The United States started 2021 with worsening cases and deaths from Covid-19. At the time, Brazil was also going through a bad time, but with smaller numbers. A hundred days later, the situation was reversed.
The United States records less than half of the daily deaths recorded in January, while Brazil is close to tripling the total number of victims. In mid-January, the United States reached its worst moment of the crisis. The weekly average of Covid-19 deaths has reached 3,422 per day. However, after that, the number of deaths declined almost steadily, a trend that continues today.
Brazil, meanwhile, started the year in a range of 700 deaths per day. This index passed the 1,000 death mark in the second week of January and remained stable until early March, when it again rose sharply towards 1,800 daily deaths, overtaking the United States which records today. today an average of 1,300 daily deaths.
The United States is the country with the most deaths since the start of the crisis a year ago: 536 thousand, against 279 thousand in Brazil, which occupies second place. In January, the United States changed president: Donald Trump left, who downplayed the pandemic and discouraged measures with proven effectiveness, such as wearing masks, to make way for Joe Biden. The Democrat has since kept his promises to listen to experts, impose social distancing and encourage the adoption of facial protection.
In addition, the United States has stepped up the vaccination campaign. Trump, despite the refusal, but targeting the 2020 election, led the US government to accelerate the development of immunizers.
Biden has set a goal of ramping up doses and has pledged to vaccinate 100 million Americans in the government’s first 100 days. With an average of 2 million nominations per day, the Democratic leader must achieve the goal before serving 60 days in office.
Despite the change of government, Antonhy Fauci, considered the leading infectious disease in the United States, followed the White House Task Force to Combat Covid and gained more autonomy. The day after Biden took office, he made no secret of the joy at not having to deny Trump’s words. “The good thing about this management is that if you don’t know the answer, you don’t try to guess. You just say you don’t know,” he commented.
In January, Brazil witnessed scenes of a hospital collapse in Manaus, with patients dying from lack of oxygen. The same month, the country launched the vaccination campaign, marked by the fight between the government of São Paulo and the Bolsonaro administration and the lack of doses. In two months, vaccination has reached about 6% of Brazilians, and the arrival of batches for the next few months has no precise schedule.
Today, Brazil is experiencing its worst moment of the pandemic and sees states and cities announce lockdowns and more restrictions in an attempt to reduce contagion. There has been a new exchange at the Department of Health – the fourth since the crisis began – but little is expected to change in the federal disease strategy.
Jair Bolsonaro’s government maintains its stance against restrictive measures to contain the spread of the disease. With soaring deaths and the lack of prospects for improving the economy, the president and his allies have started to support vaccination. In the USA, the climate is more optimistic. Biden hopes to release the vaccination for all adults starting in May and says there is a chance that on the July 4 holiday, Americans can come together, in small groups, to celebrate Independence Day.