According to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and human rights organizations, Brazil could have avoided a total of 480,000 Covid-19 deaths during the pandemic had the government taken a different policy course. The number is equivalent to all of the deaths recorded between the start of the coronavirus crisis and June 10 of this year.
The organizations’ final report will be sent to Brazil’s Prosecutor General Augusto Aras today, who will be urged to take action based on the evidence therein. Other organizations will receive the document, such as the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
The report says that President Jair Bolsonaro and other high-ranking members of the government violated at least 10 international human rights treaties related to health and life protections, and should be held accountable.
“At no point did [Mr. Bolsonaro] show any empathy to those affected by Covid-19 — much to the contrary, he ridiculed them and called them ‘weaklings’ — he made it clear that life, the dearest asset of his fellow citizens, who elected him to govern the country, has no value to him,” reads the report.
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