Bolsonaro's management before COVID 19 in the spotlight again
By Maria Josefina Arce
Brazil experienced complex and sad days due to the incidence of Covid-19. The South American nation was one of the hardest hit by the virus in the Americas. And while it reported 700 thousand deaths and millions of infected people, some two million doses of vaccines were lost.
In the last few days, the Court of Auditors of the Union informed that it will proceed to investigate the irregularities registered in the storage of the immunogens which had been donated and had a specific expiration date.
It was also reported that about two million Covid-19 diagnostic tests, medicines and supplies were wasted, when many health care centers were reporting a lack of medicines to treat those infected.
The information has shocked the Brazilian society and once again exposes the bad management of the government of the now former president Jair Bolsonaro, who always played down the importance of the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The retired captain not only criticized the use of masks and isolation measures to prevent the spread of the virus, but also attacked the vaccines, about which he spread false information.
The far-right leader even associated vaccines with the possibility of contracting Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. In a live broadcast on social networks, he assured, without any scientific basis, that immunized people had a higher risk of contracting AIDS.
Bolsonaro discouraged vaccination in the Brazilian territory at all times, despite the critical situation that was being experienced, and that research, tests and application revealed that it was safe and produced the necessary immune response.
He also criticized the National Health Surveillance Agency for authorizing the inoculation of children between 5 and 11 years of age. He threatened to disclose the names of the regulatory agency officials involved in the decision.
In his statements, the President downplayed the importance of the death of about 300 minors in Brazil due to the disease caused by the new coronavirus, saying that the deaths in this population segment were almost zero.
In fact, the approval of the childhood immunization process at the national level was hindered on more than one occasion by the Bolsonaro government, even when a survey by the Datafolha Institute revealed that 79% of the participants supported vaccination in children.
Covid-19 undoubtedly put the world in check, but the delayed and inefficient management of the Bolsonaro government made the incidence of the virus in the nation even more serious and more than 37 million Brazilians were infected and their lives were put at risk.
