Speaker 1: It's Thursday. I'm Oscar Emiras from the Daily Dive podcast
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
Speaker 1: South America has now become a new epicenter of the
Speaker 1: coronavirus pandemic. Brazil now has the second most cases of
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen, only behind the United States, and President Bolsonaro
Speaker 1: is still refusing to impose strict measures to curb the spread.
Speaker 1: Other countries like Peru and Chile are also facing increased numbers.
Speaker 1: Alex Ward, reporter at Vox and co host of The
Speaker 1: Worldly podcast, joins us for how South America's numbers are
Speaker 1: going up. Thanks for joining us, Alex. Happy to be here.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about where the current coronavirus epicenter
Speaker 1: seems to be. Obviously, the United States has the most
Speaker 1: cases in the world, but South America is quickly rising
Speaker 1: with a number of cases they have. Brazil, as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, is number two in the world with
Speaker 1: the largest number of confirmed cases currently. And there's what
Speaker 1: happened in China, what happened in America, Pica. Everybody suspects
Speaker 1: that it's actually worse than it is because lack of testing,
Speaker 1: the health care systems are being overloaded. So Alex tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about how South America has become
Speaker 1: this new coronavirus epicenter. While the story somewhat begins and
Speaker 1: ends with Brazil, their president, Jeribolsnaro, has refused to take
Speaker 1: on the crisis, calling it in a little flu himself,
Speaker 1: going outside and hanging out with supporters who are protesting
Speaker 1: lockdowns and promoting hydroxy chloroquine is some sort of cure
Speaker 1: for the disease, although there's no evidence to support that.
Speaker 1: In fact, there's a lot to say that it could
Speaker 1: be dangerous. So while some regional leaders, governors, etcetera. Are
Speaker 1: trying to fight the disease, that's just not happening, in
Speaker 1: part because the president is unwilling to put the nation's
Speaker 1: resources behind solving it. So most of South America's cases
Speaker 1: are in Brazil, which is part of the reason, if
Speaker 1: not the reason, why South America has just exploded and
Speaker 1: having the who even say it is now one of
Speaker 1: the world's epicenters. That said, there are other cases happening elsewhere.
Speaker 1: But when we're really talking about South America's growth as
Speaker 1: a coronavirus hotspot, it really is because of Brazil, Peru,
Speaker 1: and Chile are other big countries in South America that
Speaker 1: are starting to see a lot of cases. But let's
Speaker 1: focus on Brazil a little bit more. First, have they
Speaker 1: implemented any type of social distancing measures nationwide or is
Speaker 1: that a lot of this stuff just being done on
Speaker 1: the state and local level. It's really mostly done at
Speaker 1: the state and local level. I mean, Bolsonaro himself is
Speaker 1: not really willing to do a national program. Let's say,
Speaker 1: part of the political crisis that he has started in
Speaker 1: Brazil is that governors and mayors want to impose lockdowns,
Speaker 1: and they are imposing lockdowns in some of the biggest
Speaker 1: places in the country were De Genniro, Paolo. But Bilsonar
Speaker 1: doesn't want to do that. So this is leading him
Speaker 1: to fight with his own political leaders, some of which
Speaker 1: are in his own party. And for some and these
Speaker 1: are experts saying this, there's some experts claiming that bolson
Speaker 1: is doing this in part to claim more political power
Speaker 1: for himself, that he's trying to use the coronavirus to
Speaker 1: gain more influence in the executive to minimize the power
Speaker 1: of other leaders. And that seems to be backfiring because
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands are getting infected, tens of thousands of dying,
Speaker 1: and it's just no end in sight for that crisis.
Speaker 1: As this virus has moved throughout the world, we've had
Speaker 1: different epicenters at different times. Obviously Italy was one of
Speaker 1: the hardest hit, and you would just think that some
Speaker 1: of these other countries would have taken some clues from
Speaker 1: how they operated. Obviously the United States tried to do that.
Speaker 1: Testing was one of our big failures early on, So
Speaker 1: you know, you have to kind of learn as you go,
Speaker 1: and some of these countries just haven't been able to
Speaker 1: do that. I know, there's different cases all over the place.
Speaker 1: In particular, some of these South American countries are very poor,
Speaker 1: and they're very food poor. There's not enough to go around,
Speaker 1: so Brazil, Peru, Chila, a lot of people are having
Speaker 1: to break their quarantines or get out into the public markets,
Speaker 1: crowded public markets because they need to buy food. I
Speaker 1: think it's undoubtedly true that lockdowns and testing and tracing,
Speaker 1: you know, these are the things that are prescribed and
Speaker 1: are the best practices you have. But the more we're
Speaker 1: looking at cases in South America and even parts of Africa,
Speaker 1: what we're finding is that lockdowns are kind of a
Speaker 1: rich nations game. It's really hard for countries that have
Speaker 1: a high levels of poverty, high levels of people in
Speaker 1: the informal sector. These are folks that really aren't on
Speaker 1: tax roles. They are musicians, are artists, or street chets,
Speaker 1: whoever may be. These kinds of folks aren't able to
Speaker 1: purchase food and store it for long periods of time,
Speaker 1: and they need to go outside for work, They need
Speaker 1: to go outside to get food to consume day of
Speaker 1: And you are seeing example and after example in places
Speaker 1: like Peru and Chile wherever it could be. I mean
Speaker 1: heartbreaking testimony from people where they're saying, I basically have
Speaker 1: to choose between social distancing or getting food from my family.
Speaker 1: And some have even said explicitly, like by go outside,
Speaker 1: getting the coronavirus is a possibility, but if I don't
Speaker 1: go outside and get food, starving as a certainty. And
Speaker 1: so this is the kind of choice now that people
Speaker 1: have to make in areas like South America, and it's
Speaker 1: part of the reason why social distancing and lockdowns and
Speaker 1: all these other kinds of measures which have worked with
Speaker 1: varying degrees of success, elsewhere are just not really working
Speaker 1: in that part of the world. Interesting statistic from the
Speaker 1: seventeen census out of Peru. Peruving homes don't own a
Speaker 1: freezer basically, so you mentioned people having to go out
Speaker 1: and have to purchase day of food. They have to
Speaker 1: get their food every day at these local markets, and yeah,
Speaker 1: they're braving the large crowds to do so. In that case,
Speaker 1: what do we know about the health care systems in
Speaker 1: the South American countries, because obviously that is one of
Speaker 1: the big things, getting overloaded, too many patients, not enough
Speaker 1: support to go around there. What do we know about
Speaker 1: their health care systems? It differs depending on the country,
Speaker 1: but by and large it's just not great. You know,
Speaker 1: there aren't that many icing you beds, testing and tracing
Speaker 1: capabilities are minimal, The amount of doctors available for patients
Speaker 1: are low, and you know, there are tons of people
Speaker 1: as they were. Poverty is quite widespread in South America.
Speaker 1: It's hard for people to pay for services, and so
Speaker 1: there's great inequality in terms of hospitals or medical centers
Speaker 1: and impoverished areas as they are. While there are some
Speaker 1: better ones and more urban centers and in richer areas,
Speaker 1: and so this is part of the other problem is
Speaker 1: that as more people get sick, the ability for people
Speaker 1: to go get care is just gonna be really hard,
Speaker 1: or even good care is going to be hard. And
Speaker 1: the other issue here is that South America is now
Speaker 1: entering it's winter. Right here in the United States, we
Speaker 1: are heading into summer, but the southern hemisphere is heading
Speaker 1: into winter, and that gets to flu season. And this
Speaker 1: adds to the bunch of problems that the region already
Speaker 1: has with certain disease like den Gach, conglula, etcetera. Add
Speaker 1: flu and then of course the coronavirus. It's only going
Speaker 1: to overwhelm already taxed and underfunded and under resourced medical
Speaker 1: centers down the line. It just is not looking like
Speaker 1: a good situation, to the point I've experts telling me
Speaker 1: they're expecting a major collapse of South America's healthcare systems
Speaker 1: over the next two months. I mean, obviously we wish
Speaker 1: them the best and they can get a handle on it,
Speaker 1: but as you mentioned, some of the experts are saying
Speaker 1: it looks pretty bad, and I'm assuming they're gonna start
Speaker 1: looking for help from other countries as well, so we'll
Speaker 1: have to see how it pans out there is the
Speaker 1: virus just continues to make its way throughout the world.
Speaker 1: Alex Ward, reporter at Vox and co host of The
Speaker 1: Worldly podcast, thank you very much for joining us. Glad
Speaker 1: to be here. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been
Speaker 1: your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that. For today's big
Speaker 1: news stories, you can check me out on the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast every Monday through Friday. So follow us and
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