Bolsonaro touts ‘miraculous cure’
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has gone all in on hydroxychloroquine to help his coronavirus-ravaged country beat Covid-19. He has pushed his government to make the malaria drug widely available and encouraged Brazilians to take it, both to prevent the disease and to treat it.
Now the far-right populist is putting his convictions to the ultimate test: Bolsonaro on Tuesday announced that he had tested positive for the disease and was taking hydroxychloroquine.
Bolsonaro said in an interview that he had taken an initial two doses, in conjunction with the antibiotic azithromycin, and felt better almost immediately. His only regret, he said, was not using it sooner.
“If I had taken hydroxychloroquine preventively, I would still be working instead of heading into quarantine,” Bolsonaro said.
Later, in a separate video, he gulped down a third pill. He said he was aware of other treatments, but noted none of them had been proven to work.
“I trust in hydroxychloroquine,” he said. “And you?”
Bolsonaro’s illness is a potent symbol of his government’s botched response to the outbreak. More than 1.7 million people in Brazil have tested positive for coronavirus and nearly 68,000 have died.
A forceful critic of stay-at-home measures, Bolsonaro, 65, has largely shunned masks and derided the coronavirus as a “little flu”.
Instead, he has placed his faith in hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, turning them into the centrepiece of his government’s virus-beating playbook. — Reuters