The COVID-19 pseudoscience suffocating Brazil
SalonIn January 2021, Thalita Rocha stood by her mother-in-law, Maria da Cruz Lima, at a public health clinic in Manaus, Brazil. Instead, the federal government decided to combat the rising Covid cases by launching a public health campaign advertising the alleged benefits of treating early-stage coronavirus with a loosely defined cocktail of unproven drugs, commonly called tratamento precoce since mid-2020, Portuguese for "early treatment." "Bolsonaro is doubling-down on his bet on early treatment to give people a sense of security to keep going to work," said Nemer, adding that Bolsonaro's strategy appears to favor an open economy over health and distract citizens from his vaccine failures. Lima had not taken any "early treatment" pills but still fell victim to the government's focus away from real measures — securing more vaccines and oxygen, tracing and testing, lockdowns, advocating for mask use, social distancing — in favor of pseudoscience. Agência Pública, a nonprofit publication focused on investigative journalism, recently revealed that Brazil's Ministry of Health contracted social media influencers to post about early treatment in January.
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