The situation in Brazil

[ScrapThatThen]

Very sobering reading, my heart goes out to them. Families are being handed empty oxygen canisters and told to try and source oxygen, which is being imported from impoverished Venezuela. Medics are choosing who to give the oxygen to between dying patients with low oxygen sats.
news.sky.com/story/covid-19-brazil-crisis-like-medieval-plague-as-patients-suffocate-without-oxygen-12198178

Absolutely heartbreaking

What I found very worrying about this was the fact that young people are dying: the funeral worker said about a 14 yo and an 18 yo.

I really hope the government do more to stop new variants like this one coming into the country with tough measures on closing borders and quarantine for essential travel only.

The Brazilian variant won't just get here from Brazil but could come via anywhere in the world.

Once we get a variant that affects young people and children like this reopening schools won't be possible and children/young people dying at an increased rate would be unimaginable.

Unimaginably horrific, not unimaginable unfortunately after watching that sky report last night

It’s awful isn’t it? It’s really really worrying. I can’t help but think, like when we watched Italy suffer feb last year, this could be us in no time at all if we don’t take proper precautions and enforce quarantining etc when travelling

It's awful , such an awful random evil virus that's affects people so differently.

Oh my god that is horrific

It's horrific because of the way in which these poor people are dying. It's no more acceptable to me for 80 year old to die fighting for breath than if the person is 18. Both are deserving of palliative care if their lives cannot be saved but I read threads on here and it gives me the impression that posters think 80 year olds just peacefully drift away and that we should accept that so young people can carry on as normal. This article gives an insight into what life during a pandemic is like when healthcare resources are exhausted.

Yet in neighbouring Argentina, life is going on almost normally. Sil and family has gone to the coast on holiday. Restaurants and coffee shops are open. They locked their borders tightly early on and mask compliance is high. There have been a few large gatherings in BA (recently celebrating the legalisation of abortion) but otherwise life is ok. DH is there atm.

It is really terrifying, and could happen anywhere if virus control measures are not in place.

I didn't mean that the death of an 80 yo is more acceptable than the death of an 18 yo, but I think most people expect to outlive their children except in exceptional circumstances. It is OK to be shocked that there is another variant that affects even more age groups in tragic ways.

I agree with the pp who likened it to watching Italy (and China) and hoping it wouldn't happen here.

Seeing that the UK was fully open for the situation in China and Italy to happen here, the same could be said for the Brazil variant.

*don't expect

This is not just about virus control measures. It's what happens in a country with high levels of poverty and corruption and no safety net for people in need. Covid exposes the economic and social fault lines in a society far more than whether or not mask wearing has been made mandatory.

It's a failure of government.

Same as ours.

Brazilian people and British people aren't worse people than the rest of the world.

But currently their governments are.

I had hoped that the travel restrictions were going to be more like NZ/Aust/many other countries that are less high profile.
But still people are moaning about how that will make going on holiday so expensive! As if the cost of the holiday is the main issue here. More like whether holidays should even happen. If you can fly from Brazil/SA to anywhere the in the world then what is the point of only limiting travel to certain places.
If the scenes in Brazil are shockingly awful, the reports of how normal life in NZ and Australia show who did it right. Still our government won't follow the evidence of how to control a pandemic. What is most infuriating is that in the end, they will have to do the NZ/Aust approach because otherwise the vaccines will have to readministered from the start of the priority list after being adjusted for new variants that we let in.

No sign of natural herd immunity then?

@PrincessNutNuts

No sign of natural herd immunity then?

I think they thought there was herd immunity to the previous strain, but this new strain can reinfect.

Just shows how pointless the herd immunity strategy is.
Vaccination is the only way, but to protect the vaccination programme, you need to stop new variants getting into the country.
Now the government has gone down the vaccination path, sooner or later they will have to close the borders strictly or else jeopardise the vaccination programme to date and risk starting again from the start with adjusted vaccines for new variants.

@Fridget

Which is what happens when you let it spread and give the virus plenty of opportunity to mutate, isn't it?