UOL‘s Jamil Chade reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) will hold a meeting on Friday with many prominent world leaders in attendance. They will discuss new treatments and strategies against the coronavirus outbreak. Brazil, despite having led important debates on affordable medication in the past, was not even included in the guest list. The reason for Brazil’s exclusion concerns President Jair Bolsonaro’s antics — he has become the face of global Covid-19 denialism. Despite the fact that Latin America’s largest nation (and worst-affected by the coronavirus in absolute numbers of infections and deaths) has been excluded from the meeting, the region will be represented by three other countries.
Attendees include French President Emmanuel Macron, billionaire Bill Gates, and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. The decision to isolate Brazil follows recent tensions between the country and the WHO, after Mr. Bolsonaro distorted words from a speech by the international body’s head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
As The Brazilian Report explained in our e-book about Jair Bolsonaro’s first year in office, the president has imposed a drastic shift in the country’s diplomacy — being driven by ideology rather than pragmatism.
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