Thread by @DrEricDing

📍STUNNING-Brazil’s @jairbolsonaro apparently intended to lead 🇧🇷 to herd immunity by natural infection, **whatever the consequences**. That means (w/ 1% IFR, 70% herd threshold) by definition he planned for >1.4 mil deaths!

That was the plan!🧵 #COVID19
nytimes.com/2021/05/27/opi…

2) “Here is one example. In March 2020, a social media campaign called “Brazil Can’t Stop” was launched by [Bolsonaro’s] communications unit. Urging people not to change their routines, the campaign claimed “coronavirus deaths among adults & young people are rare.”

3) “The heavily criticized campaign was eventually banned by a federal judge and largely forgotten.
Then the plot thickened. Brazil’s former communications director, Fabio Wajngarten, told the inquiry that he didn’t know “for sure” who had been responsible for the campaign…

4) “Later, stumbling over his words, he seemed to remember that his department had developed the campaign — in the spirit of experimentation, of course — which was then launched without authorization.”

5) “Spelled out this way, the effort looks shocking. But to Brazilians living under Mr. Bolsonaro’s rule it’s hardly surprising. After all, the president seemed to do everything he could to facilitate the spread of the virus….”

6) “He has spent the last year speaking and acting against all scientifically proven measures to curb the spread of the virus. Social distancing, he said, was for “idiots.” Masks were “fiction.” And vaccines can turn you into a crocodile. nytimes.com/2021/01/18/wor…

7) “Then there was the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which Mr. Bolsonaro promoted as an early treatment and miracle cure for Covid-19 — despite all scientific evidence to the contrary and the express advice of two former health ministers.

8) “During the inquiry, two different witnesses somberly confirmed that they had seen the draft of a presidential decree stipulating that the drug’s leaflet should be changed to include its use against Covid-19.

9) As reminder, HCQ does not treat or prevent #COVID19. I’ve written countless posts on this. Here is an older debunk thread 🧵

https://mobile.twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1287912652006719488

10) “It gets worse. According to both Mr. Wajngarten and Carlos Murillo, the regional manager of Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company repeatedly offered to sell its Covid-19 vaccine to Brazil’s government between August and November last year — but got no answer at all.”

11) “Considering that Brazil was one of the first countries to be approached by the company, a quick response would have secured Brazilians as many as 1.5 million doses at the end of 2020, with 17 million more in the first half of 2021.

12) “Instead, after turning down another three offers the government eventually signed a contract in March, a staggering **seven months after the first offer**. The first one million doses arrived in late April.”

13) “The rollout, as a result of the government’s negligence in securing vaccines, has been halting, with regular shortages of shots and a lack of supplies leading to delays in production.”

14) No vaccines, leadership, no end. How nation has become a global threat.

Vaccine shortages were everywhere. amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/03/20…

15) I’ve tried to warn the world on the crisis in Brazil for many months too. Aid always came too late.

Brazil’s pandemic crisis isn’t over yet. We must stay vigilant.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1373501475805102082

16) Let this sink in… Bolsonaro’s govt didn’t order a second batch of vaccines (138 million doses) until ICUs were full… until this crisis already happened … that’s not leadership. That is pandemicide of Bolsonaro’s govt.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1372005826383204353

17) I still cry for the people of Brazil. The world mostly watched — they couldn’t send the aid because Bolsonaro’s govt for the longest time refused outside aid. I know this for a fact from sources.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1368902668400402442

18) I’ve witnessed countless Brazilians begging for help on social media. Some more direct than others.

https://twitter.com/gersonsalvador/status/1368764527249068032

19) I still cry every time I watch this video from Brazil by @MattRiversCNN. The world could only watch while Brazil was held gunpoint at the whim of a madman in charge.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1372305355460517891

20) I will always stand with the people of Brazil. Brazilian American epidemiologists and scientists have also been are the forefront of the world to accelerate vaccines. There are countless Americans who do care too. The world cares for you Brazil 🇧🇷even if your leader does not.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1398968038016356353

21) Bring on more protests. The world is watching. The world is praying for change for Brazil.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1398966999900901385

22) And @LulaOficial has been asking for accelerating vaccines for Brazil.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1372327110916894720

23) this will go down in the annals of history.
Bolsonaro’s name will go down as one of the worst authoritarians.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1372539812910088193