Bolsonaro on Brazil’s COVID-19 hysteria: ‘stop being a country of f*gs’

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• During his Tuesday address, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil urged the public not to deal with COVID-19 like “a country of f*igs.”
• His remarks earned criticism as he continued to downplay the virus which already took away the lives of 163,000 Brazilians.
• Being a ‘Trump supporter,’ Bolsonaro did not acknowledge the victory of US President-elect Joe Biden.

On Tuesday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro drew public criticisms following his controversial statement to stop dealing with the coronavirus like “a country of f*gs.”

Complaining about the COVID-19-centric topic concerning the country, Bolsonaro used the derogatory term during his address at the presidential palace.

“I regret the deaths. I really do. But we’re all going to die someday. There’s no use fleeing reality. We have to stop being a country of f*gs… we have to face up to it and fight. I hate this f****t stuff,” he said.

The Brazilian president also announced “another victory” after they suspended the clinical trials made by a Chinese pharmaceutical firm. The vaccine, called ‘CoronaVac,’ reported an ‘adverse, serious event,’ resulting in its halting.

Aside from expressing his annoyance toward the virus, Bolsonaro also took shots at US President-elect Joe Biden.

A known-supporter of President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro was agitated by Biden’s remarks, saying that Brazil needs to secure the Amazon rainforest because it could possibly yield “economic consequences.”

“Recently, a big-shot presidential candidate said if I didn’t put out the wildfires in the Amazon he would impose trade sanctions on Brazil,’ Bolsonaro said, in response to Biden’s suggestion.

“How do you deal with that kind of thing? Diplomacy alone doesn’t work… You have to have gunpowder. You don’t have to use it. But they have to know you have it,” he continued.

The Brazilian president’s comments immediately earned the ire of critics.

“Between ‘gunpowder’ and ‘f*gs,’ we have more than 160,000 dead in the country,” speaker of the lower house of Congress Rodrigo Maia wrote on Twitter.

This was not the first time that the Brazilian president denounced the COVID-19 ‘hysteria.’ Despite contracting the virus last July, he likened the disease to a “little flu”, arguing that Brazilians’ “immune system were so strong they could swim in raw sewage and not catch a thing.”

He also regularly reaches out to people in public without observing social distancing rules and wearing a face mask.

Bolsonaro has continuously downplayed the coronavirus as Brazil faced over 5.7 million cases (third highest in the world) with 163,000 fatalities (second highest in the world). He was also one of the few leaders who did not acknowledge Biden’s victory.

Source: Daily Mail