Doctors in hard-hit Brazil have resorted to strapping COVID-19 patients to their hospital beds before ramming fans down their throats, according to doctors in Rio de Janeiro, because they no longer have enough sedatives. “I never thought I would experience something like this after 20 years of intensive care,” Aureo do Carmo Filho told Reuters. “The use of mechanical restraints without tranquilizers is bad practice … the patient is subjected to some form of torture.”
In hospitals where they still have sedatives, health workers have resorted to diluting them to keep supplies going or using muscle relaxants to calm patients while being intubated. “They are awake, without sedatives, and they come out with their hands tied to the bed and begging not to let them die,” said one nurse.
The gruesome confessions come on the heels of Doctors Without Borders calling Brazil’s response to the pandemic a “humanitarian catastrophe” that is likely to get worse in the coming weeks. “I have to be very clear about this: the negligence of the Brazilian authorities is costing lives,” said MSF international president Christos Christou on Thursday after the death toll in Brazil rose to 362,000.
Meinie Nicolai, MSF CEO, blamed directly Brazil’s right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro, who, like former US President Donald Trump, downplayed the pandemic and his own attack with COVID-19, leaving many deadly at risk by not believing that the virus is so dangerous. or as contagious as science proves it to be.
“There is no coordination in the response. There is no real recognition of the severity of the disease. Science is put aside. Fake news is being spread and healthcare providers are left to their own devices, ”said Nicolai. “The government is abandoning the Brazilian people. All Brazilians can tell you that they have people around them buried or intubated in places where there are no drugs and no oxygen. That is unacceptable. “
The lack of medical supplies has been accompanied by resistance from government officials to even acknowledge the seriousness of the problem. The P1 variant first identified in Brazil has caused international concern and is now believed to mutate. France blocked all flights from the country and other countries now advise against all travel to the beleaguered South American country, except essential travel.
The lack of good medical supplies is now accompanied by a disastrous rollout of vaccines, based on both denial and corruption. Only 12 percent of the Brazilian population has received a first dose of the Chinese vaccine Coronavac, which Chinese officials recently admitted is not very effective in preventing people from becoming seriously ill.
Earlier in the week, federal prosecutors in the Brazilian state of Roraima opened an investigation after reports emerged that rogue health workers were illegally exchanging doses of the less-than-effective Chinese vaccine, which is mainly what is currently offered in the country. mined gold. An advocate for the indigenous tribes who own the land where the gold is mined, according to Reuters, health workers vaccinated clandestine miners under the cover of nightfall. “The Yanomami have long complained that materials and medicines intended for indigenous health are being diverted to wild miners,” the local leader said in a letter spotted by Reuters.
More Brazilians die every day than anywhere else in the world, with 3,560 dead in the country on Thursday alone. Brazil’s Ministry of Health is currently in talks with Spain and other countries to try to get the supplies needed for the overwhelmed hospitals. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro continues to fight regional governments that have attempted to mandate masks or institute lockdowns.