Violation and denial of health recommendations amid pandemic

The video made by TV Folha, one of the large-circulation Brazilian media outlets, shows the beginning of a terrifying scenario. Ever since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, president Jair Bolsonaro was already back and forth between negationism and comparisons between human losses and economic damage stemming from social distancing. One month after its first covid-19 report, Brazil reported 428 cases.

A year later on March 18, 2021, the number of daily deaths was almost three times bigger than the number of cases tallied up to March 18, 2020. Brazil almost reached 12,000 confirmed covid-19 cases on that date, having already 287,795 deaths in total. Even though Brazil accounts for about 2,7% of the world population, the country amassed 25,76% of covid-19 deaths in the world, according to the platform Our World in Data.

The data reflect a persistent disregard towards the scientific guidelines related to covid-19. They equally point to an ‘institutional strategy to spread the virus,’ according to a research report. Taking only the President’s speeches and actions into account – such as his presence at clusters –, LAUT has listed at least 252 media reports of transgressions against health recommendations, as well as acts encouraging such violations, by the end of April 2021. Nonetheless, the real number is likely bigger: according to UOL Portal, Bolsonaro was part of 62 clusters only from March 13 to May 13, 2020. This means that the President attended gatherings more than once per day.

Bolsonaro’s covid-19 negationism gave birth to several woeful catchphrases. ‘Little flu’, ‘widespread panic’, ‘so what?’, ‘I am not a gravedigger’, ‘early treatment’, ‘Chinese vaccine’, ‘back to normality’, ‘[the virus] is like the rain: you’ll get soaked when it comes, but you’re not going to drown’ and many other disdainful phrases characterized the President’s rhetoric at that time. All of them go against what WHO calls ‘risk communication’, the first core element of an intervention in any public health emergency. As stated by Professor Deisy Ventura, from the School of Public Health of the University of São Paulo :

For the risk communication strategy in Brazil, differently from experiences in other emergencies, we can count on the media. In a terrifying and disconcerting way, what is transforming Brazil into an international outcast is the federal government itself. It has been working against public health by eliminating this first core element which is the risk communication. It undermines the population’s trust in local public health authorities.”

The federal government has furthermore feuded with state governors and mayors. Apart from mere disdain for public health measures promoted by them, the President has taken formal action to forbid local authorities from functioning. On that same March 18, 2021, he filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court against governors’ decrees that imposed movement restrictions, incorrectly comparing such measures to a state of emergency.

Two months later, Brazil still maintains a high covid-19 death toll, behind only India on the global scale. By May 18, 2021, the country registered about 439,4 thousand deaths and over 15,7 million confirmed cases. The creation of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee started to probe into actions, omissions and fund allocation to states and cities which took place during the Bolsonaro Administration. The Committee has brought to light the disdainful political decisions going on behind the scenes, whose reflection is casted on more than 250 violations of public health recommendations by the President.

Check below the timeline of those violations since March of last year.