Death and denial in the Amazon
Manaus, the capital of the Amazon in Brazil is one of the hardest hit cities in the country, which officially has lost more than 300,000 lives to the coronavirus. But in the absence of evidence proving otherwise, many families are quick to deny the possibility that COVID-19 claimed their loved ones, meaning that the toll is likely a vast undercount.
As ambulances zip through Manaus with sirens blaring and backhoes dig rows of new graves, the muggy air in this city by the majestic Amazon River feels thicker than usual with such pervasive denial. Manaus has seen nearly triple the usual number of dead in April and May.
Doctors and psychologists say denial at the grassroots stems from a mixture of misinformation, lack of education, insufficient testing and conflicting messages from the country’s leaders.
Chief among skeptics is President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly called COVID-19 a “little flu,” and argued that concern over the virus is overblown. But in July, he became part of the statistics and joined millions of Brazilians who were infected by the coronavirus.
