\n President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday downplayed the Omicron coronavirus variant amid a surge in hard-hit Brazil, ruling out new containment measures as he defended the pursuit of herd immunity through widespread infection.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the country with the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll, Bolsonaro said the arrival of the Omicron variant posed little threat, even as experts warn of growing pressure on hospitals.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Omicron has not killed anyone,\" the coronavirus-skeptic president said after municipal authorities in the state of Goias announced the country's first death due to the new variant.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The person who died in Goias already had serious problems, notably with the lungs,\" which is what killed them, Bolsonaro told the Gazeta Brazil news outlet.\n<\/p>\n
\n Experts say the variant is already the most widespread in Brazil.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bolsonaro cited provisional evidence of Omicron being more contagious but less deadly than some earlier variants.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Some even say it is a vaccinating virus. Some smart and serious people, not aligned to the pharmaceutical industry, say Omicron is welcome and could herald the end the pandemic,\" the far-right president added.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Herd immunity -\n<\/p>\n
\n He insisted that the Brazilian economy could not afford another lockdown, and defended the controversial approach of allowing people to get infected for so-called herd immunity against the virus to take root.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Herd immunity is a reality. A person immunized with the virus has a lot more antibodies than a vaccinated person,\" Bolsonaro insisted.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Me, for example, I am not vaccinated and I am very well.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Bolsonaro recovered from a coronavirus infection in July 2020, has said he will not get vaccinated, and has opposed health passes given to vaccinated people to access certain places as a breach of freedom.\n<\/p>\n
\n In October, a Brazilian Senate commission approved a damning report that recommends criminal charges, including for crimes against humanity, be brought against the president for his Covid policies.\n<\/p>\n
\n He has had social media posts deleted numerous times for spreading misinformation and inciting people to violate social distancing and mask-wearing policies.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bolsonaro has suggested vaccines could turn people into \"crocodiles,\" and has endorsed the use of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment, despite scientific studies showing it does not work.\n<\/p>\n
\n Covid-19 has claimed more than 620,000 lives in Brazil, a toll second only to the United States.\n<\/p>\n
\n The health ministry said Tuesday the country had registered more than 70,700 new cases in 24 hours -- a rate eight times higher than two weeks earlier.\n<\/p>\n
\n At the deadliest peak of the pandemic last year, hospitals were pushed to the brink of collapse in many areas and the daily death toll at one point exceeded 4,000.\n<\/p>\n
\n The vast country of 213 million people was slow to start its vaccination campaign under a president who had minimized Covid-19 as a \"little flu.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday downplayed the Omicron coronavirus variant amid a surge in hard-hit Brazil, ruling out new containment measures as he defended the pursuit of herd immunity through widespread infection. In the country with the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll, Bolsonaro said the arrival of the Omicron variant posed little threat, even as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-86443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n