RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro downplayed the possibility of a second Covid-19 wave in Brazil. “And now there is this small talk of a second wave,” he said on Friday morning, November 13th, while leaving the Alvorada Palace.
Later, Bolsonaro again said that concern with the novel coronavirus should not affect the economic performance.
“We must cope with it if we have a second wave, because if we crash the economy for good, we will be a country of wretched people,” he added.
Brazil has so far recorded a total of 164,332 deaths as a result of Covid-19, according to data from the media outlet consortium.
Last week, the President said that early treatment would be enough to tackle a potential second wave of Covid-19.
“Even if there were a second wave [of Covid-19], early treatment is all it would take. You talk to the doctor, you have three medications for other things that also help to fight Covid, which basically solves the problem,” the President said during a live streaming on social media.
In another statement lacking scientific support, Bolsonaro said that the best prevention for the virus is “physical fitness” and “being in good health”. In March, the President said on a national network statement that, due to his “athlete’s background,” he would “feel nothing” if he were to contract the novel coronavirus or that he would experience a “minor flu or cold”.
Bolsonaro also said that he would buy vaccines against Covid-19 as long as they were certified by ANVISA (National Health Regulatory Agency). Without mentioning China in particular, the President said that a country that wants to sell a vaccine to Brazil needs to first administer it to its own population. Once again, he said the vaccine will never be compulsory, despite having sanctioned a law at the start of the pandemic authorizing compulsory immunization.
The preceding day, the President had reversed his position and considered the possibility of purchasing the Coronavac vaccine, developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac in partnership with the Butantan Institute in São Paulo.
Bolsonaro further said he had lowered taxes on medicines used to fight Covid-19 and would like to reduce the tax burden in general, but that he is prevented from doing so.
“Brazil has a huge tax burden, I can’t reduce it overnight, some want me to, but there is a Fiscal Responsibility Law that prevents me from doing so. We are reducing a few things,” he said.
Deforestation
On Friday, the President again attacked foreign countries that have criticized him for the high deforestation and patch burning rates in the Amazon region.
“They want to take away our autonomy, the command of the region, because it is a very wealthy region. No one is concerned about poor land. That’s all that matters,” he said.
As he had already done during a live stream on his social media the day before, Bolsonaro accused countries of illegally buying timber, while naming no countries that might have adopted this practice.
“Yesterday I proved through the timber’s ‘DNA’ where it is going, confirmed by the Federal Police. The countries that criticize us the most are those importing illegal timber from Brazil,” he said.
Source: Folha de S.Paulo