Disapproval of Bolsonaro’s management against Covid falls, says Datafolha

As Brazil reaches the mark of 660,000 confirmed deaths from Covid-19, the assessment of the performance of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in relation to the pandemic improves, although it is still more negative than positive, according to a Datafolha survey.

The survey was carried out on the 22nd and 23rd of last month. There were 2,556 interviews in 181 municipalities with people aged 16 and over. The margin of error is two points up or down.

The share of respondents who say they see the president’s handling of the biggest health emergency in recent history as excellent or good went from 22% in September last year to 28% in March.

Those who rate it as regular went from 22% to 25%, and the share of those who see the performance as poor/very poor dropped from 54% to 46%.

The drop in disapproval of Bolsonaro’s management in the pandemic comes at a time when his government’s disapproval also drops, and in which he shows strength for the October electoral dispute, with 26% of voting intentions, behind former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who has 43%.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Datafolha has carried out eight surveys that have evaluated both the Bolsonaro government and its performance in the pandemic. Over the period, the disapproval of the fight against Covid had always been greater than that of his government.

In March 2021, for example, 54% disapproved of his performance in the pandemic, but only 32% disapproved of his government in general.

Now, the disapproval curves converge for the first time (46% in the case of the pandemic and 45% in general), and also in an unprecedented way, the approval of the representative’s performance against Covid is numerically above the general (28% to 25%) .

Over just over two years of the circulation of the Sars-CoV-2 virus in the country, Bolsonaro disrespected health measures, promoting agglomerations, publicized and acquired drugs that were ineffective against Covid and propagated false claims about vaccines.

His administration was the subject of a CPI in the Senate whose final report, approved in October 2021, attributed crimes to the federal government and called for the accountability of several agents, especially the president of the Republic.

The opinion approved by the CPI cited irregularities in vaccine negotiations, delays in purchasing effective immunizers and omission to avoid sanitary collapse in Amazonas, when patients died without oxygen, even when it had been known for days that the input was about to run out in the state.

While his performance in fighting the disease was criticized, Bolsonaro chose to blame governors, mayors and the Federal Supreme Court for the economic impact of social isolation measures.

At various times, the president has contradicted scientific evidence by questioning the efficacy and safety of immunizers, especially when dealing with children.

Precisely because of vaccination, however, the Covid scenario in Brazil is different today, just over a year after the scenes of relatives seeking oxygen on their own for their bedridden relatives in Manaus.

Almost 3 out of 4 Brazilians (74.9%) are immunized with two doses or a single dose of the Covid vaccine, and 36.4% took the booster injection.

Moving averages of deaths and cases continue to fall. The number of deaths recorded this Saturday (2) was 197, a reduction of 35% compared to two weeks ago, and that of infections was 23,878, a decrease of 36%.

In this scenario, when the different segments of the population are analyzed in the Datafolha survey, the assessment of Bolsonaro’s management in the pandemic follows the trend of his popularity in general.

The best approval ratings are found, for example, among those who rate their government as great or good (78%), evangelicals (38%, compared to 26% of Catholics and 16% of Kardecists) and whites (32%, compared to 21% of blacks).

The disapproval of presidential conduct in the face of the pandemic is greater among young people aged 16 to 24 – 53% say they see it as bad/very bad, a rate that ranges between 43% and 46% in the other age groups.

It is higher among those with a university degree (57% against 43% to 44% of the others) and among residents of the Northeast (50%) and Southeast (49%).

In the South, disapproval of Bolsonaro’s role in the pandemic drops to 42%, and in the Midwest, to 36%.

The relative return to normality in the country’s daily life, with the drop in mandatory masks in several cities, open schools and return to face-to-face work, occurs while countries in Europe and Asia register an increase in cases due to a subvariant of the virus.

Its impact in Brazil is still uncertain and, for now, there is no consensus in the scientific community to determine if and when the pandemic ends.

The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, said last Wednesday (30) that ending the health emergency status in the country still depends on a series of analyses.

Still, according to Datafolha, the country’s perception of control over the pandemic is growing. Altogether, 72% consider that it is partially controlled, and 15%, totally.

Those who see the situation out of control have dropped from 20% to 12%. A year ago, when ICUs across Brazil collapsed, this rate was 79%.

As expected, the share of those who see the pandemic fully under control is higher among Bolsonaro voters (26%) and lower among those who intend to vote for João Doria (12%), Lula (12%), Sergio Moro (12%). and Ciro Gomes (8%).