Weeks ago, Brazil spawned the deadly P. 1 variant of the coronavirus, and what was once a problem for Brazil and its sociopathic and reckless leader Jair Bolsonaro is now a deadly problem for South America and beyond. Brazil shares a land border with nearly every country in South America (Chile and Ecuador being the exceptions). Brazil and its Bolsonaro government have not been aggressive in containing the original virus or the new variant at home, not surprising since Bolsonaro has been referred to as the "Trump of the Tropics" due to his personal style and extremism. The Associated Press reports that Brazil has passed the 300,000 mark for deaths from the virus, but Bolsonaro is seemingly unconcerned:
"Mere miles from Brazil’s presidential palace, the bodies of COVID-19 victims were laid on floors of hospitals whose morgues were overflowing. Lawmakers fielded calls from panicked constituents across the country, where thousands awaited intensive care beds, and they had no effective health minister to turn to Sunday.
Meanwhile, a smiling President Jair Bolsonaro met hundreds of supporters to pass out pieces of green-and-yellow cake in celebration of his 66th birthday. The mood was jubilant even as the country approached a bleak coronavirus milestone.
Brazil was in political disarray as it surpassed 300,000 deaths from the virus Wednesday evening. Foes and even some allies are pleading with the president to change course to stem a recent surge of daily deaths accounting for almost one-third of the total worldwide." (our emphasis)
While his Trump-like cult of followers may not care about their super spreader events, Bolsonaro's neighbors' health care systems are straining and breaking under the weight of the exported P. 1 variant. According to the Washington Post:
"In recent weeks, it has been carried across rivers and over borders, evading restrictive measures meant to curb its advance to help fuel a coronavirus surge across the continent. There is mounting anxiety in parts of South America that P.1 could quickly become the dominant variant, transporting Brazil’s humanitarian disaster — patients languishing without care, a skyrocketing death toll — into their countries. [snip]
In Lima, scientists have detected the variant in 40 percent of coronavirus cases. In Uruguay, it’s been found in 30 percent. In Paraguay, officials say half of cases at the border with Brazil are P.1. Other South American countries — Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile — have discovered it in their territories. Limitations in genomic sequencing have made it difficult to know the variant’s true breadth, but it has been identified in more than two dozen countries, from Japan to the United States.
Hospital systems across South America are being pushed to their limits. Uruguay, one of South America’s wealthiest nations and a success story early in the pandemic, is barreling toward a medical system failure. Health officials say Peru is on the precipice, with only 84 intensive care beds left at the end of March. The intensive care system in Paraguay, roiled by protests last month over medical shortcomings, has run out of hospital beds." (our emphasis)
In the face of growing unrest at home and among his neighbors, Bolsonaro is taking a page from the Trump authoritarian playbook. He's decided to dig in and arm his supporters:
"Bolsonaro, a former Army captain who expresses nostalgia for Brazil’s three decades of military rule, has said he wants to arm citizens to prevent a dictatorship from taking hold. He has suggested armed citizens could counter local government restrictions on activity during the pandemic.
'An armed populace will end this game of everybody needs to stay home,' the president said on Christmas Eve."
Brazil has its own would-be dictator and sociopath to deal with. The health of Brazil and the rest of the continent and beyond depend on his defeat at the polls next year.
(photo: A new graveyard in Manaus, Brazil filled with COVID victims. AFP)
