Published March 12, 2021, 1:42 PM
She still gets surprised when people want to hug her at the supermarket, but her studious media appearances analyzing the pandemic have suddenly made Dr. Margareth Dalcolmo famous in coronavirus-ravaged Brazil.
Dalcolmo, a 65-year-old pulmonologist, was an unknown researcher at public health institute Fiocruz when COVID-19 arrived in Brazil in February 2020.
Dr Margareth Dalcolmo (AFP / MANILA BULLETIN)
But the soft-spoken expert has since made hundreds of media appearances on the health crisis, emerging as a comforting, almost motherly source of information in a country where disinformation and science-bashing are spreading as fast as the virus.
It all started in March last year, when Dalcolmo made a short video summarizing a crisis-response meeting she had just attended in the capital, Brasilia.
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