Deny Covid, Get Killed By It: Brazil's Experience

Right wingers like Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro aren't affected by
talk of saving lives and morality in battling Covid. For people
like this, try threatening their power and money to get
them to change course.

 Brazil's jerk of a president, Jair Bolsonaro,  is even worse than Trump was at making the Covid pandemic worse. 

The situation has grown dire. 

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

According to Euroweeklynews.com:

"Silvio Antonio Favero, 54, who proposed a bill before the Legislative of the Brazilian state of  Mato Grosso do Sul to prevent mandatory vaccination of the population against Covid, died on Saturday, March 13, a victim of the disease."

The publication said Favero shared Bolsonaro's doubts about the Covid vaccine, and shared social media posts by Bolsonaro of his denial of the pandemic and distain for social distancing.

As of last week, at least 277,000 Brazilians have died in the pandemic, the second most of any nation behind the United States. The four most lethal days in Brazil have been this month. 

Less than 5 percent of the population have received their first dose of the vaccine.  

I guess people do change their tunes. It appears Bolsonaro might be singing a different song, which is a very recent switch for him:

As Time reports:

"As recently as March 4, the told Brazilians to 'stop whining' about the country's deaths from the virus......Bolsonaro has dismissed offers from vaccine manufacturers to buy millions of doses, said he wouldn't get a shot himself, and joked that Pfizer's vaccine may 'turn people into crocodiles.'"

But in the past week or so, he signed new laws to speed the purchase of vaccines and was in negotiations to buy more doses from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. 

As it usually is with politicians of Bolsonaro's ilk, this change of heart isn't from some new caring about the deaths and suffering of Brazilians. It's political survival. 

Time notes that a more leftist candidate is running against Bolsonaro in 2022 and the business community in Brazil is pressuring Bolsonaro to do more to combat Covid.  

I guess that's the way to get through to right wingers like Bolsonaro and similar "conservatives"' in the United States.  Don't try to plead human decency. It won't work.  Money and power talks, so try that.