NEW YORK/RIO DE JANEIRO, APRIL 15, 2021—National authorities need to muster the political will to respond to the pandemic that is killing Brazilians by the thousands, acknowledge the severity of the COVID-19 crisis, and put in place an effective, centralized, coordinated public health response immediately, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Thursday.
Last week, Brazilians accounted for 11 percent of the world’s COVID-19 infections and 26.2 percent of global COVID-19 deaths. On April 8 alone, 4,249 deaths from COVID-19 were recorded in a single 24-hour period, along with 86,652 new COVID-19 infections. These staggering figures are clear evidence of the authorities’ failure to manage the health and humanitarian crises in the country and protect Brazilians, especially the most vulnerable, from the virus.
“Public health measures have become a political battlefield in Brazil,” said Dr. Christos Christou, international president of MSF. “As a result, science-based policies are associated with political opinions rather than the need to protect individuals and their communities from COVID-19. Brazilian authorities’ refusal to adopt evidence-based public health measures has sent far too many to an early grave. This has put Brazil in a permanent state of mourning and led to the near collapse of Brazil’s health system.”
Brazilians struggle to access care
Last week, intensive care units (ICU) were full in 21 out of 27 of Brazil’s capitals. In hospitals across the country there are ongoing shortages of oxygen needed to treat patients who are severely and critically ill, as well as sedatives, which are needed to intubate critically ill patients. As a result, MSF teams have seen patients, who may have otherwise had a chance at survival, being left without appropriate medical care. It’s also critical that access to rapid antigen tests is expanded so people and health providers can quickly confirm if someone has COVID-19 and prevent further spread.
