Pandemic politics costing lives in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro keeps saying coronavirus fears are overblown. Other officials at the federal, state and local levels insist the danger is all too real. Brazil is torn by a deep political divide over how to respond to the pandemic, and it is taking a heavy human toll. On Saturday, even as the death toll in Brazil crossed the threshold of 10,000, Bolsonaro continued pressing to get the country back to work. “The army of unemployed keeps growing,” he tweeted. “Is chaos coming?” added the far-right leader, who has compared the virus to a “little flu” and condemned the “hysteria” surrounding it. Some argue the...