Bolsonaro: “some idiots are still staying home”

With a tense week ahead in the Covid hearings committee, President Jair Bolsonaro once again used his verbal machine gun to hijack the news cycle. While speaking to supporters, Mr. Bolsonaro called people sheltering at home to protect themselves from the coronavirus “idiots.”

Praising the country’s agribusiness sector — which accounts for one-quarter of Brazil’s GDP — Mr. Bolsonaro said the sector “did not stop” regardless of the health crisis, preventing Brazilians from “starving to death.”

The president has been a vocal critic of isolation measures and is rarely seen wearing a face mask. Instead of social distancing, he has touted antimalarial drug chloroquine as a “possible cure” for Covid-19. The drug has no proven effect against the disease.

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