A leading scientist has warned that Brazil’s COVID-19 outbreak of snowballs has the potential to undo the progress made in the fight against the global pandemic.
Miguel Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University who is tracking the crisis, called on the international community to pressure the Brazilian government to contain more aggressively the new variant, known as P.1., Which is spreading rapidly. there, The Guardian reported.
“The world needs to talk vehemently about the risks Brazil poses to fighting the pandemic,” said Nicolelis, who spent most of last year in São Paulo.
“What sense does the classification of the pandemic in Europe or the United States make, if Brazil continues to be a breeding ground for this virus?”
Nicolelis warned that failure to prevent the spread of the virus could allow it to continue mutating into more dangerous variants.
“If you allow the virus to proliferate to the levels it is currently proliferating here, open the door to the emergence of new mutations and the emergence of even more lethal variants,” he said.
The scientist also criticized the leadership of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly downplayed the crisis, warning that it has international implications.
“Policies that it does not implement endanger the fight against the pandemic across the planet,” he said.
Brazil currently has the second highest COVID-19 death toll in the world with more than 257,000 casualties, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
According to health ministry data, the country suffered the deadliest week to date with an average of about 1,200 virus-related casualties per day.
Since the pandemic began, there have been more than 10.6 million confirmed cases in the country, according to the data.
With publishing cables