Written on 3rd November 2020

The World’s Hottest New Political Club

Whilst millions of students avoided exams this year, governments across the world haven’t been quite so lucky, facing a test unlike any other. Some countries have emerged firmly in the ‘could do better’ category as infection rates increase by the thousand daily. In the UK alone, the virus has claimed the lives of over 47 thousand citizens.

The coronavirus response from the ‘could do better’ countries is oddly familiar to me. It is reminiscent of an essay deadline: pretending it is okay does not make it go away. The pressure simply escalates until you have to justify your inaction over the past few months and desperately try to salvage the situation. Despite England entering its second national lockdown this week joining several European countries, some are not keen to enter lockdown.

Brazil’s divisive president, Jair Bolsonaro, is clear on the matter of lockdowns, proclaiming at an event in Mato Grosso that “Staying home is for the weak.” Bolsonaro was one of the first global leaders to test positive for coronavirus. Much like Donald Trump, he publicly battled coronavirus, coming through to the other side largely untroubled and full of dismissals of the seriousness of Covid-19.

However, it seems many Americans and Brazilians are having vastly different experiences - deaths in the USA and Brazil continue to soar. Of the approximately 1.2 million deaths attributed to coronavirus up till the 3rdNovember, just under a third were attributed to Brazil and the USA combined.

I spoke to Andre, a 30-year-old programmer from Sao Paolo, Brazil’s most populous city. He voted for Bolsonaro in 2018. In his words, he backed Bolsonaro because “the other candidate was worse”, referring to the opposition party as representative of Brazil’s problems with corruption. Whilst Andre admits the coronavirus deaths are tragic, he firmly believes that the economic cost of combating the virus would have been too high. Bolsonaro agrees. In a visit to Rio Grande do Sul, he spoke to journalists about the harrowing death toll. “I regret the deaths. But people die every day, from lots of things. That’s life.”

High death rates surprisingly haven’t had a lasting impact on his voter base. XP/IPESPE, a Brazilian survey company, which conducts monthly approval polls in Brazil shows Bolsonaro’s approval rates have been rising steadily from August to October. Bolsonaro, unlike Trump, still has two years to heal a sick nation – he won’t be facing an election until 2022.

A thousand miles from Sao Paolo, in New York City, life on the ground hasn’t returned to normal as America enters its third wave. Trump’s political rallies in the run up to the presidential election, however, are largely untouched by Covid-19 with arenas packed full of supporters, many without masks. President Trump faces Joe Biden, the former vice-president to Barack Obama, in a tense race to the finish. Alex, a 22-year-old engineer from New York, voted for Trump in 2016. This time round, he’s on the fence.

“I don’t see how I could vote for him again. 220,000 thousand dead and no end in sight. It’s fine for me since New York is one of the safest places in the US to bein, but my friends and family are elsewhere.” He tells me about the childish refusal to send struggling New Yorkers aid, the confiscation of state-bought medical supplies, and Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the virus as more than a “Democratic hoax”. Alex is not alone. When media focus turns to coronavirus, the polling gap between Biden and Trump widens. It appears that, contrary to Trump’s 10th of February speech, the virus does not, in fact, “miraculously go away”.

Despite this, Trump still has his supporters. Mark is an 18-year-old first-time voter in 2020 and voted for Trump in Georgia, his home state. Although he grew up in a conservative family, Mark did briefly consider voting for Biden early on in the summer following the shocking death of George Floyd. When it comes to coronavirus though, he’s clear on who the right candidate is.“I just don’t see Biden doing a better job.” He says. The wait to find out if the rest of the country agrees is almost over.