How Trump & Bolsonaro Broke Latin America's Covid Defenses

In a lengthy exposé, the New York Times has just revealed how the presidents of the U.S. and Brazil sabotaged the ability of Brazil and other Latin American countries to counter the pandemic.

According to the Times....

The two presidents met at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.  Bolsonaro sought to burnish his reputation as the Trump of the Tropics.  Trump and Bolsonaro cemented a partnership that led to South America's poor response to the pandemic.  Even before the pandemic, the pair took actions that sabotaged the region's covid response.

After returning to Brazil, 22 persons in Bolsonaro's party tested positive for covid.  Bolsonaro himself -- like Trump later -- tested positive for covid, though both seemed to recover.

Due to the Trump/Bolsonaro efforts, 10,000 Cuban doctors in Latin American countries were forced out of South America before the pandemic, damaging the ability of the health systems of Brazil, Ecuador and other countries to attend to covid patients.

The Pan American Health Organization or PAHO was sabotaged by major funding cuts supported by Trump and Bolsonaro.  PAHO had been uniquely positioned to confront a pandemic in South America.

Trump and Bolsonaro touted hydroxychloroquine as a supposed medicine for covid patients when it had not been validated.

The exposé appears in the Times online version under the same title as the subject-line of this post.

www.nytimes.com