Brazil’s Bolsonaro Meets His Fauci

Although nearly every headline now stokes dread, Brazilians can take comfort in some salutary news: The earth is not flat. Even as President Jair Bolsonaro scoffs at social distancing and other effective measures to keep the coronavirus pandemic at bay — and is booed and pot-banged as a result — Brazil’s Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta has won plaudits for his steady nerves and calming mantra of “science, discipline, planning and focus.” One of the rare pluses of the coronavirus pandemic is that health professionals suddenly have become some of Latin America’s most credible public figures.

This wasn’t always the case. As recently as 2018, the region’s scientists had relatively little cachet. According to the Wellcome Global Monitor, based on a Gallup poll surveying more than 140 countries, a quarter of South Americans said they had little or no trust in doctors and nurses, making them almost as skeptical as respondents from Central Africa, the least trusting region. Fewer than 7 in 10 said they would look to health professionals for medical advice, outdone only by Middle Easterners (65%). No region had less confidence in hospitals and clinics: 37% of those surveyed compared with the world average of 19%.