Opinion – Vinicius Torres Freire: What can still be done against the omicron in Bolsonaro’s reign of death

What can still be done to contain the effects of the omicron? Nothing new: you can do more and faster. You need to vaccinate a lot and soon. Yes, vaccines take time to take effect and the hypercontagious variant is on the loose. But how long will this wave last? Scientists tell this journalist that two months, on the downside, might be a reasonable guess. A guess, because we don’t even know at what pace the new virus spreads across the country. Thanks to the convenient incompetence and negligence of the federal government, we don’t have data and we won’t soon.

By the way, we don’t even know how much vaccination is going on either. Some 30 million people age 12 and older have yet to take both doses; much more is without reinforcement. Omicron appears to do less harm to vaccinees, although we read reports of elderly people or people with pre-existing conditions going to ICUs or dying even with three doses. A national emergency vaccination campaign (even bigger) could save lives, avoid sequelae in infected people, reduce suffering.

A strong campaign, of national commotion, could save the elderly, the main victims of the massacre, the vaccinated and the children, now also infected in large numbers, as we can see from the American statistics.

Where’s the campaign? Jair Bolsonaro continues to do his thing: against vaccines. The most recent move was his injurious vomitory against Anvisa and his attempt to discredit the immunization of children.

What is the use, however, of dealing with misgovernment? Who can still bear the obviousness of declaring criminal incompetence and systematic sabotage? However, even out of need for survival and to prevent the monster from committing more atrocities, it is necessary to resist.

In addition to directly putting lives and health at risk, the omicron is a risk to economic and social security. We do not know how many people the variant will kill and in how long, even less in Brazil, because there is also no data, it should be noted. How many will be at least for a few days unable to work or isolated?

We hear about canceled flights, sick crews. But why would the virus attack only airline workers? How are public transport drivers? How are workers in the production, transport and delivery of food, the great victims of the first waves, doing? How are those who make sure we have electricity, fuel, water, urban cleaning or police? Or those who take care of us in health centers, clinics, hospitals?

One might say that it is alarmism to believe that workers can get sick in enough numbers to jeopardize essential services. May be. This journalist believes that it is better not to wait and see, if only because these people were involved in the struggle during the worst moments of the epidemic, guaranteeing our survival and suffering for it. At the very least, it’s not fair to drop them again.

Importantly, we don’t know how many people will end up in hospitals because of this “mild” variant. Those who work in health are already exhausted, down, maybe sick of Covid or something else. Many people were left without adequate treatment for other ailments because of the hospital overcrowding due to the coronavirus; there are the sequelae of the epidemic, to which little attention is paid. They are also commonplace, everyone is tired of hearing it, but it is increasingly true. Another big wave of hospitalizations will cause even more collateral damage.

There is always time to save lives, even in these times of Jair Bolsonaro’s death.