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Medicine News

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro Tests Positive for Covid-19 After Months of Dismissing the Seriousness of the Virus (cnn.com) 206

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for Covid-19, following months of downplaying the virus. From a report: Bolsonaro himself announced the result, speaking on Brazilian TV channels Tuesday. "Everyone knew that it would reach a considerable part of the population sooner or later. It was positive for me," he said, referring to the Covid-19 test he took Monday. "On Sunday, I wasn't feeling very well. On Monday, it got worse when I started feeling tired and some muscle pain. I also had a 38-degree [Celsius] fever. Given those symptoms, the presidential doctor said there was suspicion of Covid-19," Bolsonaro said, adding that he then went to hospital where scans of his lungs "came back clean."

Earlier on Tuesday, Bolsonaro told CNN affiliate CNN Brasil that he had been treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as he awaited the result of his fourth Covid-19 test in four months. Hydroxychloroquine, though enthusiastically boosted by both Bolsonaro and US President Donald Trump, has not been proven as an effective treatment for Covid-19. Bolsonaro nevertheless credited the controversial antimalarial drug for his well-being on Tuesday. "I am feeling very well. I believe that the way they administered the hydroxychloroquine on, the effect was immediate," he said.

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Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro Tests Positive for Covid-19 After Months of Dismissing the Seriousness of the Virus

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  • Fucking Clown (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @12:48PM (#60271526)
    He warned people not to get so close to him now that he;s caught it. The rules have changed it seems. Typical sociopathic behavior.
    • Re:Fucking Clown (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @12:59PM (#60271568)

      What's sad is that, much like in the US, this is a crisis of his own making.

      Bolsonaro spent months downplaying the disease, making a point of showing up in public without masks and shaking hands with everyone. Remember that "we’re all going to die one day" statement?

      • What's sad is that, much like in the US, this is a crisis of his own making.

        Bolsonaro spent months downplaying the disease, making a point of showing up in public without masks and shaking hands with everyone. Remember that "we’re all going to die one day" statement?

        He's still downplaying it, he says he has "a little flu."

        • With a hint of luck, he may die before the rest of us.

          Then at least the whole crap would have had ONE good outcome.

    • by hattig ( 47930 )

      He's probably given it to half his government, they were all together over the weekend, no social distancing, no masks.

      But he'll probably pull through, like Boris did. Then he'll use that to downgrade the virus even further.

    • Re:Fucking Clown (Score:5, Insightful)

      by menkhaura ( 103150 ) <espinafre@gmail.com> on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @01:24PM (#60271678) Homepage Journal

      He was not sick, people could approach; now that he is sick, people can not approach, lest they catch the virus. Is this sociopathic behavior? How so? Try not being such a goddamned retard next time you attack someone you don't like, present arguments that make sense.

      • Re:Fucking Clown (Score:4, Informative)

        by cusco ( 717999 ) <brian.bixby@gmail . c om> on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @01:37PM (#60271748)

        Apparently you've been living under a rock for the last seven months, people are contagious even before they show symptoms, and they can be asymptomatic but contagious for two weeks or possibly more. **THAT** is what makes this virus so problematic, this moron was not only infected but spreading the disease around for a least a week before he ever felt bad. Hopefully he and his entire cabinet die the same miserable death that they've condemned 66,000 of their countrymen to already, but unfortunately they're all grotesquely rich so that's not actually likely.

    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      Well, most people who catch COVID survive without noticeable injuries, and only a small proportion die. This could be an interesting case for the bookies, though.

    • Ah, he will probably have a fairly mild case and then assert that proves almost all cases are mild.
    • by leptons ( 891340 )
      Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

      It's only a matter of time before the virus finds another world leader who called it a "hoax" and still refuses to wear a mask.
    • His message has been this is just another disease and those who get infected will isolate themselves and take their chances but its not worth shtting down the economy to prevent infections. More people will die from the economic damage than from the virus.

      So now he is infected, he will isolate himself, will recover (99% of folks survive this) and then come back to work. He would have avoided shutting down the govt and taken his chances just like he has asked others to.

      How is this a negative for his message?

      • 'this is just another disease and those who get infected will isolate themselves and take their chances' Covid-19 is 'just another disease' as bolsonaro is 'just another Brazilian'. Given the level of poverty in Brazil, the ability to isolate is a luxury, unimaginably Bolsonaro has the best healthcare in Brazil, which makes it a tad bit easier for him to gloat his way around it. Finally, 'take their risks' is exactly the choice you deprive someone of, when you act as selfishly as he has.
  • by botmaster42 ( 6970014 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @12:56PM (#60271556)
    So the article talks about him getting it after questioning the seriousness of the virus, and he is perfectly fine? Isn't that his point originally? I don't think anyone is arguing in the world that this virus is NOT HIGHLY transmittable. Before everyone jumps for joy that he got it, wouldn't his health need to be heavily impacted for you to be happy and say I told you so?! They even say in the article his lung scans came back clean.
    • by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @01:12PM (#60271624) Journal
      I don't think anyone is arguing in the world that this virus is NOT HIGHLY transmittable.

      There are people, many people, who say the entirety of covid-19 is a hoax. Even friends of nurses are saying it's a hoax [nytimes.com]. Needless to say, con artist supporters are the largest proponents [politicususa.com] of those who claim covid-19 doesn't exist and no one is dying from it.

      In fact, only two months ago, a major newspaper was calling the shutdown situation a hoax [washingtontimes.com], that covid-19 wouldn't even measure up to the previous year's flu deaths. At that time there were just over 56,000 dead. Two months later and we have well over twice that amount.

      So yes, there are people who are arguing it's not highly transmittable because they don't believe it even exists [reddit.com].
      • Well, at least that WT article is saying the media coverage is the hoax, not that they believe it doesn't exist.

        Not that I think the coverage is a hoax, nor do I think covid is a hoax, but you could at least try and be accurate.

      • The Washington Times isn't a major newspaper. I think they created the name to confuse people with the New York Times and The Washington Post.
        • Washington Times has a print circulation of 58,000 (2013), which is 1/4 of the nation's 10th largest paper, the Boston Globe. USA Today is 1.6 million, The Wall Street Journal 1.0 million. The next 4 are well known for their bias, New York Times at 483,000, New York Post at 423,000, The Los Angeles Times at 417,000, and the Washington Post at 254,000.

          So whether it's a major newspaper or not is debatable.

          There are many newspapers named the "Times", and the Washington Times is historically the 3rd paper with

      • In fact, only two months ago, a major newspaper was calling the shutdown situation a hoax [washingtontimes.com], that covid-19 wouldn't even measure up to the previous year's flu deaths. At that time there were just over 56,000 dead. Two months later and we have well over twice that amount.

        I agree with the point you're making, but for our international audience, The Washington Times - The Right Opinion is a right wing tabloid. It's like the print version of One America News, or maybe they're the TV version of WT, who cares.

        You can read about their history here - https://www.washingtontimes.co... [washingtontimes.com]

        Oh, is that an empty page? A truly unspinnably bad story of how a young right wing media company got started, I am shocked!

    • They even say in the article his lung scans came back clean.

      To be clear the article said that the official statement from the government was that his lungs were clean. There was a time when I placed far more trust in the USA government than the Brazilian government but you can bet both your testicles if Trump got the virus he'd be declared the healthiest and quickest to ever overcome it even if we don't see him or get tweets from him for weeks.

      That's just what governments are now.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by jwymanm ( 627857 )
      It's just anti right propaganda. They want him out. They want Trump out. Why else would a brazil covid article hit /. - it's a coordinated press smear. There is nothing technical about this article. Meanwhile the recent news about HCQ being effective and the left press, including here on /., posting all those anti HCQ articles and all the comments about them are not getting recalled or even looked at. They caused real deaths.
  • Someone is driving the Karma around at high speed right now. Best to try and stay outta the way before you become covid-kill.

  • by bjdevil66 ( 583941 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @12:59PM (#60271564)

    I was going to say that I hope it's just a "little flu" for his sake, but it'd probably do the world some good if he suffered through a terrible bout and was truly humbled by his suffering. It will help all of us to remember to listen to science - not populist leaders.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 )

      Populist Leaders, seem to have a part of their brain that doesn't connect cause and effect for their action. They just know if they say what a good group of people may be thinking, then they get the votes.

      The real problem with Populist thinking, is it is often your knee-jerk reaction to a problem. Vs a fully well thought out problem.

      As much as I would like to see the people who disagree me punished for their mindsets. I know that it isn't a practical solution to the problem, and will create a lot of peop

      • > punishing people who disagree with me, will not change their minds, it would probably reassert their idea that I myself am a cruel person

        Indeed. As I've gotten older, I've started to learn that to change people's mind about contentious issues I have to do some things that I often don't really enjoy doing:

        Ask questions about what they want to accomplish ans actually listen.

        Let them know I was listening and heard them by asking clarifying questions and/or asking "am I understanding you correctly that yo

      • by cusco ( 717999 )

        Populist? Lula was a populist, this guy is just another corrupt oligarch who got his position by massive voting fraud.

        • They literally imprisoned Lulu to not let him run in the election against Bolsanaro as everyone knew if Lulu ran he would win

    • Why? Leaders are not the problems but symptoms of the problem. Until people figure that out, those like Jair are here to stay, even if it is just by a different name and different political lean.

    • by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @01:31PM (#60271710) Journal
      I was going to say that I hope it's just a "little flu" for his sake

      It's not like the flu. The flu doesn't cause anything near what people are experiencing. Loss of balance, loss of mobility, partial paralysis, a persistent dry cough, fatigue, problems with digestion, memory issues, and so on.

      Richard Quest just put out an article [cnn.com] on what he's going through after contracting covid-19 back in April. He thought everything was done and over with it. He thought wrong.
    • Having much bologna sandwich?

  • CNN has an article (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @01:02PM (#60271578)
    discussing the long lasting effects [cnn.com].

    TL;DR you'll still have symptoms sometimes weeks or months after having it.
  • It's not serious.
  • This will probably go something like it would go if Trump got COVID...since most people are asymptomatic or get mildly ill, the probability is high that they'll be fine. Unfortunately, both would probably use it as an opportunity to double down on their denial of the problem. They'd either say, "Look what a great, strong, superior immune system I have!" or denounce it as a political tool.

  • Thanks, Corona (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dunbal ( 464142 ) * on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @01:12PM (#60271628)
    Everyone and their grandmother are taking azithromycin. While this macrolide antibiotic works wonders on many bacteria, it cannot do anything to a virus. The only justification for taking it would be to prevent secondary bacterial infection due to viral damage. There is no way it can "prevent" a viral infection - the way it works is by binding and inhibiting the small component of bacterial ribosomes (which are completely different to human ribosomes). A virus, of course, has no ribosomes... But we can expect resistance to azithromycin to head through the roof now which is too bad, because it's now one of the few remaining options to treat things like gonorrhea - which is now pretty much resistant to everything else.
    • by cusco ( 717999 )

      Its original purpose in the drug combination was to combat the bacterial pneumonia that was killing people, but now it's become just another fad drug. Very soon we're going to need an entirely new way to combat bacteria.

    • While this macrolide antibiotic works wonders on many bacteria, it cannot do anything to a virus.

      That's a rule-of-thumb, propagated to keep people from overusing antibiotics for viral illnesses and developing resistant strains of bacteria.

      It's also not strictly true. Some antibiotics DO act against some viruses, to various degrees. (Any given antibiotic is a funny-shaped molecule. It might happen to do one thing that poisons some bacteria and another thing - maybe well, maybe just a little - that subver

  • What can I say, it couldn't have happened to a nicer person...
  • Let's now hope that the bozo croaks and that he doesn't take anyone with him.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh

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