The Coronavirus Hits Brazil Hard, but Jair Bolsonaro Is Unrepentant

 

"This misconduct pales in comparison with the comportment of Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, who is behaving with absolute and deterministic irresponsibility. From the onset of the pandemic, he has dismissed COVID-19 as a “little flu,” and has insisted on holding rallies and personally greeting supporters, pointing out that “We will all die one day.” Perhaps taking a cue from Trump, whom Bolsonaro admires, he has attended protests held by anti-shutdown supporters and encouraged uprisings against state governors who support quarantine measures. In some gatherings, he has been seen coughing repeatedly, though he now wears a mask in public; he was tested twice for COVID-19 after an outbreak among his senior staff, but has refused to release the results.

Each day brings a new Bolsonaro-instigated outrage. In mid-April, he fired the respected health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, after weeks of feuding publicly with him over measures to protect the public. The President later explained his action by saying, “Mandetta’s vision was that of health, of life. Mine is more than life, it includes the economy, jobs.” A week later, on the same day that Brazil’s death toll from confirmed coronavirus cases exceeded five thousand, he asked a reporter, “So what? I’m sorry, but what do you want me to do about it?” Bolsonaro is not only not doing anything about it; he has actively campaigned against efforts to control the pandemic, arguing that quarantining people and stopping economic activity will turn Brazil into an impoverished “African” nation. In fact, Brazil’s social and economic inequalities were well advanced before COVID-19, and redressing them was not a top priority of Bolsonaro’s government."

read article by Jon Lee Anderson​

The Coronavirus Hits Brazil Hard, but Jair Bolsonaro Is Unrepentant | Politicopathy