Before Trump, Brazil's President Got The Coronavirus. Here's What We Can Learn From That.
Before Trump, Brazil's President Got The Coronavirus. Here's What We Can Learn From That.
Bolsonaro's case of coronavirus "helped convince some Brazilians that the pandemic wasn’t that bad," said AS/COA's Brian Winter to Buzzfeed News.
Few world leaders are as often compared to President Donald Trump as Jair Bolsonaro. Like Trump, Brazil’s president is a polarizing right-wing populist prone to demeaning women and minorities, attacking the news media, and using Twitter to fire up his increasingly nationalistic base. Also — like Trump — Bolsonaro got COVID-19.
Now, with just 32 days to go before the US presidential election, those who have observed the parallel careers of the two leaders wonder whether Bolsonaro’s experience with the virus can help inform an understanding of what Trump’s illness could mean for his chances on Nov. 3...
Still, said Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, if Trump’s case remains mild, the outcome for him might be similar to Bolsonaro’s. “It plays to the same idea: ‘we're going to get through this,” Winter said. Bolsonaro’s case “helped convince some Brazilians that the pandemic wasn’t that bad and that they could go back to their daily lives,” added Winter...
