Dramatic warning from renowned coronavirus scientist: “If the world does not help Brazil and India, the pandemic will not be brought under control”

Today, the world looks with growing fear on India and Brazil, the two great epicenters of the pandemic in coronavirus worldwide and outbreaks of new strains that threaten to further exacerbate an already worrying situation.

In this context, the neurologist Miguel Nicolelis, one of the leading figures of the Brazilian scientific world, issued a blunt warning: “If the international community does not come to the aid of Brazil and India urgently the pandemic will not be brought under control in the world“.

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In dialogue with TN.com.ar, the eminent neurologist and member of the French and Brazilian academies of sciences warned: “The world must press economically and politically and must help Brazil to obtain more vaccines and emergency drugs.”

And he added: “We have problems with the supply of basic drugs for the intensive care units.”

An uncontrollable crisis

Brazil is experiencing an unprecedented health emergency with more than 70,000 infections and over 3,000 deaths per day, according to the latest official figures from the Ministry of Health. The country has already reached a monthly death certificate with around 68,000 so far this month, surpassing the previous March mark of more than 66,500 deaths.

“The situation is critical, extremely serious. The pandemic is out of control and we are seeing variants of the virus in various regions, ”warned Nicolelis, a professor at Duke University in the United States, where he leads a group of researchers in the field of neurology.

Miguel Nicolelis, Brazilian scientist

The pandemic is out of control in Brazil

Nicolelis is well aware of the health situation in her country. At the start of the pandemic, it served as coronavirus scientific advisor for nine northeastern states. And now he is very concerned about the emergence of new strains equal to or more dangerous than that of Manaus, which is rampant in Brazil and throughout the Southern Cone of the continent.

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“We have variants inside São Paulo, in Minas Gerais and others that have not yet been studied. And they are afraid. They are very similar to South Africans, ”he warned.

The São Paulo scientist said that the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), linked to the Ministry of Health, “identified five or six strains»Which are studied to determine their dangerousness and their degree of contagiousness.

Miguel Nicolelis, Brazilian scientist

We have variants inside San Pablo, in Minas Gerais and others that have not yet been investigated. And scare

And he added: “In Brazil there is also the strain from the UK, probably the strain from South Africa and it is not known for sure whether that from California. The question today is whether that of India is also present ”.

“A global risk”

The new Indian strain was first detected in the Indian state of West Bengal and is considered a double mutation of the virus.

It is believed to be responsible for the explosion in infections India is currently experiencing, with more than 350,000 cases and 2,800 daily deaths from COVID-19 this week. The variant has already been identified in Switzerland, Belgium and the Czech Republic and is starting to raise alarms around the world.

“Brazil is the threat to all of Latin America and with India we are a global riskNicolelis warned.

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For the expert, the official figures that the Asian country deals with are well below reality: “There are scientists who warn that the number of cremations in 7 states of India is 21 times more than those officially reported “.

What is the responsibility of the government of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil

Nicolelis said that the health emergency that Brazil is going through is due “essentially to the fact that since the beginning the central government has not coordinated to fight” the pandemic.

President Jair Bolsonaro “minimized the importance of the crisis, denied its seriousness and not only did he not prepare Brazil “for the eventuality, but he also had” attitudes clearly contrary to what he should have done to fight the virus. “

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He added: “Some people think it was even intentional. Bolsonaro has bet on collective immunity, whatever the risk of having hundreds of thousands of deaths ”.

Today, Brazil has killed nearly 400,000 people since the start of the pandemic with more than 14.3 million infections. In several cities, there are strong restrictions such as the ban on night traffic in effect in São Paulo, the industrial and economic heart of the country. Faced with this situation, Bolsonaro threatened last weekend to take the armed forces to the streets to “put an end to this cowardice of the curfew”.

“Bolsonaro made serious mistakes”, Nicolelis declared and concluded: “Now we threaten all of Latin America“.