For months, Natalia Pasternak has been pleading with Brazilians to take science and coronavirus seriously, in a marathon of TV appearances, newspaper columns, livestreams and podcasts.
“I gave interviews at 2 o’clock,” said the microbiologist and broadcaster who manages a group of civil society, the Question of Science Institute.
When the epidemic raged, Pasternak condemned the chaotic, anti-scientific reaction of President Jair Bolsonaro; condemned false news and unproven treatments such as chloroquine and ozone therapy; and asked its country 210 million citizens to respect quarantine measures aimed at controlling coronavirus.
“Again … is a recipe for disaster,” the 43-year-old scientist warned on a recent talk show, as lockdown efforts are disappearing despite the growing number of infections and deaths.
Yet five months after Brazil’s first confirmed killing, Pasternak is desperate and afraid that her work has been in vain.
On Saturday, the official death toll reached 100,000 – up from 10,000 in early May. A similar number of lives were lost during the 26-year-old citizen of Sri Lanka war as the ongoing conflict in Yemen. Brazil has recorded more than 3m infections – second only to the US.
“We managed – as a country, as a government, as a society – to get the message across in a clear, transparent and educational way,” she acknowledged.
Like many Brazilians, Pasternak owes Bolsonaro – a popular Trump smuggler who calls Covid-19 “a little cold”, two health ministers lost during the crisis and has sabotaged sanctions that he claims are too harmful to the economy.
‘As president, he has personal responsibility. His behavior has been sad, “the pro-science campaign said.
‘I really hate that my country is going through here. To have the least possible leadership at the least possible moment … As a scientist and a citizen, I find it so sad to think how this government has destroyed my country, ‘she added, breaking her voice.
Pasternak is part of an outspoken and vibrant community of scientists, journalists and opinion makers who are fighting to overcome the gravity of Brazil’s crisis and identify possible escape routes.
Since March, they have sounded the alarm – and petitioned the government – by penning more than 50 articles, appearing on 19 podcasts and giving nearly 300 interviews. “My role is to do everything possible to inform the public about how science works and why we need to trust science to guide our decisions … because science is the best tool we have to combat this pandemic.”
But with Bolsonaro campaigning ineffective treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and snubbing social distance, it has been an uphill battle.
“He has set a horrific example that has confused the public about the true seriousness of the pandemic and the solutions that are actually working,” Pasternak complained.
“If we had implemented decent quarantine measures, we could have prevented at least half of these 100,000 deaths,” they claimed, recalling how an Imperial College projection claimed that urgent action could keep Brazil’s deaths up to 44,000.
“We’re more than double this now – and we’m still in the middle of the pandemic.”
Officials and supporters of Bolsonaro administration put a positive position on his reaction.
“Brazil did not do as badly a job as some say,” the pro-Bolsonaro governor of his second most populous state, Minas Gerais, said earlier this month.
An Orwellian federal government propaganda campaign called the Placar da Vida (“The Scoreboard of Life”) trumps the number of people “saved” by his efforts – but jumps over the dead.
But by most measures, Brazil’s response has been distressing. The economy no. 1 in Latin America has the second-highest death toll in the world, the second-highest number of infections and the 11th-highest number of confirmed deaths per million people. Since the end of May, Brazil’s seven-day rolling average of confirmed deaths has been close, as above 1,000 daily.
Despite this reopening, many regions are opening up, with Rio beaches packed, shoppers flocking to malls and social isolation rates dropping.
The danger is that we normalize this – that we reach a point where people say, ‘Oh, it’s stabilized. Everything is in order. It’s over! ” Warned Pasternak. ‘No – it’s not over. It is not uncommon for 1,000 people to die every day from an infectious disease.
“Our role as science communicators … is to show the facts and in a way that people behave, move people and realize that this is still happening.”
The Pasternak Institute is one of several groups seeking to raise awareness.
Since April, an online memorial called Inumeráveis (Countless) has celebrated the lives of victims as a way of emphasizing the human cost of the epidemic.
“It simply came to our notice then [trivialisation] with love, ”said Rayane Urani, the project’s 31-year-old moderator.
In recent days, it has commemorated 29-year-old Cleyton Barbosa da Silva Souza (“a lady who could not stay alone for long”), 73-year-old Eduardo Orlando das Neves (“The owner of a mustache that changed color when he ate açai)”) and Helen Dias, 38 (“a dedicated nurse who was a star and saved many lives”).
‘These are not just numbers. They were the father of one. Mother of someone. The love of someone, ”said Urani. “Ultimately, it’s all about people.”
When Brazil passed its last cruel milestone, Pasternak said she was brave enough to think things could have gone differently.
“It could have been prevented,” she said. ‘Of course not at all. Only 100,000 people could be prevented. ”
A large network of national health care workers could have been mobilized to train Brazilians, isolate people based on their symptoms and track their contacts.
An exact quarantine could be carried out, as in Germany and New Zealand, “and we would now be in the same place as these countries – safely reopened, with an almost normal life.
“[But] we have no guidelines, we have no leadership – we do not even have one [permanent] Minister of Health. The federal government is being absurdly neglected … and this is one of the biggest reasons Brazil finds itself in this situation right now. “
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