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He is infected and has Covid-19 symptoms, but Brazil’s president still endorses hydroxychloroquine, an unproven treatment. He projects optimism amid a pandemic that kills over 1,000 Brazilians a day.
By Ernesto Londoño
RIO DE JANEIRO — President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has been presenting an image of resilience and vigor as he fights the coronavirus, flashing smiles and thumbs-up, posting on social media — and enthusiastically promoting the drug hydroxychloroquine.
His attitude during convalescence is consistent with his widely-discredited contention that the virus poses little threat to people who are healthy, and his endorsement of the drug, though studies have found no evidence that it works on Covid-19 patients, but have shown possible danger in taking it.
“I’m doing much better than I was,” Mr. Bolsonaro, 65, said in a video posted Tuesday night as he washed down a dose of hydroxychloroquine with water. “It’s working.”
Mr. Bolsonaro acknowledged that there are no drugs scientifically proven to treat Covid-19, but he said: “I’m one more person it’s working on. I trust hydroxychloroquine.”
In the United States, the National Institutes of Health in June stopped a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine, saying the drug did not work, and the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning in May, explaining that the medication can cause dangerous abnormalities in the heart rhythm of coronavirus patients.
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