'It was Bolsonaro's fault': Researchers claim Brazil could have saved 400,000 Covid deaths

Brazil’s government was criticised for carelessly handling the deadly coronavirus pandemic in the country, and although the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, claimed the country managed the pandemic nicely, a recent study has claimed otherwise.

The study by a group of researchers from the Federal University of Pelotas and coordinated by the epidemiologist and dean of UFPel, Pedro Hallal, has claimed that more than 400,000 lives could have been saved if the authorities would have implemented stricter social distancing rules.

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The study has been conducted under the guidance of the government of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and in partnership with the Ministry of Health.

Researchers claim that stricter social distancing measures and an early start to the Covid vaccination programmes could have prevented at least 80 per cent of the Covid deaths registered in Brazil.

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"The responsibility for these numbers is entirely on the federal government’s back –and particularly on the president’s," Pedro Hallal, a professor at the Federal University of Pelotas told the Guardian. "It was not the federal government who said that the pandemic was a ‘little flu’. It was not the government that encouraged people to go out without a mask, or who said that the vaccine could turn you into an alligator. That was all the president, and it’s his responsibility."

This research has also revealed that the COVID-19 related mortality average is 2,345 per million in Brazil versus 494 worldwide, i.e. it is more than four times higher in Brazil than any other country in the world.

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Hallal has also alleged that nearly 95,000 to 145,000 deaths happened solely because the Bolsonaro government failed to acquire coronavirus vaccines on time. While Brazil started a mass vaccination campaign in January, the programme has been constantly disrupted due to the shortage of vaccines in the country.

The vaccine campaign has also suffered as Jair Bolsonaro has refused to give credit to the vaccines and has stayed away from getting himself vaccinated. "I’ve got the virus alive, so I am immunised," he told his supporters in March. "I will let other people get the injection in my place, and later on, if I decide to get the vaccine – because, depending on me, this is voluntary, you cannot force anyone to take it – I will take it."