About ten days ago, the British magazine « The Lancet » wrote a violent indictment of the extreme right-wing president’s morbid and deadly incompetence, which was covered by many media.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31095-3/fulltext

It must be said that the journal is better known for the excellence of the scientific articles it publishes than for its political and/or geopolitical positions. And if « The Lancet » comes out of its reserve, it is because Brazil is rushes every day a little more into a health cataclysm. Confirming some of our earlier remarks on the shortage of public intensive care beds (SUS) in many Brazilian states, as well as their concentration in too few places (only 500 out of 5,500 municipalities are said to have them), The Lancet points out that the rate of transmission of Covid19 in Brazil is the highest in the world (R= 2.81). It takes only 5 days for the number of deaths linked to covid19 to double. Yet Bolsonaro continues to push Brazilians to go about their usual (economic) business. Worse, he goes to see his « fans » whom he encourages to meet at the « planalto » in Brasilia and lends himself gracefully (and unconsciously…) to the presidential exercise of crowd bathing! The situation risks (if it isn’t already) getting out of control. There are more than 1000 deaths per day related to the infection and some epidemiological studies predict a number of deaths far higher than in the United States. The inhabitants of the favelas, abandoned by the public services in the greatest destitution, find survival only by working outside, at the risk of contaminating themselves or their loved ones. The aid granted, while it has the merit of existing, is too small to correspond to the reality of covering primary needs. While the logic of globalization explains the presence of many epidemic outbreaks in Brazilian metropolises, particularly Rio and Sao Paulo, more and more cases are being identified in cities that are getting smaller and further away from major urban centres. And it is in these remote locations that the rate of contamination is highest. Caring for patients from deep rural areas will prove difficult, limiting the chances of survival for the most affected patients. The Amerindians may face a new « state genocide » as the invasions encouraged by Bolsonaro have multiplied the killings of Indians in recent weeks and the interactions have also increased the covid infections of the Indians, the oubies of the Brazilian health system. The magazine concludes its editorial with « Brazil, as a country, must unite to give a clear answer to the « So what? » of its president. Bolsonaro must radically change course or he will be next to get out of the way ».