We’re covering today the vulnerability of poorer communities facing the coronavirus crisis. How freezing prices could create supply shortages. And Brazilians’ behaviors during quarantine.
The coronavirus’ lethality is boosted by economic inequality
Covid-19 reached Brazil through the country’s influential jet-set, which can afford international trips. “In Brazil, over 300 people started the epidemic, mostly coming from Italy. That led to a quick spread of the virus,” said Dr. Ester Sabino, a researcher at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Tropical Medicine. But it will be in big cities’ peripheral neighborhoods that the virus will spread like wildfire. Census data shows that in poorer areas, the number of households where 2-plus people share the same room makes social distancing impossible.
Why it matters. Brazil has yet to reach a peak in its coronavirus’ infection curve, and lethality will likely be much higher among peripheral populations — who have limited access to healthcare, basic sanitation, proper nutrition, placing them among risk groups.
A new vector. Two studies published in medical journal Lancet showed that the feces of Covid-19 patients carried the virus, even after it was no longer present in their lungs and respiratory system. While the infection risk through the...