The disastrous COVID-19 crisis in the Brazilian city of Manaus, in Amazonas state, is not letting up, despite the announcement that the Brazilian Air Force will fly up to 1,500 patients out of the city to other locations as the collapsed local healthcare system has no beds. Oxygen continues to be scarce, despite emergency supplies flown in from other parts of Brazil and other countries. One desperate epidemiologist Jesem Orellana, from Fiocruz in Amazonas, declared that “Manaus is lost,” and called for a mission of international observers to be sent to the state, as in her view, nothing authorities do can be relied on, Correio do Povo reported her as saying.
The political unrest in the country is palpable, particularly aimed at the insane President Jair Bolsonaro, whose handling of the pandemic has been incompetent and negligent at best. Given the lack of a national vaccine strategy, Sputnik reports that a kind of “parallel diplomacy” is taking place to try to obtain sufficient vaccines for a national vaccination program. The president of the Chamber of Deputies Rodrigo Maia, São Paulo Governor João Doria, and unidentified members of the “military wing” of the government are reportedly part of this effort. Also some states have reportedly banded together to form an unofficial regional alliance to try to obtain vaccines.
There are increasing calls for Bolsonaro’s impeachment, seen most recently in car caravans organized in 50 states last weekend demanding his ouster. His Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo, a Steve Bannon acolyte who hates China, is also on the hotseat for having sabotaged negotiations with China that would have allowed the importation of inputs from that country needed to produce the Sinopharm vaccine domestically. Rumors are circulating that Araujo may be removed soon. Vice President Hamilton Mourão, a retired general who differs with Bolsonaro in many areas, said today in an interview with Radio Bandeirantes, reported by Reuters, that Araujo could be removed through a cabinet reshuffling that would probably take place after the Feb. 1 election for new leadership in the Deputies and Senate. “I think there could be a reorganization of the government,” Mourao said, “and perhaps some ministers will be changed, among them the Minister of Foreign Affairs.”
