Rachel Humphreys talk to your Latin American Guardian correspondent, Tom Phillips, about the Covid crisis in Brazil. An increase in infections related to a new and apparently more contagious variant has overwhelmed hospitals in the state of Amazonas, leaving many without the most basic supplies. Circumstances were so grim that oxygen tanks were rushed across the Venezuelan border, the nation collapsed economically alongside its leader Nicolás Maduro, denouncing what he called “Jair Bolsonaro’s public health disaster.”
Tom tells Rachel about how the public reacted to Bolsonaro and how his government handled this latest wave of infections. The inoculation began last Sunday, a few weeks after other Latin American countries, such as Chile and Mexico. But Brazil, which has 212 million citizens, has so far provided only 6m doses of China’s CoronaVac vaccine and 2m of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine.
Archive: YouTube – Airside TV – Manaus tour; BBC News; G1; Sky News; KondZilla – Bum Bum Tam Tam (2021); Al Jazeera; Bloomberg; France 24
Photos: Marcio James / AFP / Getty Images
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