COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
The COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Brazil on 25 February 2020.
Quotes
[edit]- For my track record as an athlete, if I was infected with the virus, I wouldn't have to worry.
- Jair Bolsonaro, on national television about the request of health authorities asking people to isolate themselves at home to prevent the spread of the virus. As quoted in Bolsonaro: "For my track record as an athlete, if I was infected with the virus, I wouldn't have to worry" by Inês Pinto Miguel, 25 March 2020, Jornal Económico
- So what? I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? My name's Messiah, but I can't work miracles.
- Jair Bolsonaro, in Brasília, on 28 April 2020, after being told by reporters that Brazil had achieved a record 474 COVID-19-related deaths in a day. 'So what?': Bolsonaro shrugs off Brazil's rising coronavirus death toll. The Guardian (29 April 2020).
- There is a lot of people in soccer that are favorable to a return because unemployment is knocking on clubs’ doors too. Footballers, if infected with the virus, have a small chance of dying. That's because of their physical state, because they are athletes. [...] The decision to restart soccer is not mine, but we can help.
- Jair Bolsonaro, on restart the Brazilian football leagues, during an interview with Rádio Guaíba, 3 May 2020. As quoted Brazil’s president wants soccer to return amid pandemic (April 30, 2020) by Mauricio Savarese, Associated Press, and in Brazil's President Is Out With Another Super-Bad Coronavirus Take: Soccer Players Can't Die From It by Tim Hume, 3 May 2020, Vice
- O Brasil é o único país do mundo em que o Ministro da Saúde vai cair por ter decidido combater o Coronavírus.
- Brazil is the only country in the world where the Minister of Health will fall for having decided to fight the Coronavirus.
- Guilherme Boulos, in a Twitter post, on Luiz Henrique Mandetta who was fired by Jair Bolsonaro after disagreements over social distancing policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, quoted in Brazilian President Bolsonaro Fires Health Minister Who Refused To Downplay Pandemic by Travis Waldron, 16 April 2020, HuffPost
- Brazil is the only country in the world where the Minister of Health will fall for having decided to fight the Coronavirus.
- A South American country, a cult leader, a drug and the deaths of thousands of fanatic followers may sound like the tragic story of the Jonestown Massacre. But these details could just as well serve as the introduction to another devastating chapter in Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's administration, as he leads Brazil into chaos amid the coronavirus pandemic. The eerie parallels between the Rev. Jim Jones and Bolsonaro recall the old adage that history repeats itself — first as tragedy, then as farce.
- The mass suicide at Jonestown was the final episode of this tragic story — the end result of a personality cult around Jones, a paranoid narcissist. Jim Jones was enthralling, persuasive and power-hungry. He thrived on attention, adoration and adulation. He was equal parts bully and charmer. Such a description could be equally applicable to Jair Bolsonaro, who maintains the devotion of his base by engaging in inflammatory rhetoric, reactionary policies, and racist dog-whistles — a behavior that echoes a cult mentality.
- The similarities between Jones and Bolsonaro reside in their use of outlets to belittle, mock and bully their opponents. Bolsonaro constantly points new enemies to his fervent followers as a way to keep them united and motivated to fight for him. Anyone that criticizes or disagrees with Bolsonaro is considered an enemy, and every effort to shut them down is justified.
- Just before Jones decreed mass suicide, he told his followers to "stop these hysterics," using the same terminology that Bolsonaro invokes to assail preventive coronavirus measures. But instead of drinking cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid to stop the hysteria, Bolsonaro has been urging people to take hydroxychloroquine, a drug that hasn't been fully tested in treating COVID-19, and giving people a false impression of being contagion-safe so they can go back to work. As Brazil's COVID-19 death toll surpasses 600, Bolsonaro is doubling down on his manipulation tactics and motivates his followers to go out in the streets to protest against isolation measures. This brings his own "necropolitics" to a whole new level — in which his political actions are also centralized on the large scale production of the death of his own base — thus setting the stage for a tragedy greater than Jonestown.
See also
[edit]- COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
- COVID-19 pandemic in Cuba
- COVID-19 pandemic in France
- COVID-19 pandemic in India
- COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
