Brazil still debating dubious virus drug amid 5,00,000 deaths

The graves of Covid-19 victims at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in the city of Manaus. Pic/AFP

As Brazil hurtles towards an official Covid-19 death toll of 5,00,000 - second-highest in the world - science is on trial inside the country and the truth is up for grabs.

With the milestone likely to be reached this weekend, Brazil's Senate is publicly investigating how the toll got so high, focusing on why President Jair Bolsonaro's far-right government ignored opportunities to buy vaccines for months while it relentlessly pushed hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug that rigorous studies have shown to be ineffective in treating Covid-19.

The scepticism has extended to the death toll itself, with Bolsonaro arguing the official tally from his own Health Ministry is greatly played down.

Dr Abdel Latif, who oversees an intensive care unit an hour from Sao Paulo, said the desperation caused by the Coronavirus has been compounded by misinformation and opinions from self-styled specialists and a lack of proper guidance from the government.

"We need real humane public health policy, far from the political fight and based on science and evidence," he said.

Over the past week, official data showed some 2,000 Covid-19 deaths per day in Brazil, a jump public health experts warn may reflect the start of the country's third wave.

Bolsonaro told a throng of supporters on June 7 that the real number of Covid-19 deaths in 2020 was only about half the official death toll, citing a report from the national accounting tribunal - which promptly denied producing any such document. The president backtracked, but has publicly repeated his claim of mass fraud in the death toll at least twice since.

SL's Covid-hit lion gets help from India

Sri Lanka's Department of National Zoological Gardens said it was consulting vets at the Central Zoo Authority of India to treat 11-year-old Thor, a lion gifted by Seoul's zoo in 2013. Thor had been experiencing breathing difficulties and refused food, prompting authorities at the Dehiwala Zoo to test it for Coronavirus.

17,86,72,360
TOTAL Number OF CORONAVIRUS

CASES IN THE WORLD

38,68,577
Number OF DEATHS WORLDWIDE

16,31,97,311
Number OF RECOVERED PATIENTS

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