RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll, which exceeded 250,000 on Thursday, is the second highest in the world, for the same reason that its second wave has not yet disappeared: prevention has not been never a priority, experts say.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has ridiculed the “little flu” and robbed local leaders of imposing restrictions on activity; he said the economy must continue to hum to prevent more serious difficulties.
Even when it approved social payments for the pandemic for the poor, they were not advertised as a means of keeping people at home. And the Brazilians stay out as vaccination has begun, but the launch has turned out to be much slower than expected.
“Brazil simply did not have a response plan. We’ve been through this in the last year and we still don’t have a clear plan, a national plan, “Miguel Lago, executive director of the Brazilian Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health officials, told the Associated Press. “There is no plan at all. The same applies to vaccination. ”
While cases and daily deaths in other countries have declined, the largest nation in Latin America is parked on a high plateau – a grim rehearsal since mid-2020. In each of the last five weeks, Brazil has averaged more than 1,000 of daily deaths. Official figures showed a confirmed death toll of 251,498 on Thursday.
At least 12 Brazilian states are in the middle of a second wave even worse than the one they faced in 2020, said Domingos Alves, an epidemiologist who tracked COVID-19 data.
“This scenario will get worse,” Alves told the AP, adding that the virus is spreading faster among the population. In the state of Amazonas, where the capital, Manaus, saw hospitals without oxygen last month, there were more than 5,000 deaths in the first two months of the year, about as many as in 2020.
“This is the most difficult moment we have had since the confirmation of the first case,” Carlos Lula, chairman of the National Council of Health Secretaries, was quoted as saying by O Globo. “I’ve never had so many states with so many difficulties at the same time.”
Alves and other public health experts said the spread was exacerbated by the authorities’ reluctance to follow the recommendations of international health organizations to implement stricter restrictions.
It is up to governors and mayors to impose blockages or other restrictions to contain the virus. The states of Sao Paulo and Bahia have recently introduced night extinguishers, but experts say the moves are too late and insufficient.
“There are no isolation measures; are palliative measures, always taken after the fact, “said Alves, who is also an assistant professor of social medicine at the University of Sao Paulo.” “Blockade” has become a curse in Brazil. “
Miguel Nicolelis, a prominent Brazilian scientific neurologist, warned in January that Brazil should either blockade or “we will not be able to bury our dead in 2021.” He had advised the northeastern states on how to combat COVID-19, but recently left his position, dissatisfied with their refusal to enter the blockade, the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper reported.
“Right now, Brazil is the largest open-air laboratory, where it is possible to observe the natural dynamics of coronavirus without any effective isolation measures,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “Everyone will witness the epic devastation.”
There are a few exceptions, but they remain marginal and have failed to inspire a wider movement.
Sao Luis, the capital of the northeastern state of Maranhao, was the first Brazilian city to be completely blocked in May last year. It was successful, despite Bolsonaro’s efforts to undermine the restrictions and sow doubts about their effectiveness, according to state Governor Flávio Dino.
“It has been very difficult to manage remote and preventive measures,” Dino said, adding that the first hurdle was an economic and social one, especially after the federal government’s pandemic emergency relief program ended last year.
Lago noted that Bolsonaro rarely even comments on the pandemic and has effectively shifted to other priorities, including providing support to Congress for weakening arms control laws and adopting economic reforms. His administration is trying to re-establish some COVID-19 welfare payments, but for a smaller group of needy Brazilians.
The only preventive measure consistently supported by Bolsonaro was the use of treatments such as hydroxychloroquine, which did not show any benefit in rigorous studies.
The Bolsonaro administration has also taken a practical approach to the vaccination campaign. It was mainly based on an agreement to purchase a single vaccine, AstraZeneca, which came slowly. The national immunization effort so far has been based mainly on CoronaVac fires in China, provided by the state of Sao Paulo, although the federal government is now trying to buy more.
Decades of experience in Brazil with successful vaccination programs and its extensive national public health care network have led many experts to believe that immunization – even if it starts late – would be a relatively quick business. In previous campaigns, the 210 million nation has managed to vaccinate up to 10 million people in a single day, health experts noted.
Five weeks after the first shooting, Brazil vaccinated only 3.6% of its population. This is more than double that of Argentina and Mexico, but less than a quarter of Chile, according to Our World in Data, an online research site that compares official government statistics.
“There is no way to be fast with a lack of vaccines; this is the crucial point, “said Carla Domingues, who coordinated Brazil’s national vaccination program for eight years, until she left office in 2019.” Until there is a greater supply, the speed will be slower, because we have to continue to select who can be vaccinated. “
Meanwhile, the virus continues to spread throughout Brazil and take effect.
In the state city of Araraquara in Sao Paulo, there have been more deaths so far this year than last year, and the occupation of intensive care units has exceeded the maximum capacity, people on waiting lists to enter intensive care and receive treatment . Local authorities responded on Sunday by announcing a complete blockade – making Araraquara only the second city to impose such a restriction.
“We never imagined we would get to this point,” said Fabiana Araújo, a nurse and city committee coordinator to fight COVID-19. “It was the only option.”
—— AP writers David Biller contributed from Rio and Mauricio Savarese from Sao Paulo.