500,000 deaths. 500,000 families grieving for their lost loved ones. 500,000 mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, children, and friends. 500,000 futures and 500,000 pasts. 500,000 — and counting.
Had the Brazilian federal government not ignored dozens of emails from Pfizer last year, perhaps some of these 500,000 would have been vaccinated and still alive today. By the same token, if President Jair Bolsonaro had not dismissed Covid-19 as a “little flu” and ignored social distancing measures, then some of these 500,000 may not have contracted the virus in the first place.
500,000 is the entire population of Atlanta, Edinburgh, or Bratislava, and important Brazilian cities such as Florianópolis or Santos.
There are over 500,000 different ways Brazil could have handled the coronavirus pandemic better than it did.
For the 500,000 people who have died in Brazil during the Covid-19 crisis, we pay our respects and hope for better days.
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