Opinion Analysis by Farah Termos, Staff Writer

May 30th, 2020

Dia de Finados, or “Day of the Dead”, is an annual event that occurs every 2nd of November in Brazil. On this ‘sad’ Memorial Day, Brazilians reminisce and experience “Saudade” over their deceased loved ones: they visit the graves of their friends or family, dreading the thought of them; longing for and missing them. However, this remembrance of death happens annually. Or so it traditionally should…

Brazil recently witnessed a spike in COVID-19 cases.

With the total number of deaths surpassing that of China and approaching those of Italy’s – Brazil’s death rate has become immensely critical, tripling in a matter of 2 weeks. 

As a result, people have taken to the streets, to riot, protest, and oppose the President Bolsonero’s arguably irrational approach, the damage left by the both the Health and Justice ministries, and the weak governmental restrictions around the virus. The sudden peak of 21,100 COVID-19 related deaths in just under 3 weeks has unfortunately deemed Brazil’s 2020 as the “Ano De Finados”: The Year of the Dead; where people will die and witness others pass, economies will perish, and politics, the sole reason behind such a tragedy, will inevitably come to a fail.

 

COVID-19 & its main contenders

Brazil, a country with a diversely confusing political and economic history, has consistently made international media headlines in the past two months regarding the coronavirus.

The virus, which infamously began in the Wuhan Province of China in late 2019, has left its mark on almost all the territories and continents of the world. With the number of reported cases down in China and Italy, which were the primary centers of the pandemic early on in March and April, the new hotspots of the virus as of May have become the USA (1,645,094), Brazil (332,382), and Russia (326,448), as of gathered statistics from the 23rd of May 2020. 

What is interesting about these numbers is that they reveal how Brazil, a country with a notably good initial start in handling the virus, ended up suffering greatly from the pandemic, primarily due to the developing poor response mechanisms. With over 21,000 reported coronavirus deaths as of May 2020, Brazil became the 6th country with the most virus-related deaths, a number which it is expected to later top.  This virus affected both the rich and poverty-stricken communities of Brazil, allowing for the entirety of the South American hemisphere to be the new WHO-declared hotspot for COVID-19.

  

25th of February to 15th of April: Brazil’s wee days with COVID-19

Brazil had a surprisingly calm beginning with COVID-19. While President Jair Bolsonaro criticized the virus and disapproved of the necessary, scientifically argued protective measures needed to be taken, Brazil initially managed to handle the crisis relatively well, reporting its first case on the 25th of February.

 However, beginning on the 15th of April, the country began to witness daily reports of circa 3,058 cases. Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta posed that Brazil’s growing poverty, scarcity of ICUs, and a lack of certainty regarding the accuracy of reported cases would surely transform the country into a future hotspot for the virus. Mandetta then criticized Bolsonaro’s opposition to physical distancing, as well as his blatant disregard and indifference to the virus, which led to his dismissal as the Health Minister on the 16th of April as the spikes were simultaneously on the rise.

 

April 16th to the 22nd of May: Political havoc wreaks a growing health crisis

Shortly after Mandetta was fired, Bolsonaro decided to place Nelson Teich as the new Health Minister. However, within less than a month, on the 15th of May, Teich resigned following clashes with Bolsonaro regarding the latter’s assertion in using chloroquine as a drug against COVID-19. Since Chloroquine was proven to have adverse side effects, it had not been approved as an administered drug against COVID-19. 

Subsequently to this political scandal, Bolsonaro appointed Eduardo Pazuello as the new Minister of Health. Pazuello has since then begun a series of efforts to implement Bolsonaro’s requests in formally signing off hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine (two drugs officially recognized for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and malaria), as well as an antibiotic as doctor-prescribed treatments for the coronavirus, all of which were criticized as treatments against the virus. 

This sparked outrage among Brazilian health experts, who claimed that the drugs would cause major side effects, likely leading to death, and would ultimately encourage Brazilians to break physical distancing measures imposed by their state governors – thus creating more feared havoc.

 

Ultimately, the head of Brazil’s Federal Police also changed. This was followed by the shocking resignation of widely acclaimed Justice Minister Sergio Moro over claims that Bolsonaro attempted to persuade him into swapping police chiefs to ‘best fit his interest’. In accordance with this claim, a video was released on the 22nd of May exposing Bolsonaro who admitted to his crime: “If I can’t change (them) then I will change their boss; If I can’t change their boss then I will change the minister.”

 

 

Brazil as a token in Bolsonaro’s Casino: “So what?”

Bolsonaro’s approach to tackling the problems posed by COVID-19 thus far, can be summarized with a direct quote from him: “So What?”

Bolsonaro’s constant swapping of Ministers, chaotic politics, and condescending attitude towards COVID-19 has evidently negatively impacted Brazil’s capacity to create the necessary ICU’s. More so, with such limited testing, Brazil’s official number of COVID-19 cases is said to be much higher than what is nationally reported, numbers that would make Brazil top the USA as the world’s main hotspot.

On the 20th of May, the country reported a shocking daily record of 19,951 cases of COVID-19. In fact, the number of COVID-19 cases have tripled since May 4th increasing by 978% since the dismissal of Health Minister Mandetta. Deaths have also increased by more than 981% with a reported 21,678 total deaths as of May 23rd. As bad as it is, only 35% of Brazilians associate the spike in COVID-19 related deaths with Bolsonaro according to research by The Brazilian report by PhD candidate Benjamin Fogel. 

Brazil’s economic situation has also weakened. With striking rates of poverty, the economy is expected to deficit by BRL 540.5 billion in 2020. Bolsonaro has promised his people with a BRL 60 billion in federal aid to communities that were hit the hardest by the virus. Nevertheless, his inability to implement appropriate measures to save his country foreshadow a disappointing future for Brazil according to Sealzaretton.  

 

What Now?

Despite the growing health crisis in Brazil, the country is planning to reopen its Sao Paulo Congonhas Airport for commercial flights only, along with a travel ban for entry of internationals for 30 days, as of May 23rd, 2020. In legislation, some Sao Paulo Congresspeople have voted against a 2-week national lockdown and have instead insisted on the extension of a 5 day holiday, in June, for the timespan of approximately 6 days in order to “raise social isolation rates”. 

However, that measure could be deemed unsuccessful, if isolation rates declined below 50% (with the current being 51%). As of May 22, the Health Ministry was swarmed with members of the Brazilian armed forces and federal prisons were reported to have over 800 cases of COVID-19.

With all this, and more to it, it is of no shocking news to find that the World Health Organization has most rcently declared South America as COVID-19’s new epicenter and officially stating that Latin America should expect a bleak in its declining health system. Brazil, the main additive to the COVID-19 spike in Latin America, is now the second country with the highest reported coronavirus cases worldwide.

Thus, with thousands of new graves being dug daily in the country, Brazil is set to experience an extension to its Dia De Finados. A testimony to its Saudade, a rather sinister “Ãno De Finados”, the “Year of the Dead”.