Bolsonaro’s COVID-19 Response Meets Public Backlash

Brazilians protest Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. [Wikimedia Commons]

Critics say Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is not adequately addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The global community has come together over the past few weeks to implement preventative measures so that COVID-19 will not overburden the health care system in any country. Many leaders have warned their countries about the dangers of the virus and endorsed preventative measures, according to CBS. 

However, Bolsonaro’s recent statements have been met with public backlash. He has called the virus “a measly cold” and claimed that “God is Brazilian,” so “the cure is right there,” reports the New York Times. Confronted with the rising number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, Bolsonaro bluntly replied that “some will die, and such is life.” 

Congressional leaders, editorial boards, and the head of the Supreme Court are urging Brazilians to ignore Bolsonaro’s remarks and to follow the lockdown measures being implemented by local leaders, according to the New York Times.

The New York Times further reports that Bolsonaro responded by likening public reactions to “hysteria” and accusing local politicians of inflating coronavirus figures. 

So far, all but three of the 27 Brazilian states have ignored Bolsonaro’s continued calls for the country to end its quarantine, instead choosing to follow the advice of international health organizations. 

The Brazilian Senate is also taking the virus seriously—it has passed an assistance package that will give a $115 monthly subsidy to 30.8 million informal workers in Brazil for a period of three months. The Senate has also declared a state of public calamity, which will allow it to exceed spending caps, particularly on health care, according to Estadão. 

The first case of coronavirus has been confirmed recently among Brazil’s indigenous population of about 85,000, reports the Guardian. Indigenous leaders have been adhering to isolation guidelines and shutting off access to roads to protect their communities, which have no guarantee of receiving medical care. 

The New York Times reports that in Rio de Janeiro, community leaders are urging people to self-quarantine, and drug gangs have imposed nightly curfews.

The strong response on the part of local leaders, despite their president’s noncompliance, is preventing the pandemic in Brazil from escalating too rapidly. In turn, citizens are calling for the impeachment of Bolsonaro—one petition sponsored by Brazilian politician Fernanda Melchionna sports more than a million signatures. Maria Herminia Tavares de Almeida, a political scientist at the University of Sao Paulo, has asserted that Bolsonaro remains in power only because “no one wants to create a political crisis to oust him in the midst of a health emergency.” Bolsonaro will either need to come to terms with the severity of the global pandemic or potentially face the end of his presidency.