President Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for COVID-19 as virus devastates Brazil
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday that he tested positive for COVID-19 as he continued to downplay the threat of the disease that has killed more than 65,000 in Latin America’s largest nation. With more than 1.6 million confirmed cases of the respiratory disease, Brazil has become the world’s second-worst-hit country, trailing only the U.S.
“I’m well, I’m very well,” a mask-wearing Bolsonaro told a small group of reporters outside the Alvorada Palace, his official residence in Brasilia. “Like I said in the past, this virus is like the rain; some will get wet, but most will just get sprinkled,” he said in a video posted on YouTube and shared by him on Twitter.
Bolsonaro, 65, has consistently trivialized the disease, calling it “a little flu” and dismissing public-health recommendations to wear a mask and stay away from large gatherings. While local and state authorities in the nation of 210 million have imposed social-distancing measures since mid-March, Bolsonaro has dismissed the efforts, often scolding governors and mayors for what he says is a useless campaign that will only create more unemployment and deepen Brazil’s economic crisis.
The far-right leader suggested he might have caught the virus while interacting with supporters during several crowded events and demonstrations that he has attended over the past few months, never wearing a mask and shaking hands liberally. He also said he believed he had already caught the virus “early on.”
In mid-March, after visiting South Florida and dining with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Bolsonaro said he was tested after some members of his delegation contracted the virus. At the time, the president said he did not have the disease, but the actual test result was never disclosed.
Bolsonaro didn’t seem concerned about being ill on Saturday, when he was pictured with his arm around Ernesto Araújo, Brazil’s foreign-relations minister, and sitting beside Todd Chapman, the U.S. ambassador to Brazil, at a Fourth of July barbecue at the diplomat’s residence.
The U.S. Embassy in Brasilia said Chapman will be tested and that he isn’t showing any symptoms.
As recently as last Friday, Brazil’s leader was pushing back against measures to slow the spread of the virus. He used his veto power to water down a law requiring face coverings in public places, removing provisions that mandated masks in churches, schools and shops. He also vetoed an item that would have ordered the federal government to distribute masks to low-income communities and undid a provision calling for a nationwide campaign to inform the population about the importance of wearing face coverings as a way to protect against the virus.
While the federal law is meant to inform local governments, Brazil’s Supreme Court in April ruled that the federal government cannot interfere with states’ and municipalities’ own policies on addressing the crisis, so Bolsonaro’s vetoes don’t have much teeth.
He has also pushed out members of his staff who were critical of his management of the pandemic. Brazil doesn’t have a permanent health minister after two doctors were forced from their jobs in less than a month when they clashed with Bolsonaro over public-health policies and treatment methods.
The former congressman also said the illness doesn’t change his opinion that Brazilians should go back to business as usual as soon as possible, and only those with underlying conditions should worry.
“Nobody should panic, life goes on,” he said.
The Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization’s regional office for the Americas, wished “a speedy recovery” to Bolsonaro and everyone else affected by the disease but warned that Brazil must maintain COVID-fighting guidelines to control the spread of the virus.
“More important for Brazil is the fact that our recommendations need to continue to be implemented and strengthened,” said Marcos Espinal, PAHO’s director of the Department of Communicable Diseases. “Social distancing works, the use of masks works, sanitation, hand-washing, the package of mitigation measures that we recommend is what we know works to fight this virus.”
Bolsonaro also used Tuesday’s interview to promote the use of hydroxychloroquine, a controversial drug that he has touted as a miracle cure for COVID-19. He said doctors gave him the drug on Monday and that he “felt great right away” after running a fever and experiencing body aches and fatigue since Sunday evening. There is no evidence that the drug, used to treat malaria, arthritis and lupus, is an effective treatment against COVID-19, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
“I just want to reinforce what the doctors have been saying here in Brazil, that hydroxychloroquine, when used at the beginning of infection, has a 100% chance of success,” Bolsonaro said during Tuesday’s interview.
While confirmed case numbers continue to climb in Brazil, overwhelming hospitals in most of the country, several states began reopening businesses last month, hoping to reignite the economy and ease the dire consequences of the pandemic. Brazil’s economy is expected to shrink by as much as 10% this year.
The president said the effects of rising unemployment will eventually “kill more people than the virus itself,” and referred to an increase in suicides in Brazil recently. He also said many people might have died from other causes because they were afraid to go to a hospital to seek care amid the pandemic.
Latin America’s largest economy reported 1,254 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total toll to 66,741 according to the Brazilian Health Ministry. There were 45,305 new confirmed cases, pushing the country’s total to 1.67 million, behind only the U.S.
The president’s approach to the crisis has deeply polarized the country, with critics promoting nightly “panelaços” by banging pots and pans from windows in cities across the country to protest what they call a reckless attitude and lack of empathy in the face of tragedy. His supporters say the coronavirus crisis is a fabrication by what they see as left-leaning mainstream media and the opposition. They frequently take to social media to attack scientific information about the pandemic.
Two trending hashtags in Brazil on Twitter illustrated this divide Tuesday: posts with #forçacorona and #forçacovid hoped that the president would suffer while sick with COVID-19, while #ForçaBolsonaro expressed wishes for his quick recovery.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 12:05 PM.
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