After talking about the homeless, Russomanno asks ‘why groups in small houses do not get Covid-19’ | 2020 elections in São Paulo

“Science still needs to study Covid a lot to understand why where there is an agglomeration, where people from the periphery, for example, are crammed into small houses with five, six, ten people, and they do not contract the disease. Do residents have occasional cases? And he boasted that when Covid came to Brazil, it would immediately attack Cracolândia and the homeless. And that did not happen, “Russomanno said in an interview with SBT.

The research has shown that the districts of the city of São Paulo with the highest number of deaths from coronavirus or suspicions concentrate a large number of slums, tenements and housing complexes or settlements.

Other surveys have also shown that mortality from coronavirus in the city of São Paulo is up to 10 times higher in neighborhoods with the worst social conditions. During the pandemic, neighborhoods on the outskirts of São Paulo topped the ranking of deaths from coronavirus.

In an interview with SBT, Russomanno said that the phrase about homeless people lacking a toilet “was taken out of context.” He said he wanted to discuss the situation of homeless people who do not find support from the city on the streets of the city of São Paulo.

“A part was taken from my whole conversation to make sense of it,” he said.

“I told them they had difficulty bathing, they had no structure whatsoever. There are 27 thousand people abandoned in the center of the city without the care of the government. The government is not present,” added the Republican candidate.

In the interview, Russomanno denied that he was biased in the statement and indirectly condemned opponents who criticized him for the homelessness statement.

“Prejudiced was the way the journalists touched on the subject, wanting to despise those who are families, who have no choice in life and the government is not present,” he said. “We will take care of these people and we will not do politics, besides these people, at the wrong time,” he added.

Russomanno’s statement on the homeless was given during a meeting with members of the São Paulo Trade Association, in the central region, where the candidate heard demands from businessmen in the sector and criticized the way in which the government of São Paulo and The City Council conducted restrictive measures against the coronavirus in the São Paulo capital this Tuesday.

At the event, Russomanno said that “there is a lot to learn about Covid-19.” For him, the contagion in the outskirts, in Cracolândia, and among the homeless, was not what he expected.

“Everyone expected Covid to take care of everyone, especially since they do not have the exit pre-established by the WHO. And they are there, we have occasional cases and we don’t have a lot of homeless people with a Covid problem. Perhaps they are more resistant than us, because they live together all the time on the street, there is no way to bathe every day, etc. and such, ”Russomanno said during the event. (see video above).

Russomanno also criticized the isolation policy of the Municipality of São Paulo, in coordination with the state government. He called the current administration of Mayor Bruno Covas (PSDB) the “penduricalho” of the João Doria government (PSDB) and defended vertical isolation, where there is a social distance from specific groups, where there is a greater risk of contagion and where people with comorbidities.

“This isolation should have been done, after the first 30 days, vertically, attending to people with respiratory problems, heart problems, the elderly, people with disabilities … care should have been taken, and not the closed shop the way it was done, breaking and laying everyone off, now we’re going to have to fix it all. And it won’t be easy … “Russomanno said.

It should be remembered that there is no scientific evidence that the lack of bathing is a protective factor against Covid-19, nor scientific studies that link excessive bathing with the higher prevalence of the disease in Brazil or in the world. But experts say bathing and changing clothes is recommended every time someone goes through crowds to avoid transmitting the virus at home (see more tips on protecting against coronavirus here).

During the meeting at the trade association, the Republican candidate also stated that homeless people sometimes waste food donated by charities and that the government needs to coordinate the activities of NGOs to help the largest number of people in the city.

“Many times during the pandemic, I left the Center here at 10 at night, after working all day on the street, during inspections, we see cars go by. At 6:30 pm, a truck passed and left the food. They [moradores de rua] They opened the hot pot, they didn’t like it, they played in the street. Then, at 7:30 pm, another one passed. At 8 p.m. another happened. Early in the morning it is full of food thrown on the ground. The public power is not competent to organize what the private sector wants to do to protect our society ”, he declared.

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