So if your ever wondering how much affect Trumps approach to Covid had on the severity of the outbreak in the United States just read about Brazil, the country second most devastated by Covid after the United States.
Brazil has reported more than 9.1 million cases and nearly 224,000 coronavirus-related deaths.
In early March Brazil declared a public health emergency, and the Ministry of Health urged state officials to cancel public events and put social-distancing measures in place but Brazil’s response quickly went awry, with efforts by state governments to combat the virus often at odds with the positions adopted by the "Trumpist" Brazilian president, who pressured public health officials to do away with social distancing
The state government of Sao Paulo has imposed new coronavirus emergency measures that are to last a minimum of 15 days including a nighttime curfew, a ban on sporting events and the closure of all non-essential businesses, but protesters, many of them supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro, took to the streets to oppose the measures.
President Bolsonaro has dismissed the danger posed by the virus, undermined quarantine measures adopted at the state level and called on Brazilians to continue working to keep the economy from collapsing.
During the time he was infected with Covid Mr. Bolsonaro was seen outside without a mask talking to people on more than one occasion. Three weeks after revealing he had been infected, Mr. Bolsonaro said he had tested negative for the virus and posted a picture of himself holding a box of hydroxychloroquine.
Brazil’s shambolic response to coronavirus under far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has cast Latin America’s largest country in an unfamiliar and unpleasant role: that of a Covid-riddled, science-shunning, politically-unstable outcast on whom many regional neighbors are now shutting the door. “I think this is … terribly unjust,” Brazil’s pro-Trump foreign minister Ernesto Araújo said, rejecting the idea that there was anything “out of control” in his country and claiming Brazil was the victim of “discrimination”.
Because of a combination of a lack of planning by the president, and his denial of the seriousness of the disease, there are no medications for incubation or ICU beds. Nearly 60,000 people are expected to die in Brazil in March alone.
Mr. Bolsonaro told people to stop “whining” about the deaths and to simply move on. “All of us are going to die one day,” Mr. Bolsonaro told reporters in Brasília. “There is no point running away from it, from reality. We have to stop being a country of sissies.
So Brazil's president and his supporters followed Trumps example, refusing to socially distance or wear masks and now Brazil is the epicenter of the pandemic with a horrifying 60,000 people expected to die in a single month. Coincidence? Of course not.
We will never know how many people could have been saved if Trump had simply supported the experts recommendations and urged his followers to follow a few simple guidelines. But the affects of him not doing so are undeniable. Higher infection, hospitalization, and mortality rates.
Of course Trumpists or Trumpers will call this "Fake News" because their incapable of conceiving their idol could have possibly done anything wrong, but this is reality. This is the truth. Countless people suffered and died simply because Trump refused to support wearing masks and socially distancing.
Stats and quotes:
https://www.cnbc.com
https://www.nytimes.com