‘[André] Machado saw several explanations for the torrent of cases he and other doctors are now seeing, including political mismanagement and the slackening of social distancing measures, principally among the young. In recent months such containment efforts have largely collapsed, with schools and businesses reopening and Bolsonaro’s tourism minister even urging citizens to start holidaying again.
‘But the doctor suspected a third, more troubling element was also at work: an enigmatic and apparently more contagious variant called P1 that is thought to have emerged in the Amazon region in late 2020 but is now circulating across Brazil, including in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, where Machado works.’
Read here (The Guardian, Mar 13, 2021)
