The regional coordination of the pink tide era has given way to various governments, left and right, going it alone
âBrazilâs president Jair Bolsonaro has frequently appeared in public places without a mask, stopping to greet supporters.â Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images
âBrazilâs president Jair Bolsonaro has frequently appeared in public places without a mask, stopping to greet supporters.â Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images
Fri 23 Apr 2021 09.00 EDT
Last modified on Fri 23 Apr 2021 10.24 EDT
A terse report filed from São Paulo, Brazil, appeared in the 17 March 1919 edition of the New York Times. It read: âInfluenza again has appeared here in epidemic form. The Government is taking steps to prevent the spread of the disease.â Just over one hundred years later, faced with another pandemic, the Brazilian government has taken a different approach. President Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right extremist elected in 2018, has repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus, urging citizens to suck it up and get back to work so that the economy can once again get moving.