Doctors Without Borders warned Brazil was experiencing a “humanitarian catastrophe” due to its “failed” response to the coronavirus

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Thursday that Brazil experiences “humanitarian catastrophe” over President Jair Bolsonaro’s government “failed” response to pandemic. The international organization has urged that centralized coordination be carried out in the South American country to prevent further spread of covid-19.

“We are extremely concerned about what is happening in Brazil. It is extremely alarming “, said the international president of MSF at a press conference, Christos Christou.

MSF, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, warned that the “lack of political will” is costing the lives of thousands of people in Brazil, where the virus has already claimed more than 360,000 deaths and 13.6 million confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, a little over a year ago.

“So that other preventable deaths do not continue, Médecins sans frontières (MSF) calls on the Brazilian authorities to urgently recognize the gravity of the crisis and to put in place a central system of coordination and response to COVID-19 “, said the international organization in a statement.

Brazil is the second country with the most deaths from covid-19, after the United States. Unlike the North American nation, where the trend is downward, in the South American country, the epidemiological curve remains unchecked.

Doctors Without Borders recalled that last week, Brazil recorded 11% of new coronavirus infections and 26% of reported deaths worldwide. “On April 8, 4,249 deaths from COVID-19 were recorded in the country in just 24 hours, along with 86,652 new infections. These unacceptable figures clearly demonstrate the inability of the authorities to manage the humanitarian and public health crisis that the country is going through ”.

The tragic situation in Brazil was encouraged by Government ‘inability’ to respond to the pandemic, lack of coordination, omission of scientific evidence and dissemination of false information, as indicated by the Director General of the Brussels Center, Meinie Nicolai, during the press conference, without directly quoting Bolsonaro.

Since the start of the pandemic, the Brazilian president has severely criticized social distancing measures, questioned the effectiveness of masks and defended the use of drugs without proven effectiveness in the fight against covid-19. like hydroxychloroquine.

Added to this is the collapse of part of the Brazilian health system, which suffers from a shortage of drugs and equipment to intubate patients with severe coronavirus.

“The government is letting the Brazilian people down (…) It’s not just about getting medical supplies like oxygen, sedatives, and PPE, if needed. The use of a mask, physical distancing, strict hygiene measures and the restriction of movement and non-essential activities in the community should also be promoted and implemented among citizens, depending on the epidemiological situation of each. place, ”added Nicolai.

MSF, which works in armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and malnutrition in some of the world’s poorest countries, also criticized the lack of planning and coordination between federal health authorities and their state and municipal counterparts and assured that it “has fatal consequences”.

In this sense, the medical and humanitarian organization recalled that last week, intensive care units (ICU) “collapsed in 21 of the 27 capitals of Brazil”. “The devastation that MSF teams first witnessed in the Amazon region has now become a reality in much of Brazil,” he said. Pierre Van Heddegem, who served as the emergency coordinator for MSF’s coronavirus response in Brazil until a few days ago

For this reason, the president of the organization urged the Bolsonaro government to respond urgently to the pandemic, with coordination at all levels and “based on science”: “Public health measures have become a political battleground in Brazil.”

“Not only are patients dying without access to medical care, but medical staff are exhausted and suffer severe psychological and emotional trauma because of the conditions under which they have to perform their work, ”Van Heddegem explained.

MSF also warned against the shortage of local health professionals: “And despite this, foreign health workers, and even Brazilians who have foreign certifications, cannot work in Brazil.”

In its press release, the international body questioned the slow progress of vaccination in the country: “So far, only 11% of people have received at least one dose. This means that millions of lives in Brazil, and even beyond its borders, are threatened by the more than 90 variants of the virus currently circulating in the country, as well as by new variants that may emerge ”.

And he concluded: “The response in Brazil must be relaunched urgently, based on science and in a coordinated manner, in order to avoid more deaths and the destruction of the previously prestigious Brazilian health system.”

The alert issued today by Médecins Sans Frontières is in line with the study published in the journal Science, a world scientific reference, in which A group of ten scientists from the United States and Brazil accuse the Bolsonaro government of being primarily responsible for the mistakes made during the pandemic.

The article cites the causes that have favored the spread of the virus in Brazil, including the absence of a blockade between cities and states, the low number of tests carried out, the absence of a national policy of social distancing and the refusal of certain leaders.

The study was published the same week that the Senate authorized the opening of a parliamentary inquiry against Bolsonaro for the management of the coronavirus health crisis, an illness the president insisted on calling the flu.

With information from EFE

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