Brazil: COVID-19, Illiberal Politics, and the Rule of Law

The negationist approach that the Brazilian government adopted to the pandemic of COVID-19 makes the country an interesting case study of the consequences of politicized and populist responses to coronavirus, which we will summarize in this chapter. Bolsonaro’s underreach politics were based on a permanent strategy to expose the population to the virus in the hope of herd immunity, even after consensus had emerged on the inefficacy of such approach. We reconstruct, in this chapter, the central aspects of this response.