People will die ... but too bad
These are the words of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who like his counterpart from our neighbors to the south does not fully understand the current problem. Or on the contrary, he understands it perfectly well and wants very different consequences for his country.
I spoke yesterday on FaceTime with a friend who lives in São Paulo in southern Brazil, the largest city in South America with its 12 million inhabitants. She is excessively worried about the near future of her region and her country and had only harsh words towards her populist president. She explained to me Bolsonaro's plan according to her. “But I can't say it publicly. I have no proof and could face retaliation. "
Like Trump, whom he admires, Jair Bolsonaro wants his country to resume its cruising speed as quickly as possible. “The risk group is that of people over 60 years old. So why close the schools? »Asked last Tuesday (quoted in La Presse). He even recently said that Brazilians are a people naturally immune to diseases.
According to my friend, the plan of its president is in fact to surrender as quickly as possible to 60% of the population which would have contracted the virus. The opposite of flattening the curve that everyone is talking about. At this point, his country would be theoretically immune and could resume some semblance of normal life. But that would obviously have dramatic consequences.
“We are 210 million in Brazil,” says my friend. Let's say 200. At 60% who have the virus, we are talking about 120 million. If 5% of these people need a respirator, that's another 6 million people. We currently have 23 across the country… ”
Bolsonaro was already under international pressure last year during the severe fires in the Amazon. He is no more recognized as a defender of social rights than for his environmental positions.
"It's part of his plan," my friend continues. 1,5 million people will die if he succeeds. Especially those who live in the favelas, who receive social assistance or retirement pensions. Those do not bring anything to society according to him. "
The situation is currently unclear in the largest country in Latin America. Especially because the president is relatively isolated even among his former supporters. Mayors and governors follow scientific recommendations rather than that of their head of state. But it is he who has the power to release sums of money to come directly to the aid of the population. Bolsonaro in response to this mutiny declared that these mayors and governors are "criminals who are destroying Brazil".
The governor of the state of São Paulo retorted that there are more than 7 million citizens over the age of 60 in his state alone. “Is it legitimate to abandon them? ".
This is exactly what Bolsonaro believes.
« People are going to die, I'm sorry, but too bad. »
On the other side of this crisis, the Brazilian economy would be the first to recover, thus placing them in a favorable position. At the same time, the social system would have been relieved of a "dead weight" by all these deaths who could not pay for private health care. "And who remembers the dead when the war is over?" », Concludes my friend.
Rio de Janeiro in southern Brazil. The separation between the rich (on the right) and the poor (on the left) is glaring and unsubtle.
Vélo Passion, the pleasure of the peloton