Brazil’s mismanagement of covid-19 threatens the world

SéRGIO OLíMPIO GOMES, better known as Major Olímpio, was a policeman who entered politics 15 years ago. In 2018 he managed the campaign in the state of São Paulo of Brazil’s current president, Jair Bolsonaro, and was elected to the national Senate. On March 18th this year he died of covid-19, aged 58. He is the third sitting senator to have died from the disease. Nearly 4% of the legislature’s upper house has perished in the pandemic.

That has brought home to the political class a shock that millions of Brazilians are now experiencing. The country is suffering a second covid wave far worse than the first. Its recorded death toll, averaging over 2,300 a day, is a quarter of the world’s total. This is despite the fact that Brazil has less than 3% of the world’s people.