That reminds me of another headline from last month that was right up the Monty Python alley too: ”Turkmenistan Has Banned Use Of The Word ‘Coronavirus’”
As a friend who’s a standup comedian said in response to reading that: “Brilliant, why didn’t our government think of this? We wouldn’t have all these problems.”
That's literally the case with 'climate change' being banned from government discussions and reports in the federal govt in the US and in various states.
Recall that the US President wanted to keep a cruise ship from docking because "I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault". If your career is built on the principle that perception trumps reality, it's hard to adjust when reality doesn't cooperate.
The Brazilian supreme court already decided that state governors and city mayors can impose regional lockdowns. Most cities are already with restrictive measures and this event is not going to change that.
It is hard to predict the future, but despite the former Health minister indeed have being fired for clashing with Bolsonaro views, there is not much indication that the policy will in fact change now.
It became a ego dispute in the last days, but original rumors that the role would be occupied by someone without health expertise that would follow Bolsonaro orders to the letter were wrong. The new minister is also a doctor who hinted that lockdown is necessary before.
I believe Bolsonaro leadership is a disaster and more people will die because of his actions and speeches. I just don't think today's announcement will change much. It will not get worse.
The governors here don't have that much autonomy as in the US, but they have enough to define what will indeed happen in the streets. This won't change with the new minister.
Does it make any difference one way or the other? If the response is vital, then some country will get it "devastatingly wrong", and then won't that produce a new wave after a bit everywhere else?
Won't that just be a sequel to the first cycle, where things seemed under control, it was downplayed, and then it got going outside of China. Why should anyone expect other than a fractal replay?
The parallels between the current US and Brazilian administrations are hard to ignore. That said, I really hope Trump and Fauci are able to see this crisis out together. Bolsonaro’s decision today could kill thousands, no doubt.
He's a total madman.
Trump is a shithead but he'll read the situation or be advised by someone, jump ships and blame it on the chinese or something.
This guy went 100% on this and is not turning back, to the level of taking people to the streets to force business owners to open, walking on the streets to chat with followers (while he's suspected positive covid) and calling for fasting and prayers as a solution. BTW Religious services were defined as "essential" so they can still be carried on. Much of his base is from a fanatic/fringe christian faith so maybe that's were that comes from.
What worries me is that now Brazil is in a stand off, the military that surround him, vice-president included, have cutted him off power and congress is starting to look into an impeachment. But even if they do, and do away with Bolsonaro, then the military that ran with him will have the power, will finally declare the lockdown and anything can happen next, they'll be lucky if they have elections after that. Police abuse during lockdown grew a lot in other latin countries, i expect at least the same to happen there, who knows to which level.
Bolsonaro has no negotiation skills, and is (frankly) bad at mostly everything, but he's got a good finance minister who's saying that the country just can't stop creating value, but what is the right balance?
Mandetta, the previous health minister, had no flexibility in his views, he wanted to follow the WHO blindly, without weighing anything else.
Maybe the new guy has the flexibility and the brains to find a better balance of views, and to create a strategy on top of it.
It’s not the job of the health minister to consider the economy. If they’re thinking about that, they’re being an awful health minister.
It’s the job of the executive to balance between the different paths recommended by different advisors, and chart a path that has the correct balance of trade offs.
Honest question: Did we see any anormal mortality in any country caused by the covid-19? Countrywide there seems to be less death than usual on the period January-March in Europe.
Edit: And here goes my karma. I will need to do some PR to catch up with this :)
It's important to look at the numbers by region and not the total numbers. And if you consider the overall mortality you have to take in mind that other incidents where people usually die went down (e.g. traffic accidents.
But all these countries have now strict lockdown measures in place.
I'm sure that the death toll im Brazil will skyrocket.
Europe's seen abnormally high mortality rates starting at the end of March. Someone sent me this graph, although unfortunately I didn't keep track of the source:
In the Netherlands (for March) mortality for all age cohorts is up, average of about 10%. Lower cohorts mortality is down but not enough to offset the others. Causality is by definition impossible to ascertain at this aggregate level, but no reasonable person would come with another explanation.
I mean, if you just google "covid death tolls" you'll see 34,386 deaths in USA alone that we know of. Considering a lot of COVID patients don't even get diagnosed the real number is likely higher. Isn't that enough?
[+] [-] virtualritz|6 years ago|reply
As a friend who’s a standup comedian said in response to reading that: “Brilliant, why didn’t our government think of this? We wouldn’t have all these problems.”
[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0...
[+] [-] belltaco|6 years ago|reply
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/08/trump-...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/03/09/florida-bans...
[+] [-] wrs|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] frozenlettuce|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] romwell|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sebastianconcpt|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] soneca|6 years ago|reply
It became a ego dispute in the last days, but original rumors that the role would be occupied by someone without health expertise that would follow Bolsonaro orders to the letter were wrong. The new minister is also a doctor who hinted that lockdown is necessary before.
I believe Bolsonaro leadership is a disaster and more people will die because of his actions and speeches. I just don't think today's announcement will change much. It will not get worse.
The governors here don't have that much autonomy as in the US, but they have enough to define what will indeed happen in the streets. This won't change with the new minister.
[+] [-] gtirloni|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ashtonkem|6 years ago|reply
Wish I was kidding.
[+] [-] sebastianconcpt|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] x3n0ph3n3|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikepurvis|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] perl4ever|6 years ago|reply
Won't that just be a sequel to the first cycle, where things seemed under control, it was downplayed, and then it got going outside of China. Why should anyone expect other than a fractal replay?
[+] [-] romwell|6 years ago|reply
Perhaps Boris Johnson's attitude will change a little bit now, for example.
[+] [-] reinkaos|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JamisonM|6 years ago|reply
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/covid-19-russia-spike-cases-1....
[+] [-] aaomidi|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] droithomme|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] kippster|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] save_ferris|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] redis_mlc|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] sudoaza|6 years ago|reply
What worries me is that now Brazil is in a stand off, the military that surround him, vice-president included, have cutted him off power and congress is starting to look into an impeachment. But even if they do, and do away with Bolsonaro, then the military that ran with him will have the power, will finally declare the lockdown and anything can happen next, they'll be lucky if they have elections after that. Police abuse during lockdown grew a lot in other latin countries, i expect at least the same to happen there, who knows to which level.
[+] [-] sergiotapia|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] htk|6 years ago|reply
Mandetta, the previous health minister, had no flexibility in his views, he wanted to follow the WHO blindly, without weighing anything else.
Maybe the new guy has the flexibility and the brains to find a better balance of views, and to create a strategy on top of it.
[+] [-] ashtonkem|6 years ago|reply
It’s the job of the executive to balance between the different paths recommended by different advisors, and chart a path that has the correct balance of trade offs.
[+] [-] aphroz|6 years ago|reply
Edit: And here goes my karma. I will need to do some PR to catch up with this :)
[+] [-] lhoff|6 years ago|reply
https://www.lavocedinewyork.com/en/news/2020/03/26/coronavir...
It's important to look at the numbers by region and not the total numbers. And if you consider the overall mortality you have to take in mind that other incidents where people usually die went down (e.g. traffic accidents. But all these countries have now strict lockdown measures in place.
I'm sure that the death toll im Brazil will skyrocket.
[+] [-] SpicyLemonZest|6 years ago|reply
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nq9Tcrho5QQ/XpjnH7DgeRI/A...
[+] [-] roel_v|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rsynnott|6 years ago|reply
About the only country significantly under normal is Ireland, which has a youngish population and a fairly effective lockdown.
[+] [-] simmanian|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cosmodisk|6 years ago|reply