Brazil may be just the tip of the iceberg as coronavirus hit Latin America

With Brazil’s immense wealth inequality, perforated social safety nets, and densely populated slums, Brazil is an ideal host for illness disasters.

But why this whole storm erupted in such a catastrophic way can be best seen by looking at how its far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro, handled the coronavirus crisis.

Called Trump in the Tropics because of the populist’s zeal and antiscientific approach to government, Bolsonaro repeatedly downplayed the threat posed by COVID-19, touted against unproven cures, and locked down against them. Participated directly in the protest.

The result is a crisis, worse than experts feared, and worse.

Brazil has become the second member of a special club that no one wants to join after reaching over one million cases of coronavirus infection.

At the time of writing this, infectious diseases reached 1.4 million-second only to the United States-health professionals believe the actual number could be seven times higher.

If the country continues on this trajectory, its death toll may exceed that of its northern neighbor by August.

Brazil faces a tough road

National health authorities are also addressing awkward new developments.

Coronaviruses originally arrived in Brazil via airports and spread through densely populated coastal cities.

However, the virus is now booming from the populated poor in major coastal metropolises and into inland cities and poor rural communities.

Last week, 60% of new cases were registered in a small city, according to Ministry of Health data.

Deaths have also increased outside of major cities, accounting for about half of the daily deaths in Brazil today.

“The problem is that only 20% of Brazilian municipalities have the conditions to keep severe patients in the intensive care unit,” Rio-based pulmonologist Margareth Darcolmo told ABC. ..

“Therefore, if there is transmission or spread of these inland vectors or infectious diseases, we will have new logistical challenges regarding the transport of all these patients.”

There are two problems.

First, higher mortality is inevitable in areas where there is no health care.

But for those who can travel, infected people can also head to major cities for treatment and cause a tsunami of new patients in a hospital already under siege.

“It’s a boomerang effect,” said Julio Kuroda, the chief infectious disease advisor to the former Ministry of Health in Brazil.

Back in February, Dr. Croda warned that this could happen without strict social distance guidelines.

He formulated a detailed policy for the government, which was severely rejected by Mr. Bolsonaro and forced Dr. Croda to resign.

“It’s common in Brazil; some cities in the south already have this effect,” he said.

“In some cities where the virus isn’t very prevalent, there’s probably a big boomerang effect.”

Dr. Croda warns that as Brazil continues down this path—increasing numbers of cases and deaths—they are likely “outperforming the United States in the next 1-2 months”.

Coronavirus brought “tragedy tragedy”

Nurse Christina De Andrade Susa has seen a medical catastrophe holding the play of her country in real time.

“I know at least 10 people died of the coronavirus. I’m one. I’m one,” she said, “mortality is very high.”

“For those of us who work in the healthcare system, we see it in our everyday lives, among our friends.

“The tragedy of a family tragedy. We see no signs of it slowing down or breaking curves.”

Andrade DeSouza travels from his homeland inland to one of Rio’s busiest public hospitals for over two hours.

She is not alone. Brazilian hordes are moving from poor inland communities to coastal metropolitan cities to work every day.

“People are very moving. Some are moving to get medical treatment, others are just moving to escape imprisonment,” says Ms de Andrade Souza.

“I’m very worried because I can’t control the virus.”

She has good reason to worry. The virus is reportedly killed Brazilian nurses have a faster rate than any other part of the world.

As of late May, Federal Nursing Council said more than 15,000 nurses had coronaviruses, 137 of them died.

“I have a friend who is contaminated,” said Deandra Desouza.

“The pollution levels are very high among the people I work here here in Brazil, working as medics and nurses because of the lack of services and protective equipment.”

Still, despite the increase in incidents, major cities in Brazil are moving to resume operations in an attempt to restart their sick economy.

Now that the unemployment rate has soared to 12.9%, nearly eight million Brazilians are unemployed due to a pandemic.

However, the impact of the potential second surge of incidents can complicate the process of economic recovery.

Awkward case numbers emerge across Latin America

Brazil has received worldwide attention due to its astonishingly horrifying headlines, but much of Latin America is also under attack by the virus.

It has spread to all countries in the region, with triple the number of cases recorded in the past month.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Peru is now fifth in the world with nearly 300,000 cases, and Chile is sixth with 288,000.

In Mexico, more than 245,000 cases have been recorded, but the positive rate is surprisingly high— Over half of those tested have returned positive results.

“It’s not a single criminal, a criminal, or a government,” said infectious disease expert Eileen Bosch.

“We were talking about a large social gap in the structure of Latin American countries-the gap is terrible.

“In addition to having the fewest resources most, and being carried over to the COVID-19 scenario, there are irresponsible governments.”

A Venezuelan and Massachusetts-based biologist warned that the world would never know that the reach of the virus in Latin America was real.

“It’s an already ill structure, it’s very unfair, it speaks of a lack of good government as well as a lack of democracy, it’s just a deadly combination of the two,” Bosch said. Stated.

“There is our consequent death to measure impact, but it remains unclear how pervasive COVID-19 is in various parts of Latin America.”

When the Southern Hemisphere enters midwinter, these countries are not talking about the second wave.

Most of Latin America are still seeing that everyday case, and deaths are rising, so they’re not even the first.

Like many other Brazilians, she faces the threat of coronavirus at home and at work, and she no longer wants her government to act.

“The federal government is absent, that is, the language is absent,” she said.

“We shouldn’t focus on a lot of political controversy and gossip. It’s a personal choice if the government doesn’t want to deal with it.

“One by one, we will overcome this and come back to life.”