RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – When the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plane took off from Brasília bound for Florida (USA) on the morning of March 7th, the risk of contamination by the novel coronavirus was not a concern for President Jair Bolsonaro and his delegation.
So much so that in the four days of commitments in the US state, the prevention measures previously recommended by experts were not adopted by either the president or his delegation. It was during this trip that Bolsonaro declared for the first time that the pandemic was “overrated” and a “fantasy“.
By Friday, March 20th, however, 22 people in the group had been diagnosed with the Covid-19. At least 45 Brazilians met with Bolsonaro in the US, traveling with him on the FAB plane or commercial flights. In effect, those infected now account for half of the group. Bolsonaro’s disregard for the pandemic has resulted in “pot banging” protests throughout the country.
Two days before flying to Florida, Bolsonaro had canceled a trip to Hungary and Poland, supposedly due to the coronavirus. On the same date, Brazil reported eight confirmed cases, while the US was on the rise with 157 confirmed cases and 11 deaths. However, the option to cancel the trip, which included a dinner with President Donald Trump, was not even considered.
Agenda
Bolsonaro’s itinerary started with dinner in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where the Brazilian greeted and had contact with Trump and US Vice President Mike Pence, as well as the top echelon of the US government. Outside the resort in Florida, Trump told reporters that he was “not a bit worried” about the news of the first virus infection in the US capital, Washington.
Earlier, the organizers of the CPAC, a conservative summit, reported the confirmation of the coronavirus in one of the participants at the event, also attended by Trump, his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Ivanka and Kushner joined the dinner with Bolsonaro.
Also in Mar-a-Lago, Trump again downplayed the disease, saying that the spread of the virus would not lead him to suspend the election campaign. That day, two coronavirus deaths had been confirmed in Florida. Nine days later, almost 5,000 cases had been confirmed in the US, and Trump started urging the population not to leave their homes. By Friday there were 225 deaths and 17,500 cases in the country.
For dinner, Trump, Bolsonaro, and ten other people sat at the table: five from each country. On Brazil’s side, two of the five tested positive for coronavirus: Ambassador Nestor Forster and the Minister of the Institutional Security Office (GSI), Augusto Heleno. On the American side, the White House only reported that Trump was tested and is not infected.
The venue hosting the dinner was attended by several people, such as Fabio Wajngarten, the head of the Secretariat of Communication, the first confirmed case in the Brazilian delegation. When informed that Wajngarten was infected, Trump was resistant to the idea of taking the test. Later, though, he took the test, which came back negative.
By March 20th, however, the Trump organization said it was closing down Mar-a-Lago to have it undergo a “deep cleaning.”
Car
Over the next three days of travel, the delegation did not seem to be concerned about avoiding contact with the population and crowds. For the sake of security alone, Bolsonaro sometimes traveled with first lady Michelle in a car separate from the other members of the delegation.
Wajngarten was a regular escort to Bolsonaro, along with defense ministers Heleno and Fernando Azevedo. The minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, who is infected, came to the Hilton Hotel’s breakfast in sports clothes after exercising and joined the group.
Results
On Friday, the Federal District Appellate Court ordered the Armed Forces Hospital (HFA) to immediately publish the list of those infected with coronavirus who had traveled to the US on the presidential delegation. Judge Raquel Soares Chiarelli imposed a fine of R$50,000 (US$10,000) for each patient who withheld the information.
President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday that he could have a third test and that he may have already contracted the coronavirus.