By Carlos Meneses
Manaus, Brazil, thirteen Sep (EFE) . – Talking about the pandemic is already taboo in the Brazilian town of Manaus, at the gates of the Amazon, although the fitness emergency has passed.
But the relatives of those affected have not forgotten the informal attitude of the right-wing head of state Jair Bolsonaro in the face of the coronavirus and urge their compatriots to elect a “more humane” president in October.
Images of depression in the streets of Manaus, with crowds of citizens lining up to receive oxygen cylinders and mass graves dug in this capital of the state of Amazonas, have attracted foreign attention.
Manaus was the city most affected by the coronavirus crisis in Brazil, a country whose nearly 700,000 deaths from covid-19 are momentary only for the United States in the world.
The Attorney General’s Office says more than 60 people have died of asphyxiation in the state of Amazonas due to lack of oxygen.
Carla Oliveira lost her father, mother and brother to the coronavirus between January five and February 3, 2021.
“My sister and I were left alone,” he told Efe, adding that just a month ago he woke up screaming in the middle of the night and still taking antidepressants.
Like many other people in Manaus, he spent days searching in vain for oxygen bottles in the city.
Now that the crisis has passed, he said there are Americans, even within his own circle of relatives, who “don’t like to talk about it. “
“People very fast, but I don’t. I know what I’ve been through, I’ve noticed the chaos in front of me,” Mayara Bilhante, founder and executive director of the non-governmental organization Parceiros Bilhantes, told EFE.
This nonprofit has raised 1. 5 million reais ($300,000) in donations and used that money to buy more than 23,000 liters of oxygen, as well as other medical materials and equipment to help mitigate the effects of the crisis.
It is very likely that some of the effects of fitness emergence will be felt over several generations.
The Manaus-based Research and Education Institute for Sustainable Development is concerned about two hundred young people orphaned by the pandemic, its director, Glauce Galucio, said monetary assistance has declined considerably in recent months.
Galucio spoke to Efe after delivering bags with basic necessities to Antonio da Costa, a 69-year-old retiree. The virus claimed his daughter’s life, and now he and his wife are worried about their 4 grandchildren, to which one and one are added. a half-year-old child.
Da Costa said it’s not easy for this couple to provide breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks with the couple’s source of income of just $500 a month.
He has avoided directly criticizing Bolsonaro, who denied the seriousness of the coronavirus, questioned the effectiveness of vaccines and suggested to others not to respect social distancing measures, and only suggested that the next president offer more assistance to those sick from the pandemic.
But Oliveira, who began to see the light at the end of the tunnel thanks to that of the Association of Victims and Relatives of Victims of Covid-19 (Avico Brazil), seriously criticized the right-wing president.
“The Bolsonaro government says the death toll has been inflated to get more public funds. It makes me sick,” he said, adding that the president even imitates patients with shortness of breath.
Outrage over Bolsonaro’s reaction to the pandemic has led an indigenous leader, Vanda Witoto, to throw herself into the political arena.