During a ceremony to announce plans for the tourism industry, President Jair Bolsonaro said that Brazil “must stop being a country of sissies,” using a homophobic slur to criticize the population’s lingering fears of the coronavirus — which has infected 5.67 million people in the country, killing over 162,000.
Repeating statements he made at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Bolsonaro said that while he is sorry for those who lost their lives, “everyone will die someday.”
“Now everything is about the pandemic. You have to end this. I’m sorry for the dead. But we will all die one day, everyone here will die. It is no use running away from it, running away from reality. This must stop being a country of sissies,” said Mr. Bolsonaro.
“The headlines tomorrow will say I have no empathy for those who died. I feel for everyone who died. But the pandemic is being blown out of proportion,” he added.
Earlier this morning, Mr. Bolsonaro celebrated the suspension of clinical trials of the Chinese-developed CoronaVac vaccine, after a study participant committed suicide. “Jair Bolsonaro wins again,” he wrote on social media.
The president also said he needs help to “fix” the country, putting pressure on Congress to extend the coronavirus emergency aid program, which will expire in December.
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