A leading scientist has warned that Brazil’s COVID-19 outbreak with the snowdrop has the potential to undo progress in the fight against the global pandemic.
Miguel Nicolelis, a neurologist at Duke University who is monitoring the crisis, urged the international community to pressure the Brazilian government to contain more aggressively the new variant, known as P.1, which is spreading there rapidly, The Guardian reported.
“People need to talk vehemently about the risks that Brazil poses to the fight against the pandemic,” said Nicolelis, who spent most of last year in São Paulo.
“What’s the point of sorting out the pandemic in Europe or the United States, if Brazil continues to be the breeding ground for this virus?”
Nicolelis warned that failure to prevent the virus from spreading could allow it to continue to move into more dangerous variants.
“If you allow the virus to proliferate to the level where it is currently proliferating here, you are opening the door for new mutations and even more lethal variants,” he said.
The scientist also hit the leadership of President Jair Bolsonaro, who repeatedly reduced the crisis, warning that it has international implications.
“The policies he is failing to implement are jeopardizing the fight against the global pandemic,” he said.
Brazil currently has the second highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, with more than 257,000 victims, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
The country has suffered the deadliest week to date, averaging nearly 1,200 virus-related victims a day, according to the health ministry.
Since the pandemic began, there have been more than 10.6 million confirmed cases in the country, the data show.
With Post threads