In Brazil, a Contempt for Human Life

Bolsonaro’s response to the pandemic marked a public transition from valuing 'certain kinds of lives' as opposed to others, to a general contempt for human lives

People attend a funeral at a mass grave at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Brazil, 23 April 2020. The new section of the cemetery was opened amid a sharp rise in Covid-19 victims, reports The Telegraph

If there is one country on earth where the pandemic has been ill-managed, it is Brazil. The world’s leader of the ‘coronavirus-denial’ movement and right-wing populist candidate Jair Bolsonaro presided over this calamity which pushed 83.5% of the labour market in Brazil into a state of vulnerability.

Brazil is home to the world’s second-highest death toll behind the USA – 670,000 Brazilians were killed by the virus, and around 32,000 people are now living in the streets in a country where unemployment, and rising inflation at 12% per year, is hurting the poorest most and causing 33 million Brazilians to go hungry, 14 million more than two years ago.

The first ca…