Exceeding the 100.000 deaths mark by Covid-19, the Brazilian population continues to present difficulties in complying with the preventive measures indicated by health organizations. The country, losing only to the United States in numbers of contaminated people, is in social isolation since march of 2020, but, mostly, because of social negligence and social inequality, Brazil faces the end of the pandemic as a distant reality.
- Against the World Health Organization
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As believed by the endocrinologist, Márcia Dias, who works at the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, the social isolation, as well as the social distance, are presented as determinant factors so the health system won’t collapse. “With an ICU [Intensive Care Unit] with all the hospital beds taken by patients with Covid, there is no way to give assistance to cases of severe stroke , severe heart attack etc”, explains.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the social isolation measures are the best alternative to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, since the vaccines against the disease are still in process. “There´s always the fear that, because of the flexibilization of the social isolation and social distance rules, we will get back to the first two months nightmare”, says the endocrinologist.
To Márcia Soares, physiotherapist of the hospital Samer, in the city of Resende, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, not following the preventive measures symbolizes a high risk of contamination, what can be a huge problem for those that already present respiratory diseases and are in the group of risk. “Dealing with patients with Covid, mainly in ICU, being intubated and unstable, is very stressful”, affirms. “They are patients that need intensive care”.
The physiotherapist, for acting on the front line during pandemic times, also says: “I believe that all the professionals [of the health area] feel the same thing. The feeling of leaving an ICU duty, amid the Covid-19, is the same as leaving a war”.
- The risks of flexibilization
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For those reasons, the flexibilization of the preventive measures is something the preocupes, increasingly, the specialists. According to the infectologist of the hospital BP- A Beneficência Portuguesa de São Paulo, in São Paulo, Brazil, Heber Azevedo, the lack of social isolation can symbolize a rise in the number of contaminated people, and also explains that a big part of the population didn’t have contact with the virus, being susceptible to a more unfavorable evolution of the diseases.
“No country in the world, until now, that flexibilized [the social isolation] could maintain this flexibility for much time; all of them had to take a step back at some point”, says the infectologist. “It could have been a small retreat or a bigger one, but all of them did it”, explains, referring to countries as China, South Korea, Germany, England and Australia, that, by making their preventive measures less rigid, obtained an increase in the numbers of cases of coronavirus.
The infectologist also clarifies that the new coronavirus is still “something completely different” from everything they have ever seen and experienced, mainly because of the intensity of the virus transmission. “So, I think that people either didn’t understand or, if they did, didn’t care about the magnitude of the problem”, says.
- Selective solidarity
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This way, waging a battle against the Covid-19 and the neglect, the health professionals try to understand and overcome the situation in the best way possible. To Dr. Heber Azevedo, the answers to the questions about the difficulty presented by Brazilians in complying to social isolation, are answers that “earned a million”. “Brazilians are known for being supportive, in parts, that’s true; Brazilians are very supportive when a crise happens away from their home”, comments. “Death is something natural, but these people are people that shouldn’t be dying like that. They shouldn’t”, emphasizes the specialist.
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The article above was edited by Gabriela Sartorato.
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