The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has just tested positive for COVID-19. Like most politicians, Bolsonaro has supported profit-making over saving lives. And, like Trump, he has also opposed any lockdowns and other necessary measures to reduce the spread of the virus because it would be bad for business. Even the drug gangs in Brazil’s capital have taken the pandemic more seriously than this president.
In Brazil, the coronavirus, which Bolsonaro calls a “little flu,” has killed 67,000 people, and the virus is still surging. There were 48,000 new cases reported yesterday. This puts Brazil in second place world-wide for deaths by coronavirus. Donald Trump can be proud that the U.S. is still Number 1.
In March, when asked whether Brazil’s outbreak could get as bad as the US, he answered: “I don’t think it will reach that point. Especially because Brazilians have to be studied. They don’t get anything. You see the guy jumping into the sewer there, going out, diving, right? And nothing happens to him.” Tell that to the families of the 67,000 who have died from this “little flu.”
Bolsonaro and Trump aren’t unique. They just express more openly the contempt that those in the ruling class have for ordinary working people. The fact that now, after months of willful neglect, Bolsonaro too has contracted this virus is just a tiny consolation for all of the misery that working people have had to face from this pandemic.
featured image credit: TV Brasil
