Opinion – Vinicius Torres Freire: Covid still kills as many as homicides in Brazil

The World Health Organization (WHO) is discussing next Friday whether Covid is still a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (PHEIC), the highest level of alert and, in theory, of legal engagement and dedication in the world in dealing with a health disaster, including epidemics. It was on the 30th of January 2020 that Covid became a PHEIC.

Scientists say around the world that it would be too soon to decree the end of the global emergency, if only because the disease will bring disgrace to China, which has ended its “Covid zero” policy and will have a lot of infection and death.

If it decides to end PHEIC, the WHO would not want to say that the pandemic is over, although such a decision would have some practical consequences. Would it have a symbolic effect?

Maybe not. As it seems intuitive, the world has been adapting to Covid for some time, having had enough of knowing about the virus or worrying about it. In countries like Brazil, the disease has become somewhat invisible since the middle of last year and even more so now. It became as invisible as the older and weaker.

In the last month, Covid has killed 3,938 people, 131 per day, according to official records. At the height of the horror, in April 2021, it killed more than 85,000 people in 30 days.

Even with these low numbers, Covid still kills as many as murderers (the average homicide in 2021, most recent data, was 130 per day).

The disease may seem invisible, except for the sick and their families, because it mostly kills people who are older or who also already suffer from another illness, still and always heart disease and diabetes, in most cases (in São Paulo, 73% of deaths had comorbidities).

In the last quarter, 81% of those who died from Covid in the state of São Paulo were over 60 years old (65% were over 70 years old). About 85% of those killed by flu/pneumonia in 2019 and 2020 were over 60.

As has already been written in these columns, it is as if Covid had become a great killer flu, especially for the elderly, who are willing to let them die, just as a Bolsonaro would do. In São Paulo, Covid killed more than 1 in 40 of individuals over 70 years old.

Vaccination made the death of younger people very unlikely, it’s true. Despite Jair Bolsonaro and army generals and colonels, who commanded the Bozist occupation of the Ministry of Health, vaccination has advanced, thanks to SUS and most states and cities.

In the application of the first two doses or equivalent, Brazil did as well as France, Germany, Italy and Spain (or better), for example. But it is well below the booster dose (57% of the population, below large European countries). The case of the United States is a disgrace.

Vaccinating, therefore, is still necessary, even as part of a great campaign for national regeneration, information and health care, for the dissemination of any type of vaccine, programs harmed because of the degenerate Bolsonarists.

In addition to this truism, there are three others, forgotten or accepted as a fact of nature.

Nearly 60% of people who have had Covid continue to have symptoms a quarter after the acute infection. Many of them, we have no idea how many, were left with disabling or otherwise serious sequelae. Families are also torn apart because they have lost those who supported them, mothers, fathers or grandparents. We need to take care of these people.

The other disgrace is that of education. It seems like such an old, stale, tedious subject because of so much repetition. It is brand new, however, as almost everything remains to be done.

Still among the priorities, it is necessary to debolsonize health and bring Bolsonaro and his generals and colonels to justice. No amnesty.