Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for Coronavirus.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. BBC/Reuters.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for the Coronavirus. BBC. He took the test on Monday after developing symptoms, such as a cough, fever and general illness. Bolsonaro said that his symptoms have gotten better since then and that he is taking Hydroxyclhoroquine and Azithromycin to treat the disease. Bolsonaro has been criticized by the media for not taking the virus seriously enough as Brazil has the 2nd most number of cases and deaths behind only the United States. 

My Comment:

Fairly disgusted with the media as they are openly gleeful that Bolsonaro is sick. Indeed, I don't doubt that most journalists wouldn't be upset if Bolsonaro succumbed to the disease. Why? Because he's an anti-socialist right winger which is all they need. 

Thankfully, they aren't going to get their wish. Bolsonaro is many things but he is also a very tough man. He survived getting stabbed while campaigning and I doubt that the virus is going to be what takes him down. He's also getting good treatment and it's a relief that he's already getting Hydroxychloroquine. Though he is in a higher risk group at age 65, his chances are fairly good. 

Should Bolsonaro have taken more precautions? It's unclear. He has been photographed without a mask on several occasions but even with a mask you can still catch the disease. It may have helped him but without more information on who he caught the disease from it's kind of a moot point. 

I do think that this will probably help Bolsonaro in the end, assuming the unthinkable doesn't happen. He's argued for a long time that the virus isn't that serious and him surviving it would be good evidence of that. He's 65 and he suffered a great physical trauma that I'm assuming he's still recovering from the stabbing he suffered in 2018. If the virus can't take him down than it is indeed fairly weak. 

Brazil has had a rough time with the Coronavirus and it's not clear why. They media likes to blame Bolsonaro and his hands off approach but I think it has more to due with population density than anything else. Brazil is a crowded place and the virus can spread fairly easily there. Lockdowns and mandatory masks may or may not have helped but it was always going to be a major problem in Brazil regardless. 

Bolsonaro joins several world leaders who have caught the disease. Mostly notably, Prince Charles and Boris Johnson, of the United Kingdom, both caught and recovered from the disease. Indeed, most of the world leaders who have caught the disease have recovered in the end. 

As I have mentioned before I think the Coronavirus is not as dangerous as it was earlier in the year. Though cases are rising both here and in Brazil the death rate is flat. We now have two different drugs that seem effective in treating the disease, Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesvir and we now know what to do and what not to do medically. Plus, I'm still convinced that the disease has now mutated to a less deadly, more easily spread form. 

I personally am not too scared of the disease anymore. We had a major outbreak at work where 45% of our workforce, almost 500 people, caught the disease and nobody died. Three members of my family have tested positive and they recovered as well. Though I have no desire to catch the disease myself or see more members of my family get sick, I do think that Jair Bolsonaro was right, this is just a "little flu".