Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro gestures after joining his supporters, who were taking part in a motorcade to protest against quarantine and social distancing measures, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, in Brasilia, Brazil.
REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro keeps saying COVID-19 worries and fears are exaggerated. However, local, state, and federal officials insist, the threat is too real.

Currently, Brazil is torn by deep and serious political gap over the manner of responding to a pandemic, and according to many, it is costing the lives of the many.

On Saturday, while the death toll in Brazil crossed the 10,000 thresholds, President Bolsonaro kept on pressuring to get the country return to work.

On the President's twitter account, he posted, "The army of unemployed keeps growing." The labeled "far-right leader," who is known for comparing COVID-19 to a "little flu" and doomed the "panic" around it.

Some people claim that turmoil indeed, exists at least, as far as the Brazil government's response is going.

Criticizing the 'stay-at-home' and other COVID-19 measures

President Bolsonaro's condemnation of stay-at-home rules to combat COVID-19 is said to have "put him at odds with local and state authorities across the nation, not to mention his administration's former health minister.

Last month, following a long series of rows in public, the president dismissed Luiz Henrique Mandetta from his post as Brazil's health minister.

Moreover, the country has emerged as the pandemic's epicenter in Latin America with more than 11,500 deaths reported as of this writing.

According to experts, under-testing would mean, the exact number is possibly much higher and that the situation could even worsen.

Sidney Chalhoub, a Brazilian historian and Harvard University professor said, "We know from history that anytime,there is such disharmony in a situation such as this, such major conflict on public policy among leaders, tragedy follows."

The historian also cited as an example, the major cholera outbreak in Europe during the 19th century that killed over 10,000 individuals in Hamburg, Germany.

The outbreak Chalhoub said, "Was largely caused by separations between both the dominant economic and political elite interests" which undermined public health concerns." As a result, he continued, there occurred an even huger economic disaster.

Anti-Pandemic Measures Protests

Supporters of President Bolsonaro, in recent weeks, have staged a series of protests pertaining to anti-confinement.

There are times when the nation leader would join in, walking down the streets, shaking hands, and delivering fiery speeches-all without a face mask on.

In addition, the protests staged have consisted of strong attacks on the Supreme Court and Congress moving to oppose the anti-confinement measures of the president.

At times, these protests flare up into violence which includes nurses and even health workers, specifically, nurses.

However, a recent survey which the Datafolha Institute conducted, found that around "67 percent of Brazilians believe" that the stay-at-home orders are needed to control the spread of virus even it if they mean hurting the economy.

Meanwhile, another survey found that while 56 percent of the people calling themselves "right-wing or center-right" backed President Bolsonaro's response to, and initiatives for the pandemic, 40 percent of them did not.

Scientists at Fiocruz, a leading public health research institute of Brazil have stated that initial studies do not specify chloroquine as an effective treatment for COVID-19.

It was earlier reported that Bolsonaro, like US President Donald Trump, has promoted the medication chloroquine as a so-called "miracle medicine" against the virus.

Check these out!