Corona breaks records in Latin America Israel today

Brazil ranks second in the world in terms of mortality • In Argentina, conspiracy theorists celebrate - and writers die • And in Mexico "discovered" that the death toll is 60% higher

• People wearing masks on the streets of Argentina

  Photo: 

  Reuters

The corona virus is raging in Latin America:

a combination of large populations, lack of cultural discipline, but mostly the inability of the country - are the main factors that could make the American continent a worse nightmare than in Europe.

Argentina: "Not worrying"

Argentina began treatment of the corona plague, in the best of its tradition, belatedly.

As the severity of the virus' condition in the world became known to all and information began to flow from the World Health Organization, the virus in South America had not yet been eradicated and many doubted that the epidemic would come at all.

They had an advantage of a few weeks, but it was not used.

"I must admit that I am more concerned about dengue fever than the corona virus. There is a very low chance that the virus will reach the country," Argentina's former health minister Guinness Gonzalez Garcia declared in January 2020. Today, after months of particularly tight closure, there are more than 55,000 deaths and an increasing infection rate of about 10,000 per day.

In the meantime, Guinness Garcia has already lost his job as a minister, but the story of his downfall describes well what happened in the divided country.

Anti-American sentiment, which has dominated the continent for many years, causes Western societies to suffer from particularly bad public relations and be perceived by the public as corrupt, and sometimes even as a "wicked" foreign factor to be united against.

This phenomenon is often accompanied by bizarre anti-American conspiracy theories, promoted by the government for political purposes.

And so it was with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, in the wake of attempts to reach an agreement to supply the vaccines.

When the negotiations led by the government of Alberto Fernandez with Pfizer failed - pro-government channels were recruited, journalists were defiled, politicians defied.

And of course, the agreement was not approved.

"I think they did not have the vaccine," the health minister said suspiciously.

To date the official reason for the failure of the talks is unknown, but there are thick hints related to the unique characteristics of the conduct of government officials.

On the other hand, the country has signed agreements to supply vaccines with Russia for doses of Sputnik V and Chinese Sinopharm.

Health Minister Guinness Gonzalez Garcia was fired in February after learning that his office had distributed a large number of vaccines to his associates, friends and many government supporters, regardless of age or risk group.

This provoked a great public outcry, while the elderly population waited months for the long-awaited dose but saw the vaccines injected into the shoulders of government supporters only.

Brazil: "Little Flu"

At the same time, Brazil, the giant state of South America with 211 million inhabitants, has adopted a completely different model in the face of the corona virus: as few general restrictions as possible in order to prevent severe damage to the economy.

The model failed and even created a new Corona variant - the "Brazilian mutation", which put hospitals in danger of collapsing.

The rule of President Jair Bolsonaro is undermined.

On Monday, a process of extensive change in the government in Brasilia began with the departure of the foreign and defense ministers, the justice minister, the attorney general and the president's chief of staff.

The wave of departures continued on Tuesday with the departure of several generals in the military, following Bolsonaro's remarks about using the military for unconventional measures, such as overseeing closures.

Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo, for his part, left the government amid harsh arguments against the Brazilian Senate, which he accused of collaborating with a pro-Chinese lobby that he claims pulls the strings behind the scenes to approve the installation of 5G technology in the country.

Opponents, however, believe he did not do enough in the race to get the vaccines and even criticized his hawkish belief against China, which they claimed hurt the chances of concluding a contract with the Asian red giant.

Mexico: "Kiss"

Meanwhile, the southern neighbor of the United States, Mexico, is experiencing a not-so-simple storm and general mistrust in the government. This phenomenon has intensified in recent days after state authorities released a report that the death toll in the country is 60% higher than previously known, the second figure The highest in the world of dying from the virus.

Like Bolsonaro in Brazil, Mexican President Anders Manuel López Obrador also fell ill in Corona and opposed tough policy against the virus.

However, he took the matter one step further when he approached his people at the beginning of the epidemic and questioned the experts' recommendations.

"Some argue that because of the corona you should not hug. But yes you should, nothing happens," he said and today he eats the porridge he cooked.

The country received close to half a million Pfizer vaccines on Tuesday, joining the 12 million previously received vaccines from Astraznica, Moderna, Sputnik V and Chinese Sinobak.

The vaccination campaign is still running at a fairly low rate of seven first-dose vaccines per 100 inhabitants, but higher than their counterparts in continental Europe.