One year after the first case of Covid-19 in Latin America

Exactly one year ago, a man from São Paulo became the first person to be infected with the coronavirus in Latin America, and since then Brazil has entered an escalation that places it as the third country with the most cases and the second with the most deaths, while in the rest of the region he struggles to get doses of some vaccines and fears a possible second wave.

A 61-year-old man who had been in Italy – in Lombardy, in the north of the country – was the first official confirmed positive for Covid-19, when very little was known about the disease and no one imagined health, society and economic disaster in which would drift.

Since then, Brazil alone has counted more than 10 million cases and nearly 244,000 deaths, behind the United States and India. Colombia, Argentina and Mexico are the other countries in the region with significant numbers of cases, although their health systems have allowed them to avoid terrible images like those seen in Peru and Ecuador, for example.

Now, as Latin America fights for vaccines and allows respite in the number of cases, in part thanks to insistent prevention campaigns, it is Europe that faces fear of a third wave , this is why containments, border closures and curfews.

Brazil bought 130 million doses, possibly in late reaction from a government that underestimated the pandemic and even cheered on a president who left for history one of the phrases that will be remembered in 2020 : “it is a fluzinha”, he declared in his native Portuguese of Jair Bolsonaro in March, a few months before himself, was among those infected.

Bolsonaro’s outlook was directly linked to that of then-US President Donald Trump: minimize risk, appear in public without preventative measures, recommend simple disinfectants, make sure the situation was “under control” and, well sure, get infected later.

Other countries in the region had wavering policies, various restrictive measures “stronger in some cases, such as Argentina and Colombia; intermediate in others, such as Chile and Bolivia; and very moderate, such as Uruguay. – but they still seemed to be clear about the risk posed by the pandemic, which in the meantime is wreaking havoc on economies due to the paralysis of almost all industrial, commercial and tourism activities.

Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador have implemented “with obvious differences in scope and structure – vaccination operations.” Uruguay is the only country in the region that has not started immunizing and will do so as of Monday.

In Central America, meanwhile, measures were unevenly compliant, but smaller populations allowed for greater controls and now all of these countries are moving, albeit slowly, towards massive vaccination operations.

Of course, some states may have had millions to advance their purchases and others could barely count on a few thousand doses and now they are hoping that the Covax mechanism “created to immunize poorer nations – will do its part.

Europe, on the other hand, has a history of its own: today its top leaders discussed in virtual form the problems of vaccine distribution, how to deal with variants of the disease and controversial border closures.

In this third wave, the continent faces variants of the coronavirus from the United Kingdom, South Africa or Brazil, and the reaction of several members of the bloc has been to reinstate severe restrictions on travel and even closures. partial borders.

The EU has even sent warning letters to six countries about the damage that closing borders represents to the free movement of people and trade.

In addition, now that the continent is slowly abandoning winter, several countries heavily dependent on tourism urgently need to revive travel in search of a recovery, if not partial, of their economies.

As if that weren’t enough, the EU decided on an ambitious mass vaccination plan that ran into difficulties of access, mainly due to the delay of laboratories and companies in production and distribution.

The block has already cleared three vaccines (those from Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca) that require two doses, and Johnson & Johnson’s single-application vaccine could be approved in March.

The question of access has become central, and just as the summit of the G7 (of the most powerful countries) presented last week an aid plan for the poorest countries, the United States today launched a new call, this time to the G20, to increase aid to less favored territories as a means of stimulating the world economy.

In an email sent to her colleagues in the group on the sidelines of the virtual G20 meeting, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was clear: “I urge countries to increase their aid. A rapid and truly global immunization program is going to be the most powerful stimulus that can be given to the global economy. “

Good news has come from China, as its drug regulator announced today that it is approving two more vaccines against the novel coronavirus made by companies in that country.

The vaccines developed by CanSino Biologics and a unit of Sinopharm have received conditional clearance after being found to protect against Covid-19, the National Medical Products Administration said.