While most world leaders have taken drastic actions against coronavirus, the leaders of Brazil, Nicaragua, Belarus and Turkmenistan stand apart in their continued denials of the threat. Aside from health risks, their denialism could carry political costs ft.com/content/974dc9…
‘If a person stays positive, they will be healthy.’ The president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko claims to be able to defeat Covid-19 through positive thinking — and despite saying no one would die of coronavirus in his country, 29 have already perished ft.com/content/974dc9… 
In Brazil, president Jair Bolsonaro, drawing crowds on several occasions, has repeatedly downplayed coronavirus as 'hysteria' and praised the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible cure, ordering military laboratories to increase production ft.com/content/974dc9…
Nicaragua’s president Daniel Ortega said the pandemic was 'a sign from God' to switch massive spending from atomic bombs to healthcare. His wife and vice-president asked people to go to the streets for a 'Love in the time of Covid-19' rally ft.com/content/974dc9…
The president of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has claimed to have devised a method to keep the country’s Covid-19 case count to zero: burning the herb yuzarlik, which he says can ward off infectious diseases 'invisible to the naked eye' ft.com/content/974dc9…
Some of these positions have not been popular. Dissent in Nicaragua is bubbling up, while in Brazil, multitudes have taken part in protest by banging pots and shouting 'Bolsonaro murderer!' from their windows. Read more: ft.com/content/974dc9…
