400,000 deaths and little room for hope

Brazil has recorded over 400,000 Covid-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data compiled by health authorities in the country’s 27 states.

The pace at which Covid-19 has been killing in Brazil has accelerated immensely in 2021. As we explained in today’s edition of the Brazil Daily newsletter, it took the country 145 days to log its first 100,000 deaths, then another 152 days to reach 200,000. The last 100,000 deaths have been recorded in just over one month.

Only the U.S. has tallied more total deaths so far.

After just 14 months, this pandemic is already the deadliest event in Brazilian history — barring colonization and slavery, which lasted for centuries. 

What is striking about this crisis is the government’s ineptitude in...