The beginning of vaccination in Brazil, the result of the dedicated and competent work of public servants in state institutions like the Instituto Butantã and Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) biological research centers, is an achievement to be celebrated. It brings hope of better days. However, the obstacles put in place by Bolsonaro are criminally delaying the immunization of the population.
The Federal Government has not guaranteed the advance purchase of vaccines and raw materials for the large scale production of vaccinations in the country. Repeated cuts to public investment in universities and scientific institutes over the last few years have also compromised the capacity for national production. As a consequence, Brazil has a small stock of vaccines, far below its immediate need.
Along with this, the Bolsonaro family has bought into unnecessary diplomatic disputes with China and India, which have held back the delivery of already contracted vaccines and supplies. Brazilian foreign policy is so harmful that the country has lined up with the United States against the suspension of vaccine patents. The result is that the richest countries have bought almost all of the world’s vaccine stocks; and their laboratories, which own the vaccines and supplies, are making rivers of money by selling them to the poorest countries.
For these and other reasons, Bolsonaro has sabotaged the protection of the lives of his own people. Without short-term mass vaccination, it will be many months before the pandemic, which gets worse by the day, is brought under effective control. The current scenario is alarming. The public Unified Health System (SUS) is almost stretched to its limits in many states and municipalities, and in several of these areas hospital care capacity, even in the private network, has already collapsed. The numbers of new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths keep growing. Nothing indicates an improvement or a stabilization of the pandemic in the coming months.
Social distancing measures, which were all but eliminated or relaxed by those in power, are insufficient given the speed of the spread of COVID-19. To make matters worse, there is a new and more contagious variant of the disease, which is circulating primarily in the north of the country.
Brazil now faces a critical situation. Manaus, the capital of the northern state of Amazonas, has already seen hospitals run out of oxygen and a surge in COVID deaths. If the health system collapses, new tragedies like that in Manaus will be inevitable. Several municipalities may see a shortage of both medical supplies (such as oxygen and drugs) and health professionals, a complete saturation of the funeral system, and large numbers of people die in hospital lines and at home due to a lack of medical care and hospital beds.
In such a terrible scenario, in which high unemployment, rising food inflation and the end of emergency aid are also felt, social unrest and anger against the Bolsonaro government grow rapidly. More and more Brazilians understand that it is necessary to remove the genocidal leader from power to start to bring the pandemic under control and leave this painful national crisis behind.
It is time to transform indignation into action. In this regard, the People without Fear Front (Frente Povo Sem Medo, FPSM) and the Popular Brazil Front (Frente Brasil Popular, FBP) have established a timetable for this fight that begins with a call for ‘carreatas’ (motorcade protests) for the morning of Saturday 23 January, some of which took place the day before. These two fronts have also called for a ‘Plenária Nacional de Organização das Lutas Populares’ (National Plenary for the Organization of Popular Struggles) to be held on 26 January.
Further ‘carreatas’ and other actions are being called between now and 1 February, such as the calls for action by the Forum of Federal Public Servants in National Entities (FONASEFE). Among the principal demands of the ‘carreatas’ are the impeachment of Bolsonaro, the continuity of emergency aid, vaccination for the entire Brazilian population as soon as possible, the protection of jobs, and the fight against administrative reform and privatization.
Fora Bolsonaro! Impeachment, já!
(Bolsonaro Out! Impeachment now!)
Vacinação gratuita para todos, já!
(Free vaccination for all now!)
Ampliação das medidas de distanciamento social e proteção sanitária! Pela testagem em massa!
(Expansion of social distancing and health protection measures! For mass testing!)
Auxílio emergencial até que toda população esteja vacinada!
(Emergency aid until the whole population is vaccinated!)
Proibição das demissões e ajuda aos pequenos negócios até o fim da pandemia!
(Prohibition of dismissals and aid for small businesses until the pandemic ends!)
Congelamento dos preços dos alimentos!
(For a freeze in food prices!)
This article is an English translation of “Todos às carreatas pelo Fora Bolsonaro: impeachment salva vidas” [https://esquerdaonline.com.
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