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On Wednesday evening, the Brazilian media consortium reported the latest bad news: 1,840 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours.

A new daily record, once again.

In the meantime, almost 260,000 deaths have been counted, and that evening there were loud protests from the balconies of the largest cities across the country.

The corona pandemic in Brazil actually seemed to have been largely contained, but now it is back with full force - and more dangerous and brutal than ever.

Of course, Brazil’s right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro is not to blame for the outbreak of the corona pandemic.

The head of state can also do nothing about the occurrence of virus mutations.

Nor for the fact that his predecessors from the left-wing PT workers' party, despite the mass protests at the time, preferred to invest billions in now rotting stadiums and sports arenas for the World Cup and the Olympics instead of the already ailing health system.

But Bolsonaro's crisis management is so catastrophically bad that representatives of the indigenous peoples from the particularly affected Amazon rainforest bring charges of genocide to the United Nations.

Bolsonaro's denial of reality can only have two causes: Either the president lacks the intellectual ability to understand the scientific findings, or he consciously accepts that - not only, but also - the indigenous population will die of the consequences of Covid.

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A week ago, when Brazil reported a new negative record of Covid deaths, Bolsonaro, contrary to all scientific findings, questioned the protective function of a breathing mask.

It was only in December that he announced the end of the pandemic and then declared that he had never been wrong in a prognosis for the further course of the pandemic.

He will continue to advertise the controversial drug chloroquine in 2021, but for a long time scorned vaccines as a possible solution.

The situation is now dramatic: the health system is collapsing in many states, and more and more younger patients are in increasingly overcrowded intensive care units.

The really great dying has apparently only just begun.

The more aggressive virus mutation can spread thanks to Bolsonaro's public campaigning for an end to the lockdown, for controversial healing methods and against masks, because many desperate people are only too happy to believe that distance or protective measures are not really necessary.

In this point, Bolsonaro differs significantly from his former corona-like comrades Boris Johnson or Donald Trump, who initially played down the virus.

Trump then invested billions in a vaccine, which is now paying off in the US.

Johnson recently visited more than twenty hospitals and vaccination centers, he is a powerful driving force behind the vaccination campaign.

But Bolsonaro sticks to his long-disproved views.

The consequences are unpredictable - not just for Brazil.