© REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro • US President Donald Trump
When reports regarding COVID-19 illnesses began to surface, media outlets initially
downplayed the risks. But they soon followed the World Health Organization's (WHO) claims that the virus was more serious than the seasonal flu and that a high volume of cases could prove burdensome to healthcare systems, and governments around the globe scrambled to keep the virus from spreading rapidly.
Embracing
ineffective lockdowns, world leaders
issued stay-at-home directives and ordered many businesses to close their doors.
In America, we watched as some state governors quickly adopted policies that produced
arrests,
protests, and
mass unemployment. In Brazil, under the leadership of Jair Messias Bolsonaro, a former congressman dubbed the "
Trump of the Tropics," state governors followed in American governors' footsteps, shutting down businesses and violently arresting anyone who dared to serve their customers.
Bolsonaro
protested.
In TV appearances and media briefings, the president, who was often
condemned for not wearing his face mask properly, repeated that the virus wasn't that bad.
Many will catch it [coronavirus] whether or not they are careful. That will happen sooner or later," he told the media. "We must respect it, take personal hygiene seriously, but we can't be neurotic about it, as if it [this crisis] were the end of the world.
There are many governors, in my view, who are taking measures that will harm our economy a lot. Life goes on, we cannot be hysterical.
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