Brazil Is Becoming the New Epicenter of the Pandemic
An uncoordinated response, political polarization, and the sheer size of the country may help explain it
Brazil is now the country with the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths — only the United States has a more devastating case count. Over 100 days after the first case was confirmed in Brazil, the curve is still going up, likely far from reaching its peak. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently declared South America the new epicenter of the disease, with Brazil being the most affected in the region.
Yet, many Brazilians seem to downplay the gravity of the pandemic. In my hometown, Ourinhos, a small city in the state of São Paulo, people crowded the streets of the downtown shopping district when stores reopened, despite surging cases, one week ago. And this past weekend in the city of São Paulo, the largest in the country and home to over 12 million people, the most popular shopping street was brimming with customers who had to form lines outside the stores waiting for their turn to shop.
This posture of denial also impregnates some of President Jair Bolsonaro’s remarks on the novel coronavirus, most notably when he compared the disease with a “little flu” and responded “so what?” when a reporter questioned…
