'We failed': one scientist's despair as Brazil Covid-19 deaths hit 100,000

"For months Natalia Pasternak has implored Brazilians to take science and coronavirus seriously, in a marathon of TV appearances, newspaper columns, live streams and podcasts.

“I’ve given interviews at 2am,” said the microbiologist and broadcaster who runs a civil society group called the Question of Science Institute.

As the epidemic has raged, Pasternak has condemned President Jair Bolsonaro’s chaotic, anti-scientific response; denounced fake news and unproven treatments such as chloroquine and ozone therapy; and urged her country’s 210 million citizens to respect quarantine measures aimed at controlling coronavirus.

“Reopening … is a recipe for disaster,” the 43-year-old scientist warned on a recent talkshow, as lockdown efforts withered despite the soaring number of infections and deaths.

Yet five months after Brazil’s first confirmed fatality, Pasternak is despondent and fears her work has been in vain."

read newstory by Tom Phillips

'We failed': one scientist's despair as Brazil Covid-19 deaths hit 100,000 | World news | The Guardian