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As the health system collapses across the country and the Bolsonaro government announces to its fourth area minister, the fear of contracting the coronavirus and the perception that the pandemic is out of control are reaching record levels.
Datafolha research shows that 79% of Brazilians think the pandemic is out of control, compared with 62% who expressed this opinion in January.
Another 18% say that the situation is partially controlled, 2% that it is fully controlled and 1% don’t know.
The survey, with a margin of error of two percentage points, was conducted by telephone with 2,023 people from all the states of the country on March 15 and 16.
On Sunday (14), the measures to replace General Eduardo Pazuello as Minister of Health gained momentum, with the visit of Dr. Ludhmila Hajjar to Brasilia to talk with President Jair Bolsonaro.
He ended up rejecting the charge, and the exchange took place on Monday, with cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga instead of Pazuello, exhausted after the crisis of lack of oxygen in Manaus and delays and logistical failures in the distribution of vaccines.
Queiroga takes control amid a rapid and tragic escalation of deaths from Covid-19. This Thursday (18), the country completed 20 consecutive days of records in the moving average of deaths, which reached 2,096.
Since the start of the pandemic, almost 288,000 Brazilians have died from the disease.
Amid the news about the lack of beds for patients in different parts of the country, the portion of the population that fears being infected with the virus reached a record high.
The Datafolha survey shows that 55% of respondents say they are very afraid, while the previous survey, in January, registered 44%. Another 27% are a little scared, 12% are not, and 7% reported having already contracted the disease.
A more expressive portion of women (61% versus 48% of men), older people (58% of the age group 45 and over, versus 48% of those aged 16 to 24), and residents of the Northeast (61% against 44% in the South).
But even among men there was a significant increase among those who said they were very afraid of the disease: from 33% in the January survey, this proportion rose to 48% among them. Among them, it went from 55% to 61%.
A higher proportion of young people aged 16 to 24 (from 34% to 48%) and the richest, with a monthly income of more than ten times the minimum wage (from 41% to 55%), were also very scared.
These strata have been particularly affected in the current phase of the pandemic. Following the crowds at the end of the year and at Carnival, doctors have observed a greater presence of young patients in ICUs.
In a scenario of general exhaustion of the capacity to care, access to health insurance is no longer sufficient to guarantee care. State-of-the-art private hospitals have overcrowded units and some of them have already requested beds for the SUS in São Paulo.
The collapse of health in the country contrasts with scenes of crowds and clandestine events. In São Paulo, where death due to lack of bed in the ICU is already registered, the social isolation rate was 43% on Wednesday (17), far from the São Paulo government’s goal of 50%.
Datafolha’s research shows that failure to embrace distance is not necessarily the result of ignorance about the severity of the pandemic.
The perception that the spread of the disease is out of control is overwhelming even among those who live normally, without any additional measures of isolation.
In this part of the population, the majority are very afraid (26%) or a little afraid (29%) of contracting Covid-19. 34% said they were not afraid.
Consensus among experts to stop a virus transmitted mainly by droplets of saliva and aerosols, social isolation has been fought by President Jair Bolsonaro (without a party) since the beginning of the pandemic, with crowds and speeches in this regard.
He called the reaction to the virus hysteria, mimimi and fantasy. “How long will they be crying?” He asked at the beginning of the month.
The most effective alternative to social distance is vaccination, which is skating in the country. In addition to the delay in signing contracts with suppliers, the Bolsonaro government has repeatedly postponed the immunization application schedule already approved by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency).
Not by chance, the perception that the pandemic is out of control is higher among those who disapprove of the Bolsonaro government (94%) and among those who distrust his statements (93%).
It is also higher among women (85% versus 73% among men) and among the poorest (82% versus 69% of the richest).
Considering religion, the proportion of Datafolha respondents who report being very afraid of taking Covid is higher among Catholics (61%) than among Evangelicals (45%). However, the perception that the pandemic is out of control does not vary that much between the two groups: 81% and 76%, respectively.
Faced with the worst moment of the pandemic and the concrete possibility of facing former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the 2022 electoral dispute, Bolsonaro is now rehearsing a speech in favor of mass vaccination, contradicting several statements for which he said . questioned the reliability of the immunizers.
