson referred to it as “the most vicious threat this country has faced in my lifetime”, highlighting how different Mr Bolsonaro’s attitude towards the pandemic is to that of other leaders.

To take things further, Mr Bolsonaro joined an anti-lockdown rally on 20th April, where thousands of people all crammed together to protest lockdown measures, arguing that they would be detrimental to Brazil. On a Facebook live, he said that imposing lockdown would be “dictatorial”, so he was very enthusiastic in his support of the protest. Rather ironically, the President was photographed coughing at the rally, but wasn’t wearing a protective mask or gloves like many of Brazil’s other politicians.

Jair Bolsonaro’s relaxed attitude to contracting the virus himself comes from the claim that he has the “history of an athlete”, even though being 65 years old puts him in a high-risk group. Of course, it didn’t take long after he said that for a video to resurface online of him struggling to do press-ups alongside former ally João Doria (São Paulo state governor), who is seen doing them with ease – quite embarrassing for the President who often depicts himself to be a strong military ‘macho man’. Now, they are sworn enemies due to Doria’s support of lockdown measures.

In Brazil, 25% of the country is in poverty and many can’t afford to go on lockdown because the impact would be too detrimental to their lives and their families. Without going to work, many would be unable to feed their families or pay their bills, and unlike universal credit or the furloughing scheme in the UK, there is no kind of baseline governmental support system which provides the money needed for these necessities. Also, cramped and small living conditions in Brazil’s favelas (shanty towns with typically low income habitants, located on the outskirts of big cities) make social distancing practically impossible.

However, in Paraisopolis, Sao Paulo’s second largest favela, the residents are taking matters into their own hands to combat the virus. Through donations, volunteers have been able to distribute 10,000 free meals to local residents and provide private ambulances. They have also appointed “local street presidents” whose job it is to check that everyone on their street is okay, and have turned closed schools into buildings where residents who are unable to self-isolate can come and sleep. Furthermore, they have opened an “Adopt-a-Housekeeper” programme where people who previously were housekeepers for Sao Paulo’s rich can receive a payment of $55, funded by a crowd-funding project. All of this has been done in the hope that other favelas will follow their lead and impose the same measures, to help reduce the impacts of the virus in the poorest areas, with minimal governmental help.

As the days go by, the situation in Brazil worsens. Seemingly, the stress and pressure of the pandemic has brought out a chaos of primitive politics that have showcased the irresponsibility of Mr Bolsonaro. Already, the number of confirmed cases has surpassed the UKs, leaving only Russia and the US above; but by the time that you are reading this it probably will have surpassed Russia too. It is predicted that by August, Brazil could have experienced 80,000 deaths due to COVID-19, however, the President continues to be ignorant to the loss, pushing for things to get back to normal. Having opened facilities such as hairdressers and gyms recently, it’s unlikely that the spread of the virus will slow down anytime soon. We can only hope that all Brazilians, especially the poorest, are able to recover from the devastating effects of the virus.



All of this information is up to date as of 22/05/20