Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro removes his mask to speak to journalists on March 18.
Topline: Twitter and Facebook removed a video of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro talking about an experimental coronavirus treatment, classifying it as misinformation, as Bolsonaro increasingly comes under fire for his “coronavirus-denial” and response to the pandemic, including attacks on public officials for enacting social-distancing rules.
- “This medicine here, hydroxychloroquine, is working in every place,” Bolsonaro incorrectly claimed while talking to a street vendor in the video, which was posted to the Brazilian president’s Facebook and Twitter accounts before the platforms removed it.
- Brazil’s governors have implemented local social distancing policies to slow disease transmission, but Bolsonaro called them “job killers” for the impact shutdowns are having on the country’s economy.
- Bolsonaro has also downplayed the threat of coronavirus, comparing it to the flu or the sniffles, and said that he personally would only experience mild illness if he became infected, due to his “history as an athlete.”
- Bolsonaro’s press secretary Fabio Wajngarten and acting Brazil ambassador Nestor Forster both tested positive for COVID-19 on March 12, raising questions whether Bolsonaro had it, but he has denied it amid conflicting accounts.
- A major Brazilian newspaper, O Dia, reported on March 7 that the president did have the virus—which Fox News reportedly confirmed with his son Eduardo, but who later denied the positive diagnosis.
- He earned widespread condemnation for attending a protest and touching a reported 272 supporters on March 15, while social-distancing was being urged.
Crucial quote: “We’re all going to die one day,” Bolsonaro told supporters outside his official residents on Sunday, as he continued to defy guidance from health officials to refrain gathering in groups to slow the spread of the disease.
Tangent: President Trump came into contact with Wajngarten and Forster at Mar-a-Lago and was tested for COVID-19; Trump’s results were also negative.
Big number: 4,681. That’s how many COVID-19 cases are confirmed in Brazil, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. To date, 167 people have died from the virus in Brazil.
News peg: Twitter and Facebook took a big step by blocking a politician’s post to their platforms, having shown reluctance in the past to wade into what they viewed as a free-speech issue. Both have been excoriated for allowing mis- and disinformation to populate on their platforms following the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The removal of Bolsonaro’s post fell under new policies put in place by the platforms to counteract false information. Hydroxychloroquine, the antiviral drug Bolsonaro mentions in the now-deleted video, is typically used to treat lupus, arthritis and malaria. It’s also an unproven treatment against COVID-19. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for COVID-19 patients on Sunday, with the Department of Health and Human Services saying the possible benefits outweighed the risks of dispensing the medications.
Key background: With over 211 million people, Brazil is the world’s sixth-most populous country. Large portions of the country’s population live in “favelas”— the Portuguese word for its dense urban slums—where coronavirus cases have already been reported, and could become more of a problem, as the disease is reportedly easily transmissible in crowded areas. Despite that, Bolsonaro has continued to rail against lockdowns and other measures to contain the virus. Brazil’s health minister warned on March 20 that the country’s healthcare system “will collapse” due to an anticipated surge of COVID-19 patients in April.