When Governor João Doria (PSDB) introduced vaccination against Covid on January 17, it seemed an overwhelming victory. Seven months later, when almost all adults in São Paulo were vaccinated, it is evident that Jair Bolsonaro won the war.
The president escaped defeat from the pandemic on two fronts. In São Paulo, his campaign in favor of the virus forced activities to reopen before his time. In the other, in Brasília, he managed to cover up the CPI’s hideous revelations about negotiations and excuses about buying vaccines with smoke.
Doria always claims that the gradual removal of restrictions is based on technical criteria, respect for science and expert advice. The collective immunization would, by its logic, authorize the resumption. Who wants to believe.
First of all, there is no point in talking about population immunity. By Friday (13), 88.2% of adults in São Paulo had received a first dose, a number that should not be neglected. And the São Paulo government promises to hit 100% this Monday (16).
On the other hand, at that time only 26.9% of the total population of the country was completely protected against the Sars-CoV-2 virus. The coronavirus still finds plenty of room to reproduce and suffer mutations that can better adapt it to the human population.
Second, epidemiologists who are not committed to the governor have always considered it a mistake to manage Covid with an eye to the number of admissions and the occupancy of intensive care beds. Such indicators are falling, as are cases and deaths, but there have been other setbacks and new waves; what counts is the transmission.
Delta, one of the variants that emerged with the continued spread of the virus, appeared in India and now accounts for 90% of new Covid diagnoses worldwide. Its contagious capacity is double what it was when the pandemic started, there is evidence that it could be more deadly, and it has only just spread to Brazil.
Nevertheless, Doria announced three weeks in advance that life would return to normal on Wednesday (18th). There will be no more time limits or capacity in bars, restaurants and shops; Clusters such as dance floors remain forbidden.
Graduation ceremonies, weddings and parties are returning, bars will fill up more than they used to, buses and trains will be overcrowded as always. The governor is sticking to the recommendation to wear masks, of course, but who believes they have the means to enforce compliance with the measure?
After 17 months of Covid in Brazil, almost 600,000 deaths and rampant haggling on the Planalto, no one could stand the restrictions. The population surrendered to the Corona, as Bolsonaro always prescribed and when they surrendered to Doria.
Only in contrast to the presidential assassination could the governor pretend to be a champion of science, even though, contrary to the precautionary principle, he plunged into successive loosening. No administrator with a turn of more than 142,000 dead can claim victory over Covid.
Neither Doria, much less Bolsonaro. The president, with more than 567,000 dead on the medical record, has apparently done much greater damage, not least because he sabotaged as much as possible of what certain political rivals were trying to do.
Only the military, business people, parliamentarians, police, farm workers, pastors, many doctors and other crooks support him despite the pile of corpses. In this sense, Bolsonaro won: he managed to make us indifferent to the disgusting death smell that spreads across the country. ‘
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