Trump and Bolsonaro are the quintessential examples of heads of State who are simply unconcerned about their peoples amid the COVID crisis

The World Health Organisation (WHO) calls out a parallel and equally serious challenge that accompanies any medical crisis by calling the same “Infodemic” and describes it as an “overabundance of information — some of it accurate and some not”. From political leaders, opinion makers and quasi-medical practitioners to even yoga gurus, the urge to partake the ‘moment’ for personal, financial or even political glory has been irresistible. Such a medical crisis always tests the patience of society towards the seemingly drab advisories that are fact-based, science-based and empirically proven as opposed to getting drawn towards ostensible “cures” that are rooted in personal belief-systems, word of mouth or under the pretext of “age-old nuskhas” that have a cure-all solution. However, the COVID pandemic has exposed the sham of assorted televangelists, godmen and religio-cultural personalities who, in the initial days of the crisis, had claimed miraculous panacea against COVID in complete defiance of medical science and all the necessary rigour that ought to have accompanied its testing.

However, one category of people who are still contributing to the persistence of the “Infodemic” have been the publicly elected lawmakers and leading politicians who ought to have demonstrated the highest levels of adherence, compliance and insistences towards safety protocols — yet, many chose to be cavalier, reckless and simply unconcerned about the personal examples they were setting. The brazen trivialisation of all medical advisories — like social distancing, shunning congregations or simply wearing protective masks — in their personal conduct contradicted the daily blast and beaming of public messages that repeatedly advised uncompromised use of the face mask (and other safety/hygiene protocols) as the literal vaccine, till a proven vaccine actually came out. Some, like the outgoing United States President Donald Trump, not only refused to wear a mask but went on to ridicule his rival, Joe Biden, by saying that “every time you see him, he’s got a mask (on). He could be speaking 200 feet away from them, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen”, almost likening the mask to a political statement. But Trump went many steps further with his irresponsibility and had dangerously equated COVID to the seasonal influenza, promoted unproven treatments like hydroxychloroquine (even injecting disinfectants!), politicised the vaccine development narrative and openly disagreed from the sage advice given by his own public health experts. Today, the United States is reeling as the worst impacted nation by the COVID outbreak with approximately 18 million cases and nearly 3,20,000 deaths — that Donald Trump got himself too infected while Joe Biden remained safe was made worse by the fact that Trump lost the presidential race as well to Biden.

Another leader who has constantly remained blasé about COVID is Brazil’s strongman and President Jair Bolsonaro. Like Trump, Bolsonaro too had dangerously downplayed the COVID threat by calling it a “little cold” and pushed for early opening up with a standard “so what?” every time he was shown the spiralling health numbers and the country’s worsening crisis. The denialist attitude of Bolsonaro has ensured that Brazil has approximately 7.3 million cases and 1,87,000 deaths and is now widely castigated as the latest global epicentre of the current resurge. Unfortunately, this devastation was in the making with shockingly irresponsible leadership of Bolsonaro, who had disbelievingly stated: “All of us are going to die one day.” With typical machismo, he said another time: “There is no point running away from it, from reality. We have to stop being a country of sissies.” The imagined political muscularity of Bolsonaro was sooner or later going to make Brazil pay dearly — and, like Trump, he too made a mockery of the required safety sensitivities like wearing the face mask and punted on the unproven hydroxychloroquine. Soon enough, Bolsonaro too was infected! Continuing his unscientific tirade with pandemic management of calling the use of mask as the “last taboo to fall”, he had gone to the extent of saying that Brazilians shouldn’t be required to take a vaccine when it finally becomes available.

Now, Bolsonaro has scaled newer heights of irresponsibility by casting aspersions on the efficacy of the COVID vaccine, just when there seemed a glimmer of science-based hope to combat the virus. In his bizarre and unsubstantiated rant, he claimed: “In the Pfizer contract, it’s written very clearly: ‘We are not responsible for any side effects.’ If you turn into a crocodile, that’s your problem.” He also invoked his sexist and chauvinistic side when he went on to add: “If you become superhuman, if a woman starts to grow a beard or if a man starts to speak with an effeminate voice, they [Pfizer] won’t have anything to do with it.” His boorish aversion to the vaccine has a distinct political logic, besides sheer ignorance — it feeds his rakish anti-establishment and devil-may-care image, allows him to focus on more populist moves like cash transfers as opposed to propagating the social distancing sobriety and, above all, deny the credit of a potential pandemic savior to a political rival who is espousing a specific vaccine. Bolsonaro is clearly maximising the truism that bad economics and bad scientific approach often make for very good politics in a polarised and struggling society. Tragically, his approval ratings stay at the highest levels, his irresponsible behaviour notwithstanding.

It had taken a brave and conscientious judge to call the bluff of Jair Bolsonaro by entertaining a plea which sought to criticise the “irresponsible conduct of the President” and later decreed that if the President did not wear a mask in a public place, he was liable to a fine. Despite facing accusations like “lethal incompetence”, “homicidally negligent” and suchlike, Bolsonaro has yet to get into the nitty-gritties of a detailed and robust national vaccination plan. A leading Brazilian newspaper was left fuming in its editorial: “It’s time for him to abandon this criminal recklessness and at least pretend to have the ability and maturity to lead a nation of 212 million at such a dramatic moment in its collective history. Enough tomfoolery with the vaccine!” This global pandemic has regrettably exposed the risks of negligent and nonchalant leadership — as also of the ignorant masses who still support such a political leadership despite paying the incalculably painful and high personal price.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. The views expressed are personal.)