RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “We have to put an end to this narrative. Masks are not our problem. We have to expose certain people who keep feeding narratives that don’t hold up,” the Minister said. Then, to justify his viewpoint, the Minister compared mask use with the use of condoms.
“Condoms decrease sexually transmitted diseases, but am I going to pass a law to force people to use them? Imagine that.”
This is not the first time that the Minister has declared his opposition to the mandatory use of masks. During an interview in August with Terça Livre, a Bolsonarist channel under investigation for spreading fake news, he said he disagreed with laws mandating mask use.
“Brazil has many laws and people, unfortunately, don’t comply. The use of masks must be an act of awareness.”
However, experts claim that the mandatory use of masks is key to curb the transmission of the coronavirus. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey exposed 139 people to two coronavirus-infected hairdressers. All of the research participants wore masks. As a result, none of them contracted the virus.
Virologist at the São José do Rio Preto Medical School Maurício Nogueira says that the mandatory use of masks is critical to fight the pandemic.
“They reduce transmission, which is essential to keep the pandemic under control and promote economic recovery, something so desired,” he says, stressing that the importance of masks has been proven by several scientific studies. “There is no scientific doubt about it.”
Nogueira adds that the Bolsonaro government’s denialist stance has contributed to the exacerbation of the pandemic, which has already killed over 600,000 people in Brazil.
“We vaccinated very little in the beginning. If we had vaccinated more, we would have had a lower number of deaths at the peak of the pandemic, in May and April this year,” the expert says. “By denying the vaccines, the use of masks, and promoting early treatment, the President also promoted the pandemic in Brazil.”
Despite the benefits of mask use, the Bolsonaro government is trying to discourage it. In June, the President said that Queiroga was preparing an opinion to dispense the use of the protection by people who have already been vaccinated against Covid or who have been infected with the virus.
However, even vaccinated people or those who have already been infected can transmit Sars-CoV-2.
In addition to criticizing the mandatory wearing of masks, Bolsonaro has also attacked social isolation measures. In May, he appealed to the Federal Supreme Court to overturn the restrictive measures adopted in Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco and Paraná. However, Justice Barroso denied the request, arguing that states and municipalities have the prerogative to implement the measures.