Human Wrongs Watch
– Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro appointed medical entrepreneur Nelson Teich his new health minister on 17 April. The businessman quickly echoed his boss’ desire to resume business as usual regardless of its potentially lethal consequences.
Bolsonaro had fired his previous health minister, displeased by Luiz Henrique Mandetta’s public remarks on the need for lockdowns and physical distancing.
Mandetta’s firing was met with outrage across Brazil. Locked-down citizens banged pots and pans, shouting “Bolsonaro Murder”.
In his final briefing as minister, Mandetta urged staff to challenge “denialism” and mount an “unyielding defence of life and science”. “Don’t be afraid”, he said, “Science is light … and it is through science that we will find a way out of this.”
Covid-19 apocalypse
Meanwhile, Brazil has begun digging large graveyards ahead of an anticipated peak of the national Covid-19 epidemic. In Sao Paulo’s Vila Formosa cemetery, the largest in Latin America, about 20 excavators are digging graves around the clock.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 