The (in)competence of the Bolsonaro government in confronting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

To the Editor–When one speaks of the inability of the Brazilian government to combat the pandemic, it is generally associated with a total lack of direction and erratic policy decisions, ¹ but it is rarely considered that a determined path within a perverse logic is actually being followed. The use of social networks, ² some television channels, and their daily discourse follow what the Bolsonaro himself defined in April 2020: “May social isolation end, (that) life return to normal and die as many as have to die.”

That is exactly what is happening in Brazil. The idea that the best vaccine would be the virus is based on the odd and perverse reasoning of Bolsonaro, which has been in practice since the beginning of the pandemic and became even more evident in March 2021. The government exhorted the Brazilians to go out and face the virus because they would be cowards if they did not. The spread of speeches in favor of drugs without scientific proof has been part of this ongoing planning. ³ Misinformation (ie, “fake news”) has caused more Brazilians to expose themselves and die in the belief that there is efficient treatment for COVID-19 with the support of a few thousand doctors ⁴ and millions of followers. But as Bolsonaro said, “So what?” ⁵

These representatives continue to make daily pronouncements and postings doubting the benefits of vaccines ⁶ because they can alter the DNA of people, they should not be mandatory, or they are experimental and were produced in a hurry. Some doctors endorse this sanctimonious fascist propaganda, and the result of this kind of ideology is evident in the deaths of the weak by suffocation shown in the images of Manaus, capital of the State of Amazonas—analogous to “gas chambers” for those who do not have the presidential “athleticism.” Brazilian society must react so that this plan does not perpetuate and to save many Brazilians from this supremacist project.