São Paulo’s state government, media promote bogus data to drive school reopenings
Last week Brazil’s fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro replaced key figures in his cabinet and the military. The move is in preparation for a wholesale crackdown on all opposition amid record COVID-19 cases and deaths and just weeks after a wave of strikes by bus workers, oil workers, app delivery workers and teachers.
The country’s COVID-19 death toll reached 340,000 on Wednesday, the world’s second highest, amid record numbers of new cases and deaths. There were 460,000 new cases and 20,000 deaths last week, and the death toll is expected to be even higher this week after the daily toll surpassed 4,000 more than once. Brazil accounts for one in every four deaths reported worldwide each day and leads the world in the daily average number of new deaths reported.