Jair Bolsonaro’s scorn for data leaves Brazil in the dark
The president often prefers inaccurate statistics, or none at all
AS THE OMICRON variant sweeps the globe, scientists cannot accurately track its impact in Brazil. In early December the government’s main system for counting cases and deaths was hacked in a ransomware attack. Since then, the site has been down. On January 7th more than 63,000 cases were registered in 24 hours, the most since September. The actual number is probably higher. Yet the health minister shrugged off concerns about the lack of statistics as “narratives”.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Jair and balanced”
From the January 15th 2022 edition
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