According to the Global Inequality Report of the Paris School of Economics, Brazil today is the democratic country that concentrates the most income at the top 1% of the population.

With abyssal levels inequality, where 35 million people have no access to treated water and 11 million live in thousands of slums, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country was devastating.

Amongst Latin American countries Brazil, the largest and most populous, has seen the worst effects and the largest number of infections and deaths. Throughout the crisis, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s right wing president, has downplayed the seriousness of the disease, neglected vaccination,  publicly spoken out against lockdowns and called Covid-19 a “little flu”.

The number of people who have tested positive have now surpassed 31 million and more than 667.000 people have died ( to 31 May 2022 ).

The coronavirus has restored a sense of equality among people by highlighting what we have in common: human fragility. From an abstract point of view, it makes sense. Materially, however, what is observed is that Covid-19 has been exacerbating inequalities.