Poll: Over Half of Brazilians Say Bolsonaro Not to Blame for Covid Deaths

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – More than half the population considers President Jair Bolsonaro not accountable for the deaths in Brazil due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a survey released by Datafolha Institute.

The survey showed that 52% of respondents said that Bolsonaro “is not to blame” for the deaths in the country due to the health crisis, compared to 47% who thought so in late August.

On the other hand, 38% of respondents believe that the President is “one of the culprits”, but not the main one, while 8% consider him the “main culprit” of the deaths, according to the same survey, published on Sunday evening in Folha de São Paulo newspaper.

Although the majority of the population absolves Bolsonaro, a leader who has always denied the severity of the health crisis, 42% of respondents described the head of state’s role in the pandemic as “bad or terrible”.

Meanwhile, 27% rated the President’s actions as “average” and 30% as ” great or good”.

Similarly, the majority of respondents (53%) said that Brazil “did not do what was needed” to prevent Covid-19 deaths, while the remaining percentage is equally divided among those who believed that nothing could prevent the deaths (22%) and those who believe that the country took the needed measures to prevent them (22%).

The Datafolha survey also showed that the Ministry of Health’s approval, led by General Eduardo Pazuello since June after two ministers were ousted, continues to drop.

For 35% of Brazilians the Ministry’s performance is “great or good”. In April, the portfolio reached a record approval rating of 76%.

The survey was conducted by telephone interviews with 2,016 people between December 8th and 10th and has an error margin of two percentage points plus or minus.

The data released are part of another survey by Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, which also showed that the Jair Bolsonaro government approval rating stood at 37%, the highest since he took office in January 2019, despite the worsening of the pandemic in Brazil.

A few days ago, the President once again downplayed the health crisis and stated that Brazil is “at the tail-end of the pandemic,” despite warnings from health experts that the country is experiencing a second wave, without having overcome the first wave of large-scale infections.

Brazil is one of the hardest hit in the world, accounting for the second highest number of deaths (181,402, out of over 6.9 million cases), behind the United States.

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