Again, health minister quits in Bolsonaro’s Brazil

This 2 May 2020 video says about itself:

Brazil’s Bolsonaro: Turning COVID-19 denial into media spectacle | The Listening Post (Full)

On The Listening Post this week: Brazil’s President Bolsonaro and COVID-19 misinformation. Plus, how well has the WHO performed as a key information source during the pandemic?

Brazil’s Bolsonaro: Turning COVID-19 denial into media spectacle

A president at odds with his advisers and scientists over COVID-19, who has said the virus is no worse than the flu, and whose supporters accuse the media of hyping up the story. Not Donald Trump, but Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.

Even as deaths in Brazil surpass China, President Bolsonaro continues to downplay the pandemic. After firing his health minister, he went on to attend a “protest” demanding military intervention to lift the lockdown. He also has the support of two of Brazil’s biggest media players, Record TV and SBT. Whether Bolsonaro is in denial, or just playing politics, they are standing firmly by his side.

Contributors:

Andrew Fishman – Managing editor, The Intercept Brasil

Gustavo Ribeiro – Founder, Brazilian Report

Bob Fernandes – Journalist and commentator

Leonardo Custodio, Postdoctoral researcher – Abo Akademi University

Not even Brazilian right-wingers can stand Bolsonaro; if these right-wingers have studied medicine.

Translated from Dutch NOS radio today:

Brazilian Health Minister Nelson Teich resigned nearly a month after taking office. He disagrees with President Bolsonaro‘s wish to use the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine against corona.

Like President Trump, Bolsonaro is very enthusiastic about the anti-malarial drug. However, recent research has shown that in the treatment of covid-19 it is not or hardly effective and has life-threatening side effects.

In the US, a study was stopped due to a large number of deaths in the research group. It can cause cardiac arrhythmias, sometimes so severe that they lead to cardiac arrest.

Teich also disagrees with the relaxation of the lockdown measures. Gyms, beauty salons and hairdressers were open again last week. He thought that was too early and said the decision would have been made without him. Teich’s predecessor quit last month for the same reasons.

BRAZIL IS THE NEW EPICENTER OF THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak surged to cataclysmic levels on Tuesday afternoon when the country recorded 1,179 deaths from COVID-19 ― a record daily high for a nation that now has more than 270,000 confirmed cases overall. Brazil passed Italy and Spain on the list of countries with the most coronavirus cases last weekend, then passed the United Kingdom on Monday afternoon. Only Russia and the United States have more ― although researchers have said that a lack of testing means Brazil’s count is likely far higher than official figures suggest. [HuffPost]

Brazil records 1,179 COVID-19 deaths in a single day amid spiraling political crisis. By Miguel Andrade, 21 May 2020. Even as it closes ranks behind Bolsonaro’s back-to-work campaign, the Brazilian ruling class is conscious that it is bringing Brazil to the brink of a social explosion.