In the war against Covid-19, humanity is on one side and Bolsonaro is on the other.

By Paulo Moreira Leite, for the Journalists for Democracy - No one needs medical training to recognize the harmful nature of Jair Bolsonaro's actions in the face of the growing mobilization of Brazilian society to confront the new coronavirus pandemic.

While the country seeks to build a common platform to address a threat directed at the entire human species, Bolsonaro is doing everything possible to prioritize ideological differences and reinforce, without objective necessity, an environment of polarization and rivalries that has marked Brazilian society in recent times.   

Beyond the medical aspects, which are condemnable in themselves, the serious issue with this action is that it weakens an effort involving one of the most challenging epics in the relationship between humanity and nature throughout all periods of evolution.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the priority is indeed to employ all means within the reach of human knowledge to interrupt, as quickly as possible, a gigantic process of contamination on a planetary scale, which threatens the well-being of men and women without distinction, in addition to jeopardizing the survival of the least protected and resilient segment of the species. To live or to die: it's that simple.

In a situation like this, there is no time to lose or energy to waste.

It is no coincidence that an irresponsible provocation, such as Bolsonaro's appearance at the failed pro-dictatorship demonstrations on Sunday, has already taken its toll, with criticism from a segment of the same elite that contributed so much to his rise to power, as highlighted by growing demonstrations in favor of impeachment, but not only there.

An editorial in the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper (March 17, 2019) states: "The president was so blatantly irresponsible that it's hard to believe he didn't know what he was doing. And, if he did know, he did it deliberately: for him, the health of Brazilians is irrelevant, as are the tremendous social impacts of the quarantine the country is beginning to undergo in an attempt to curb the threat of Covid-19. The only thing that interests Jair Bolsonaro is his power project."

A would-be dictator, perpetually striving to accumulate power, Bolsonaro displays a particular vocation, typical of a sorcerer's apprentice, that character made famous by Walt Disney, who was incapable of mastering the tricks of his own magic.

His relentless effort to downplay the severity of Covid-19 is not a matter of opinion or scientific debate, but purely self-serving, multi-million dollar interests that fuel ideological biases that have marked the history of medicine. 

The creation of the SUS (Unified Health System) during the 1988 Constituent Assembly was a victory for the bloc led by a communist parliamentarian, Sérgio Arouca (1941-2003), which opened a new era in the country's medicine. From then on, public health gained unprecedented priority, aiming to provide care to large segments of the population, instead of privileging doctors who were paid based on their ability to attract wealthy clients to private practices.

Compromised by interests that for four decades have been mobilizing to reverse medical advances that would serve the needs of the majority, Bolsonaro is a permanent guarantee of new conflicts and impasses in humanity's war against Covid-19. 

Opponents of the SUS (Brazilian Public Health System) already have a campaign slogan that, as always, involves a change to the Constitution. This involves overturning Article 196, which defines health as "a right of all, a duty of the State." 

Any questions?