Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro Remains Defiant On COVID-19 And The Environment At The U.N.

Upon taking the podium at the United Nations in New York City, the far-right leader of Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro remained defiant against his many critics.

"I came here to show a Brazil that is different from what is shown in the newspapers and on television," he told the chamber. "Brazil has changed, and a lot, since we assumed office in January 2019."

The U.N. is working off of an "honor system" — and that alone — to ensure that world leaders have been vaccinated before they speak at the annual gathering. Bolsonaro himself is unvaccinated and has made no secret of that. Yet, on Tuesday he was allowed to go ahead with his speech in-person.

So far his trip to New York City for the U.N. General Assembly appears to be anything but a success for Brazil, their leaders, or the country's image after several blunders early this week.

First, a member of Bolsonaro's team tested positive for COVID-19 as they arrived in New York City days before Brazil's delegation arrived for the meeting of world leaders.

Then Brazil's Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga, who was vaccinated in March, shared he also tested positive for COVID-19. This just hours after accompanying Bolsonaro in New York.

In his speech on Tuesday, Bolsonaro did not mention his own vaccination status and primarily focused on misinformation when he spoke about the coronavirus. He also pushed back on criticism of his government's dismal political and environmental record.

Bolsonaro backs unproven COVID treatments in speech

Throughout the pandemic, Brazil was frequently one of the countries with the highest number of infections, second only to the U.S. for some time. According to Johns Hopkins University's global COVID-19 tracker, Brazil has suffered 591,440 deaths from the virus as of early Wednesday morning.

Authorities there have dealt with low oxygen supplies, overcrowded hospitals, and low vaccination rates. In June, a government inquiry exposed Bolsonaro's mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. It revealed there were over 14 times which his government failed to purchase or rejected offers to sell Brazil vaccines early on.

But during Bolsonaro's speech to the U.N. this week, he even went so far as to recommend unproven and ineffective coronavirus treatments.

"From the very beginning, in my country, I warned that we had two problems to solve, the virus and joblessness, and that both issues had to be addressed simultaneously and with the same sense of responsibility," he said.

Bolsonaro said the Brazilian media had just "politicized" the virus, and caused panic.

"Under the mottos 'stay at home' and 'we will deal with the economy later on', they almost brought about social chaos to the country," he said. "But our administration in a bold step put in place several economic measures that prevented a greater evil."

Bolsonaro said he didn't understand why many countries and the media rejected unproven and ineffective coronavirus treatments, saying that he had taken those drugs himself after becoming infected.

"History and science will know how to hold everyone to account," he added.

There is a serious risk of COVID's spread among world leaders

Another of Bolsonaro's ministers shared a photo of the delegation eating a slice of pizza outside on the sidewalk of New York City.

In a city often celebrated for its restaurants, it's unusual to find a world leader eating a slice on the go. But for an unvaccinated Bolsonaro and his entourage, they will be limited in their dining options given the city's requirement that indoor diners be vaccinated.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday put Bolsonaro on blast for attending the annual meeting.

"We need to send a message to all the world leaders, including most notably Bolsonaro from Brazil, that if you intend to come here, you need to be vaccinated," de Blasio said during a daily briefing.

After images of Bolsonaro and his delegation enjoying a sidewalk slice was shared on social media, de Blasio responded on Twitter, urging Bolsonaro to get vaccinated.

There also remains a risk to a spread of the virus after, prior to quarantining, Queiroga was filmed shaking hands with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson on Tuesday met with President Biden at the White House.

According to Brazilian journalist Raquel Krähenbühl, earlier that day Queiroga was in the same van as Brazil's foreign minister who met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Krähenbühl also shared that Queiroga was staying at the same hotel as President Biden.

Alleged environmental record is at odds with reality

Elsewhere in his address, Bolsonaro sought to boost the country's record on the environment.

"Which other country in the world has a policy of environmental protection like ours?" Bolsonaro asked.

But under his leadership, there has been a spike in deforestation in the Amazon. Last year, the Brazilian Amazon lost an area 14 times the size of New York City to deforestation. That's the most in 12 years. This is partly because Bolsonaro has weakened government environmental agencies combating illegal mining and logging.

Portions of the Amazon rainforest are also now releasing more carbon dioxide than they absorb.

Marcio Astrini, the executive director of the Climate Observatory, an umbrella group of environmental NGOs, told The Guardian this week that Bolsonaro had distorted statistics in an attempt to defend his environmental record.

"This is simply not true – it's a lie," Astrini said of Bolsonaro's claim that 84% of the Amazon rainforest was intact. "Somebody cooks up these numbers and the president repeats them."

Astrini said the only thing that could lead to improvement in Brazil, is if Bolsonaro resigned. [Copyright 2021 NPR]