Covid-19: How the curfew hurt Brazil

some conversations from President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) In an interview with Jornal Nacional (TV Globo) on Monday, 22, in the statement made about the Covid-19 pandemic, the fact that the content was not precise or false drew reaction from the society.

“It took more than a year quarantine. And to this day people continue to die from covid. well, quarantine yes, it served to disrupt our economy and pollute more people at home,” said the presidential and re-election candidate.

Contrary to what Bolsonaro said, Brazil has never been quarantine It has become widespread during the current pandemic. The measure, which can be translated as closure, is characterized by the restriction of movement of people in a certain area, which is supervised by security authorities. In general, measures are taken to ensure that the health and safety of the population is not harmed.

In Brazil, most cities have adopted trade closures as a way to reduce human contact and reduce transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus; In rare cases, neighborhoods and streets were closed, as in European countries and China.

Only a few cities, such as Araraquara (SP), have adopted stricter quarantine during critical times when hospitals are overflowing with patients.

As a rule, there were no restrictions on the movement of people and public roads monitored by the police, although the authorities took action to disperse the agglomerations as a way to prevent the transmission of the virus.

Covid-19 is transmitted mainly by small drops of saliva from infected people; This virus-containing material can be released into the environment when the infected (even asymptomatic) speaks, coughs or sneezes. Therefore, physical distancing between people is indeed an effective method of preventing contamination. Like any remedy and prevention method, the effectiveness of physical distancing is not 100% and may vary from case to case.

A study published in 2020 in the Brazilian Journal of Epidemiology showed that social distancing strategies adopted in the state of São Paulo play an important role in reducing the growth in the number of Covid-19 cases. Such strategies were used for exactly this purpose, so that healthcare systems can take care of all patients and not be overwhelmed any more.

Bolsonaro also said in Jornal Nacional that more people will pollute themselves at home during quarantines in other countries and this measure will be ineffective, but according to a study published in the science journal Nature in 2020 by scientists at Imperial College London, England. . Non-pharmacological measures such as quarantine, quarantine and school closures have saved more than 3 million lives in Europe.

In Brazil, the measures taken with the closure of trade and restrictions on services damaged the country’s economy, causing entrepreneurs to close their businesses permanently in some cases. Some of the unemployment in the country today may have resulted from these measures, which would have had a smaller negative impact with the adoption of other socioeconomic actions to protect the most vulnerable population.

hour masks, also attacked by the president, have solid evidence that they are working to prevent respiratory infections. It is a physical barrier that prevents or minimizes direct contact with the fluids of others that may be contaminated.

Bolsonaro has also taken a stand against vaccines at various points in the pandemic, which may have deterred the population from taking the doses. To this day, the president claims he has never received the injection that prevents COVID-19 because he, a retired military and politician, fears possible side effects that he says are not known to science.

The adverse effects of vaccines approved by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) for use in Brazil are well known to science and demonstrated in scientific studies conducted according to best available methods.

Rare effects such as myocarditis (heart inflammation) can occur even after vaccination, but as studies have shown, covid patients are more likely to have the condition than vaccinated patients.

Another study published earlier this year showed that most of the side effects reported after vaccination were actually of psychological origin.

Last year, the president even linked vaccination against covid-19 with the increase in cases. AIDSa relationship that is wrong, as we have shown TecMundo.