Record of deaths and health collapse: Brazil is going through its worst time

RIO DE JANEIRO.- Exactly one year from the first confirmed case coronavirus in the country, a 61-year-old man who had traveled to Italy and returned to São Paulo, Brazil is going through its most difficult hours due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The public health system (SUS) is going through its most critical moment, with record bed occupancy rates in nearly 20 capitals, and the country has experienced the deadliest day since the start of the pandemic on Thursday: 1,582 deaths in 24 hours.

Not much seems to have changed in Latin America’s largest country. Almost like a carbon copy from a year ago, when Jair Bolsonaro qualified as “flu” the new coronavirus, the right continues with a position contrary to science.

After Thursday’s daily report, which brought the total number of confirmed deaths to more than 251,000, Bolsonaro spoke to hundreds of thousands of people on his regular Facebook broadcast. The Brazilian president said he had in his hands an alleged study on the “disadvantages and side effects” of wearing a chin strap.

“I’m not going to go into details because it all ends with a review of me. Everyone has their opinion [sobre el uso de barbijos]We are awaiting a more in-depth study on this subject ”.

Given the lack of active public policies from the federal government, the prospective scenario is critical, according to specialists and health officials consulted by THE NATION. The lack of an “environment” to put in place severe lockdown measures, the acceleration of infections due to the presence of viral variants and a vaccination campaign that is progressing with difficulties due to the shortage of doses they make up the cocktail they plan for at least two more months with a high number of deaths and infections.

“Bolsonaro’s absurd statement [sobre los barbijos] This comes at a time when he tries to distort the discussion due to the lack of control of the pandemic, ”said Jesem Orellana, epidemiologist and researcher at the Fiocruz Foundation in the Amazon unit.

The specialist mentioned that at the worst time of the pandemic, federal government calls for “fun” strategy he was already using in January, when hundreds of patients died in the Amazonian capital Manaus of suffocation from lack of oxygen. On this occasion, the Ministry of Health tried to justify the lack of control of the crisis by relying on the new Brazilian variant of Covid-19 and on the absence of the so-called “early treatment” against the virus.

In the past five weeks, Brazil has recorded an average of more than a thousand deaths per day. The virus spread quickly thanks to the presence of the Brazilian variant, first detected in Manaus, and the British variant also identified on Brazilian soil.

The worsening pandemic has led 15 states to have intensive care bed occupancy of more than 90%, according to the chairman of the National Council of Secretaries of Health (Conass). “We have never had so many difficulties in so many States at the same time”, admitted Thursday with concern Carlos Eduardo Lula, president of Conass.

Containment measures

Several states, in different regions of the country, have advanced in the last hours with Containment measures. 17 capitals have a bed occupancy of over 80%. The most committed are Porto Velho (Rondonia), where there is total occupation, Florianópolis (96.2%); Manaus (94.6%) and Fortaleza (94.4%).

The government in Santa Catarina, in the south, ordered a lockdown for this weekend between 11 and 6 a.m. Something similar had announced this week the governor of San Pablo, João Doria, where a nighttime lockdown began until March 14. In Bahia, Governor Rui Costa suspended non-essential activities for the weekend with a terrifying message: “Brazil will plunge into chaos in two weeks”.

Ethel Maciel, doctor in epidemiology and professor at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), said that in all cases it was warm palliative measures, with very limited impact. The specialist warned that the collapse is larger than in the first wave of the coronavirus because this time the beds in both public and private systems are being filled.

“We are continuing with the same mistakes to avoid the crowds, there is no tracing of infections, we have the new strain and besides, our doctors are exhausted. They got sick, many did not have vacations and work on grueling diets “Maciel assured.

The UFES professor said it would take at least three weeks of severe lockdown to save lives that will be lost due to the high circulation of the disease. The specialist has calculated that deaths from the disease will not drop drastically until the country reaches the figure of 80 million doses applied.

Vaccines

Five weeks after the start of the vaccination, Brazil has applied more than 8 million vaccines against the coronavirus. About 6.5 million Brazilians, or about 3% of the population, have received at least one dose.

Miguel Lago, executive director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies, highlighted SUS’s success in vaccination and viral disease eradication campaigns in the past. The SUS musculature would allow the country to vaccinate much more. In 2010, Brazil vaccinated 80 million people against the H1N1 flu in three months.

“Last year, the erratic response to the pandemic was due to a criminal, but electoral, calculation by Bolsonaro. Now, for lack of vaccines, he simply shows that he is an incompetent president in a government taken over by incompetent soldiers, ”summarizes Lago.

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