Let's Talk About Latin America

  This week Brazil became the second nation to record over 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, the other being the United States. Brazil is Latin America's largest economy and is well developed by regional standards. Moreover, the nation has a history of dealing with public health crises. Only four years ago in 2016 Brazil was hit with an outbreak of Zika, a virus spread through mosquitoes that causes birth defects. Many at the time worried that Zika would spread throughout Latin America and cause harm to a generation of children. This did not happen, Brazil's health ministry worked diligently under the leadership of then President Dilma Rousseff to track outbreaks and administer care. So what's different this time around?  Almost all of Brazil's problems combating the coronavirus can be traced back to a singular event, the election of Jair Bolsonaro as President in October of 2018. Bolsonaro, a member of the far-right Social Liberal Party, defeated Fernando Haddad, a member ...