Brazil’s COVID Horror Story Is Likely the Face of the Future in the South

May 28, 2020 (EIRNS)—Brazil has some 415,000 official cases of COVID-19 at this point, with 25,697 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. But the University of São Paulo Medical School continues to warn that real rates of infection could be five times greater than the official number. In other words, Brazil could have 5-6 million cases of COVID-19—i.e., the same number that is the official total globally today.

This is quite likely, given Brazil’s notorious income inequality, favelas, impoverished northeast, etc., not to mention the Bolsonaro government’s cavalier attitude of total disregard for elementary public health measures. Under these conditions, there is no way that anyone could have an actual, reliable count of what is going on in the country, either in terms of cases or deaths.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation based at the University of Washington is forecasting that official total deaths could rise from over 25,000 today to 125,000 by early August. It is not far-fetched to wonder if the actual number of deaths from COVID in Brazil has not already broken 100,000.

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated on May 24 that the world is still in the midst of a “first wave” of the pandemic. “Right now, we’re not in the second wave. We’re right in the middle of the first wave globally,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program. “We’re still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up.” Ryan noted that South America, South Asia, and other areas are still on the rise. For example, India saw a record single-day jump in new cases for the eighth straight day. It reported 6,387 new infections on Wednesday, May 27, raising its total to 151,876, including 4,346 deaths.