Coronavirus News: Brazil Losing The Fight As Infections, Death Toll Gallop

The coronavirus numbers coming out of Brazil are grim. The death toll in the country surpassed 20,000 with over 310,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, as of Friday 9.18 a.m. GMT (5.18 a.m. ET), according to Worldometer, an online statistical reference website.

A lot of criticism is being directed toward President Jair Bolsonaro who rose to power in 2018. The president was elected as a political outsider, unencumbered by the rampant corruption existing in the established corridors of Brazil's government. An investigation that was named “Car Wash” exposed a network of corruption among Brazil’s political and business elites that was described by some as “breathtaking.”

Bolsonaro appointed Judge Sergio Moro, a popular figure, as his justice minister that seemed to bolster his reputation as anti-corruption. Moro became known as the “Car Wash Judge.”

Bolsonaro was elected as a member of the right-wing Social Liberal Party but left it soon after taking office. For close to two years he slashed regulations, some aimed at preventing land grabbers from setting fire to the forest to clear it for farming.

He brushed aside environmental protections for the Amazon rainforest, a global hot topic for environmental activists, and the rights of indigenous communities in favor of agricultural interest that brought on the wrath of the international community. When pressured by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to slow the land-burning, Bolsonaro responded by telling her to “reforest Germany.”

The international media saw an obvious similarity between the Brazilian president and his counterpart in the United States who was elected in 2016. Bolsonaro became known as the Trump of the Tropics with his willingness to touch on the more sensitive aspects of Brazilian politics.

The similarities between Brazil and the U.S. may apply to their leaders but other comparisons by far favor the U.S.

The Trump-led country has the means to handle a major health crisis with existing systems well in place. However, even with its resources, the U.S. has reported over 96,000 deaths and is further divided along the usual lines of politics, race, and wealth.

Brazilian health care is patchy at best for millions of people. Miguel Nicolelis, one of the most respected scientists in Brazil, who is coordinating a committee for northeastern states to track the virus’s spread, raised the alarm over a worsening situation saying in a May 21 Time article, “Despite the very serious problems in the U.S., the exponential curve of cases and deaths in Brazil suggests we are not even close to our peak yet.”

Bolsonaro is facing another issue in that his administration is crumbling around him. On April 24, Sergio Moro, the popular minister, resigned over his accusations that the president was interfering with the federal police. His approval rate is falling and it did not help his image when he was seen riding on a jet-ski and later joked about the coronavirus saying, “There’s nothing to be done [about it].” The date of the jet ski image was May 9, the day Brazil passed 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus.