This article comes from the WeChat public account: New Weekly (ID: new-weekly) , author: m easy to three liters, the subject map from the IC photo
When Brazilians walked on the streets like they did every year before, hopping on the samba and looking at the floats, no one thought that this year ’s carnival carries a curse:
On February 25th, local time, Brazil ’s largest city, Sao Paulo, was diagnosed with the first case and the first case of new coronary pneumonia in South America. That was the culmination of Brazil ’s carnival.
People once thought that the “fear of heat” virus would not pose a threat to the hot, carnival Brazil. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ’s second largest city, had high hopes for the carnival in 2020. They planned to extend the time of the carnival to 50 days as early as January, hoping to build the largest carnival in Rio de Janeiro ’s history, “which will bring economic markets Over 4 billion funds “.
However, on March 5, the first confirmed diagnosis appeared in this carnival city. At present, the number of confirmed cases in Rio de Janeiro is second only to São Paulo, where the outbreak started.
The epidemic quickly washed away the aftermath of the carnival and spread from Brazil to all countries in South America. On March 20, Brazil officially entered the “public disaster” state.
As of 6 p.m. on April 12, Brazil had a total of 19,650 cases diagnosed with 1,141 deaths, the highest number of diagnoses and deaths in South American countries.
Aboriginal Brazilians living deep in the rainforest are not immune. On April 1, the virus crossed densely populated towns and infected a 20-year-old medical worker in the Amazon rainforest. As of April 8, 7 indigenous people from different states have been infected.
Previously, Dr. Sophia Menden of the Federal University of Sao Paulo expressed concerns about the infection of indigenous peoples. Once the virus spreads to the closed communities of indigenous peoples, the risk of extinction will be extremely high.
She is worried that the epidemic will cause a catastrophe like measles in the aboriginal community. “Everyone is sick, and all the old people leave the world with their life wisdom and social organization.”
Indigenous people are one of the hallmarks of Brazilian culture. They are mostly isolated from the world and have little contact with the outside world and the bacteria of the outside world. If the epidemic is not contained, these mysterious and colorful indigenous communities may die out of the virus.
The masks that were washed away by the epidemic are not only indigenous culture, the poor and the rich, the city and the jungle, the government and the gangster … These acute problems were hidden in the passionate samba and the carnival of the whole country. Along with the outbreak.
On March 16, health workers are disinfecting buses in Olinda, Pernambuco, Brazil. / Prefeitura de Olinda
Virus army is under pressure, but the president said do n’t panic
In the mouth of Brazilian President Bossonaro, the epidemic that spread all over the world is only a “small flu.” In March 6th, two large cities in Brazil have been infected, but Bosonaro said on TV: “There is no need to panic.”
The next day, Bosonaro visited the United States with a group of people. On March 12, Bosonaro ’s press secretary was diagnosed, and Bosonaro and the entire cabinet were forced to receive medicineSupervision. During this period, the president who was not afraid of the “little flu” also appeared in the parade in Brasilia, and did not wear a mask.
The state of São Paulo is contrary to the president in the fight against the epidemic. They soon announced the blockade, quarantine, closed stores, and quarantine across the state. The move made Bossonaro very dissatisfied. He repeatedly criticized the local government for “trivial matters” and called on people to start their normal work as quickly as possible. They even appeared to go to a market in Brasilia to shake hands with businessmen and take photos together, praising its persistence Business behavior.
Brazil President Bosonaro. / Palácio do Planalto / WIKI
For the state of São Paulo, which insisted on fighting against the epidemic, Bosonaro directly suspected that its governor had deliberately reported “too high” deaths for political purposes.
Bosonaro does not seem to care about the number of deaths: “Some people do die, sorry, this is life.”
Some foreign netizens responded like this: “Some people do die. But your job is to reduce the number of people who die.”
Bosonaro also said, “You ca n’t stop a car factory because of a traffic accident that will kill you.” / Screenshot from Reuters report
Ministry of Health Mandetta has been urging Brazilians to remain “socialDistance ”, and Bosonaro kept calling out“ Brazil ca n’t stop ”“ Isolation measures ca n’t be more ”. Revitalizing the economy is the promise of the president, and under the epidemic, his concerns about the economy remain It is much larger than the epidemic situation. The governors of various places that insisted on work stoppage and epidemic prevention are called “employment killers” by him. “It is a crime.”
For this reason, he almost took the initiative of the epidemic health minister Manta Tak, but failed due to various obstructions. In this federal system, the federal and the states have great differences on the issue of epidemic prevention.
Until April 8, the Brazilian Supreme Court Justice and former Attorney General Alexandre de Moraes ruled that state and municipal governments have the autonomy to enforce social segregation.
Alexander Moras believes that the state and municipal governments have the right to decide on the implementation of social isolation measures. / Pedro ladeira
Obviously, the president ’s efforts to protect the economy have not received local support, and there has been a strange unity in the Brazilian states-no one listens to the president. The Governor of Maranhao, Flavio Dino, said: “He knows nothing about the dead, the sick and their families.”
The turbulent voices of the people also accused the president. In a public opinion poll, Bosonaro’s support rate has fallen to 5%, and the Minister of Health Mandetta, which broke up with it, has obtained a very high support rate.
Even the social networking site Twitter took action against Bossonaro, deleting its postings encouraging resumption of work and talking with street vendors, because these things “contrary to public health information that is public, may put the public higher Risk of infection “.
São Paulo citizens who are isolated at home knock on pots and pans at night to express their anger at the president ’s passive anti-epidemic. / Guardian News
Mandetta is very cautious about new coronary pneumonia. He bluntly said that due to the lack of testing reagents and institutions, the actual number of infections is much higher than the statistics of the Ministry of Health. The backlog of samples waiting for testing in São Paulo alone exceeded 10,000.
Although the rate of growth of infected people in Brazil has been alarming, the peak is far from coming. Mandetta had expected the peak of the epidemic in Brazil from the end of April to the beginning of May, but now it seems that it may be June.
Even worse, the Brazilian medical system is not only fighting against the new coronavirus, but April and May are also peak seasons for diseases such as dengue fever, Zika virus and chikungunya. As of March 16, the Dengue Fever cases counted by the Brazilian Ministry of Health exceeded 220,000.
On the other hand, the lack of professional equipment such as protective clothing and masks has made Brazilian medical staff bear an extremely high risk of infection. The first medical staff infection case has appeared as early as March 16.
The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro has released a survey data recently. The test results of 700 medical professionals show that their infection rate is as high as 25%.
In São Paulo, the center of the storm, more than 3346 hospital employees have been quarantined and 737 people have been diagnosed, including medical staff and cleaners. In this situation, the Minister of Health, Manta, who actively advocates reducing outings and buying protective equipment everywhere, may be more representative of the will of the people of this country than the President.
The data shows that the initial sample detection rate is zero. After the first infection case of medical staff appeared on March 16, it showed explosive growth. / @ NBDVideo
The rich introduce viruses and the poor take risks
Although the active anti-epidemic measures led by Manta Tower have received a lot of support from the Brazilians, the government ’s measures are like clean water, and it is difficult to flow into the Brazilian slums. That is not even the light of God. Where to go.
The first case came from the city of Sao Paulo, a 61-year-old man. He has just returned from Italy and has been to Lombardy, where the epidemic is most severe. The second and third cases subsequently diagnosed were all citizens of São Paulo who had traveled in Italy. This richest and most prosperous metropolis in South America has become the storm center of the South American epidemic.
The first batch of infected people had the financial resources to travel abroad, either rich or politician celebrities. In the early stage of the outbreak, Brazilian civilians also believed in an interview with Agence France-Presse that this was just a “rich disease not related to the poor.”
But ironically, after the outbreak broke out in Brazil, it was the poor who lived in slums with the greatest risk.
The movie “City of God” tells the story of Brazilian slums
The gap between rich and poor in Brazil is world-famous. Behind gorgeous luxury apartments, it is often crowdedThe slums that are close by. The more developed cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the stronger the contrast between slums and skyscrapers.
There are two Brazils in the world, which belong to the rich in high-end apartments and villas and the poor in slums. There are few poor people and it is difficult to go to the rich area, and the balconies of the rich people are all on the other side of the mountain. Under the shadow of the epidemic, these two deeply divided groups inevitably became a community.
Publica, an American media, reported that a wealthy woman from Rio de Janeiro returned from Italy with symptoms of infection, but the housekeeping staff she hired did not know. A month later, the 63-year-old domestic worker died and became the first death case of the new coronavirus in Rio de Janeiro.
Dr. Beatriz Perondi, director of the Disaster and First Aid Committee of the São Paulo Clinical Hospital, also believes that the pre-infected people are concentrated in the upper and middle classes, so they have not caused a large-scale case growth. However, once they start spreading to the middle and lower classes, residents will not be able to guarantee even basic isolation.
A slum in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil. / Tetraktys
Several family members are crowded into a metal shed. Isolation at home is a fantasy. Not only is there a serious shortage of medical staff serving the poor communities, even the water and soap for hand washing are in short supply, not to mention food, Medicine, disinfection night or alcohol.
The Brazilians in the slums who have to work hard every day and serve the rich to fill their stomachs are faced with “either going out to be infected or starving to death at home.”
In the face of the government ’s announcement to persuade people to wash their hands frequently, an official from Rio de Janeiro ’s slums choked directly: “The tap water is intermittent and the mineral water ca n’t drink. Let ’s wash our hands?”
The 890,000 aborigines in the Brazilian jungle, like the poor, are in a dilemma of infection or starvation. Their income is very dependent on the tourism industry, and the outbreak is eliminated