Brazil’s Double Pandemic: Covid and Economic Collapse
Michelle Liu
COVID-19 battered many Latin American economies, but Brazil has suffered a loss like no other. Inside a hospital in the Amazon, doctors and nurses run amok with worry, moving from patient to patient. Francisalva Mendes, a health chief in Coari, even exclaims how seven patients died in an hour due to a lack of oxygen, asphyxiating their last words. Indeed, Brazil has the highest death toll in the world, with over 3000 deaths a day burdening healthcare coverage. Under President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil cut social spending for healthcare and poverty, only compounding a healthcare system strained by the pandemic. This sets off a powder keg of social and economic issues. COVID creates a freezing effect on the economy, depleting resources and decreasing GDP by 4.1% -- Brazil’s worst drop in decades. With the country facing a bleak covid recovery, many speculate that Brazil is bound for economic collapse.
COVID created a hailstorm of problems for Brazil, especially for their economy. With the virus rampaging the country, community mobility is below pre-pandemic standards, which hinders consumption. Indeed, consumption is up to 50% below standards, starving local businesses of revenue. The lackluster consumer demand leads to a self-fueling economic spiral, as consumption and demand constitute 63.4% of GDP. With less consumption, GDP is doomed to fall. Businesses will inevitably lose profits, laying off workers, which leads to decreased consumption once again. To escape this cycle of suffering, Brazil and Bolsonaro must heed the economic reverberations of COVID-19 not as a nuisance, but a dire social ordeal.
Specifically, Bolsonaro must support Bolsa Familia, a vital cash transfer program for impoverished families. In the welfare program, admitted families in poverty apply for needed funds. But, Bolsonaro not only cut the maximum number of families but even put over 700,000 families on the waitlist. Amid a global pandemic shaking healthcare stability, Bolsonaro must act with compassion, decency, and integrity, not brute cuts to social programs. Indeed, these social programs are imperative for the nation to rebuild its consumption base.
But, COVID is not only a direct cause of economic decline -- it is also a medium for corruption and kleptocracy. While Brazilians suffer from oxygen asphyxiation, the government asphyxiates from a different type of virus: greed. COVID created a novel corruption: PPE corruption, in which politicians hike up prices of healthcare products and retain the kickbacks for themselves. Not only does this engender the very problem at Coari, but it also drains state coffers, hindering social programs and other federal spending. In Rio de Janeiro, doctors exclaim that politicians lined their pockets with $72.2 million from inflating prices of ventilators. Not only did state contracts go to allied companies, but the 1,000 ventilators never arrived. The economic cost of the pandemic compounds the human cost, breeding a pernicious mix of suffering and avarice.
Brazil’s healthcare crisis and economic decline compound and amplify each other, creating a mix that Bolsonaro refuses to wade through. When lives are on the line, Bolosnaro must act with intention instead of merely spouting combative rhetoric.
The image is clear: Brazil is suffering from a double pandemic, fueled by greed, fiscal austerity, and inept public health practices. Without tangible change, the people of Brazil will only suffer in silence as politicians engage in corrupt practices. Without tangible change, Brazil’s status as the powerhouse of Latin America may become threatened.