Brazil is the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. Its case and death numbers are shattering records every week, and officials in the city of Sao Paulo are reportedly having to dig hundreds of graves every day to make room for the dead. So, what does its far-right President Jair Bolsonaro plan to do about it? Absolutely nothing. “We’re not going to accept these policies of ‘stay home, close everything, lock down,’” he reportedly said. “There’s not going to be a national lockdown... Our army isn’t going into the streets to force the Brazilian people into their homes.” On Tuesday, Brazil’s health ministry reported 4,195 COVID-19 deaths —by far a single-day record. Miguel Nicolelis, a Brazilian doctor at Duke University, said: “It’s a nuclear reactor that has set off a chain reaction and is out of control. It’s a biological Fukushima.”
