El Profesor

They did the same to Brazil. Americans intercepted a cargo of 600 ventilators in Miami that were destined to Brazil. As the germans have well defined, this is piracy. And it gets worse, I´ve read some rumors in Twitter accusing the feds of selling those supplies to private companies who in their turn sell to american states or to other countries. It makese sense, since NY governor, Cuomo, has been saying for a while now that Us states are bidding against each other for supplies. A viral Twitter in Brazil summed up the situation well:

That´s true. Apparently, things are better in Quito, the capital, but in Guayaquil, the most populous city in Ecuador the health system and public order have collapsed. Apparently, this outbreak was caused by equatorians who work in Spain and returned to Ecuador. There are almost 500 000 equatorians living in Spain, the largest latin american community in Spain. Consdering Spain is one of the countries most badly hit by the virus, there´s certainly a connection. Another factor is the fact that equatorian government didn´t take the threat seriously and passengers returning from Spain didn´t need to go under a quarantine after arriving in the country.

He just doesn´t stop.

That´s true.

Compared to Bolsonaro, Trump is a great statesman. It´s just that not enough people speak portuguese to get the full picture. Abin (Brazil´s secret service agency), according to some leaked documents, is projecting more than 5.000 deaths in the next 15 days. Bolsonaro was briefed weeks ago about it and yet continues to undermine the efforts of the state governors.

I have no words, really. We´re on our own. He truly believes the coronavirus crisis is not serious and that the press is using it in order to create panic, ruin the economy and destabilize his adminstration.

WHO, in all of this, reminds me of the League of the Nations. A powerless institution that couldn´t avoid the tragedy it was created to avoid. That doesn´t mean I want WHO abolished, it´s quite the opposite actually. I think the organization should´ve its powers strenghtened so that the member states are subject to more strict surveillance and that we find more ways to cooperate internationally in matters of health.

According to the tweet bellow, in terms of air quality, Northern Italy is probably the worst place in Europe. Also, I´ve tried to check if this makes sense and it does. 13 of the 50 most polluted cities in Europe are in Italy. https://www.iqair.com/world-most-polluted-cities?continent=59af92ac3e70001c1bd78e52&country=&state=&page=1&perPage=50&cities= I´m not saying this is the main cause, but there must be something to do, at least. It could also be a factor in Iran. Tehran is surrounded by mountains, right?

I live in a small town, so I´m not sure. But yes, the mood in the country is terrible. Bolsonaro is paranoid and totally out of touch with reality. He is surrounded by sycophants who are loyal to him but not much more, they are incredibly stupid. Do you remember that scenes from "Der Untergang" where Hitler says that after Steiner´s attack all will be fine? This is Bolsonaro at the moment. He thinks the coronavirus crisis is a scheme designed to take the power away from him. There is that feeling of impending doom, with the report of the first deaths in Brazil and no signs of leadership from the president. People here are angry and scared.

Some hope? China says Japan-developed drug Avigan works against coronavirus. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/China-says-Japan-developed-drug-Avigan-works-against-coronavirus

Spanish government has a lot to answer for after allowing the March 8th demonstrations to go ahead last weekend, despite the warnings from EU authorities.

I´m not sure there´s a country in the world more ill-prepared to face the coronavirus than Venezuela: - Today, airports officials in Caracas were wearing masks, but there was no running water and no soap in the airport bathrooms; - WHO announced on Wednesday that there are only 3000 test kits for coronavirus in the entire country; - According to a report, in all Venezuela there are only 206 ICU beds and of those only 102 have ventilators, 50% of those are in Caracas; - 11 eleven venezuelan states have 0 ventilators; - Just a quick reminder: Venezuela has a population of almost 30 million people.

This is terrible news. First confirmed cases of coronavirus in Venezuela. An already fragile population and a health system in total collapse. Hopefully it can be contained, because if it's widespread Venezuela won't be able to cope with It.

Yes, but the mayor of Miami was also in contact to Fabio Wajngarten, the press secretary for the brazilian government. So who knows? When it comes to Bolsonaro, it's difficult to tell what the truth is.

Why is it so tiresome to live in a country governed by a dangerous demagogue? Earlier this morning, Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president's son, told several media outlets that the president had tested positive. The press reported it. One hour later, president Bolsonaro announced he had tested negative and that the press was lying all along and spreading rumours about him, despite the fact those rumours were started by the president entourage. He does that ALL the time in order to discredit the free press.

Coronavirus tested negative for Bolsonaro. Lucky vírus.

You should probably close the brazilian border. Until yesterday there were 76 confirmed cases in Brazil, but today one single hospital in São Paulo has announced 60 new cases. Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo already have cases of community transmission.

We´all gonna die, but we brazilians will be the first to go.

On Facebook ? I´m watching the Grenal. First time those rivals meet in Libertadores and it´ll probably be the last big match in Brazil for some time.

At this exact moment, Grêmio and Internacional are playing their Copa Libertadores match and there are 50.000 fans at Arena Grêmio.

Northern Italy has a large chinese community working in the textile industry. Also, Italy is one of the top destination for chinese tourists outisde Asia. Traffic between China and Italy exceeds by a good margin the traffic between China and South America.

South America, in general, in contrast to Europe, is so far in a better position but it has more to do with trade and airport traffic volume to Asia than to any measure taken by south american governments. The real challenge is about to begin.

As a brazilian journalist said earlier today, the coronavirus test result might be the first positive thing to happen in more than one year of Bolsonaro administration.

Bolsonaro himself was tested today. Results tomorrow. The worst part is that the President earlier this week said the coronavirus crisis was nothing more than a fantasy and was asking his supporters to go to the streets on Sunday for a demonstration in support of the government. He´s such an idiot.