Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has faced widespread criticism for his government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

Brasilia, March 23 (RHC)-- Hundreds of Brazilian business leaders and economists blasted President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and called for a new policy approach as the country enters a critical phase of its COVID-19 outbreak.

The letter, published Monday in newspapers and signed by former central bank chiefs and some of Brazil’s richest bankers, underscored a growing revolt by business leaders against the far-right president whom many had backed for his 2018 election.

Without naming Bolsonaro, they rebuked “the country’s highest political leadership” for ignoring science, encouraging crowds, hyping unproven treatments and “flirting with the anti-vaccine movement.“  The presidential press office did not respond to a request for comment.

Bolsonaro on Monday said he had not yet been convinced to change his long-held stance against lockdown measures.  Speaking at an event in Brasilia, Bolsonaro said lockdowns only served to make the poor poorer, and he refused to moderate his position against stay-at-home measures that he said kill jobs.  He added that Brazil’s focus should be on destroying the virus and not attacking his government.

A surge of infections has made Brazil the latest epicentre of the pandemic, with the virus killing more than 15,000 people last week and pushing hospitals across the country to the limit.  The country has reported more than 11.9 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 294,000 coronavirus-related deaths to date, according to Johns Hopkins University data – second only to the United States.

Brazil’s government is racing to obtain fresh supplies of drugs needed to safely intubate patients, Jarbas Barbosa, assistant director of the Pan American Health Organization, said on Monday, after concerns of shortages arose this month.

It is also struggling to obtain and distribute COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate its population. On Saturday, the government said it was in discussions with the US to secure surplus vaccine doses.

Bolsonaro last week named a new health minister – the fourth since the pandemic began – as he said Brazil was entering a “more aggressive” phase in its fight against the virus.  “We are on the verge of an explosive phase of the pandemic, and it is fundamental that, from now on, public policy be based on data, solid information and scientific evidence,” wrote the business leaders and economists.

“The country is tired of out-of-place ideas, inconsequential words and late or mistaken actions,” they said.  “Brazil demands respect.”

Among the signatories were Roberto Setubal and Pedro Moreira Salles, whose families control Itau, Brazil’s biggest bank; Pedro Passos, co-founder of cosmetics maker Natura & Co, and former central bank presidents Gustavo Loyola and Arminio Fraga.

In a broadside against the government, they called for more urgency in sourcing vaccines, free masks for the needy, better federal coordination on the pandemic and consideration of a national or regional lockdown strategy.

The message from such prominent economists and bankers cut at Bolsonaro’s core political argument that he has defended jobs by opposing lockdowns, which the letter called a “false choice between saving lives and ensuring support for the vulnerable."  “It’s not reasonable to expect an economic recovery in an out-of-control epidemic,” they wrote.

Meanwhile, Sao Paulo’s state government said it had obtained guarantees from oxygen suppliers that they will be able to keep up supply for public hospitals, and announced that brewer AmBev will also produce the gas at one of its plants in the state.