By César Chelala
November 03, 2021:
Informationclearinghouse.info
- The accusation against Brazilian President
Jair Bolsonaro for “crimes against humanity” on
public health grounds is unusual both at the
national and international level. Because many of
the crimes for which he is accused regarding the
COVID-19 pandemic mimic the actions and policies of
Donald Trump, they could be the basis for similar
actions against the former U.S. president.
“Crimes against humanity” is a well-established
entity under international law that includes acts
that are purposefully committed as part of a
widespread or systematic policy directed against
civilians. These crimes can be actions carried out
in times of war or peace. The charges of mass
homicide and genocide against Bolsonaro are based on
his policies leading to the decimation of indigenous
groups in the Amazon due to of his refusal to
adequately protect them.
The Brazilian Congressional panel, leading the
accusation, asserts that Bolsonaro intentionally let
the coronavirus pandemic rip through the country,
resulting in over 600,000 Brazilians deaths. This is
second only to over 700,000 deaths in the U.S. In
Brazil, the congressional panel recommended charges
against 77 other people, including three of
president Bolsonaro’s sons and several current and
former Brazilian government officials.
According to public health experts, both in
Brazil and in the U.S. most of those deaths were
preventable. Despite considerable evidence that the
virus was already propagating at great speed in
several countries, Mr. Bolsonaro and Mr. Trump went
to great lengths to minimize the threat of the virus
from the beginning.
Both Bolsonaro and Trump dismissed the importance
of the use of masks and promoted mass gatherings for
political purposes, dismissing the danger that those
acts could become super spreader events. The Trump
administration conducted rallies and social events
in total disregard of its own scientists and the
CDC’s recommendations. On September 13, 2020,
Trump’s rally in Henderson, Nevada, contravened
state health rules which limit public gatherings to
50 people and require proper social distancing.
Predictably, Trump later boasted that state
authorities failed to stop him and he repeated that
behavior on several other occasions.
In addition, in total disregard for medical
experts’ opinion, both Bolsonaro and Trump promoted
the use of hydroxychloroquine to prevent or treat
COVID-19. While Bolsonaro kept the medication in
hand should his 93-year-old mother need it, Trump
prided himself on taking the drug to prevent the
infection. That he developed COVID-19 and only
survived thanks to the extraordinary efforts of his
doctors, who used medicines not easily available at
the time to the rest of the population, should have
been a lesson for him. It was not.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Trump has
inflicted considerable damage to science and its
institutions, with serious repercussions for
people’s lives. His appointees were made political
tools of the administration, ordering health
agencies to provide inaccurate information and to
issue wrong health guidance, thus undermining their
scientific integrity.
In an unprecedented move, the Trump
administration barred infectious-disease expert
Anthony Fauci from testifying about the U.S.
response to the pandemic in front of the
Democrat-led House of Representatives’
appropriations committee. In addition, against his
own experts’ advice, he demonized international
health agencies such as the World Health
Organization (WHO,) weakening that agency’s ability
to respond to global health crises.
It is a primordial duty of presidents to respond
adequately to a crisis that affects the lives of
their people. Trump and Bolsonaro’s actions in
response to the pandemic are nothing less than
dereliction of duty, one that likely cost several
thousands of lives.
The Brazilian congressional report states that
Bolsonaro’s “macabre” approach to the pandemic
constitutes a “crime against public health,” a
charge that could also be leveled against Mr. Trump.
Presently, there are no laws in the U.S. that
would allow prosecutors to conduct a major criminal
case against those responsible for the inadequate
response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is up to
U.S. lawmakers to create legislation to hold
government leaders to account for their public
health responses to a crisis. It would be the best
homage to the hundreds of thousands of people who
lost their lives needlessly during this terrible
pandemic. The Brazilian people are now showing the
way.
César Chelala is an international public
health consultant and an award-winning writer on
human rights and health issues.
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