. ANGRA DOS REIS, Brazil After a lifetime of feeling invisible, the family was told they d suddenly become one of Brazil s top priorities. As the country began rolling out coronavirus vaccines early this year, officials said communities like theirs, founded by Africans who escaped slavery, would be among the first to receive shots. But then weeks passed, the vaccines never came and one day late last month, the phone rang. The voice was faint, but the words were clear: He s dead. For the love of God, Maria Lucia de Morais responded. How could this have happened? Delays in the vaccination rollout had left her 70-year-old cousin defenseless against the virus that has devastated Brazil. Within four days of his hospital admission, he was dead.