There was no’collective immunity’… the tragedy of the Brazilian Amazon

It took only 60 minutes for 7 patients to die from breathing difficulties. The medical staff had nothing else to do other than just watch the painful moment. The hospital’s medical oxygen has already run out. “I have to go back and fight for my patients, and I feel so helpless.” Sobbing, Francis Nalva Mendes, head of the health center.

The tragedy, reported by the Guardian on the 24th (local time), is taking place in Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas state in northeast Brazil. Brazil is the world’s third-largest country with the most COVID-19 deaths, but the situation in Brazil’s poorest Amazon region is already disastrous. At the end of last year, the number of infected people started to surge again, and from the 14th, even medical oxygen was running out.

■Medical oxygen floor… A new grave every day

Marcus La Serda, an infectious disease specialist in Manaus, told The Guardian that “they can’t handle the crowds of patients,” and “private hospitals don’t want to accept them because they’re running out of oxygen.”

Oxygen tanks have become a necessity for families who are self-medicating because they cannot be admitted to the hospital. The 10-year-old son of Vasconcelos de Jesús, who lives in an area adjacent to the jungle, is barely living by lying on a bed in the room and relying on an oxygen tank, Bloomberg said. The whole family must always be busy running for oxygen to refill it before it runs out. Since there are so many people like Basconcelos, there are always long lines at the oxygen station. Even in hospitals, they ask the family of patients who are hospitalized to “go to an oxygen filling station and get oxygen.”

As news from the Manaus region became known, Brazilian influencers and celebrities are launching a campaign to send oxygen to the Amazon region by launching private planes. Even Brazilian President Zaire Bolsonaro and Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, who had a bad relationship, sent a truck full of oxygen to the Manaus region. However, it is not enough to save Manaus, who is in a state of medical collapse.

The Brazilian government does not disclose exactly how many additional deaths have occurred since the outbreak of oxygen deprivation, but a local doctor told Al Jazeera on the 22nd, “After 14 days, at least 100 people must have died because they did not receive oxygen treatment. I said.

The day is far and new tombs are being built in Manaus. Local journalist’AM1′ reported that there were about 200 death reports registered in Manaus City over the past 16 days, of which more than half were deaths from Corona 19.

■There was no’group immunity’

Brazil Manaus was the hardest hit in Brazil even during the first pandemic in April of last year. The government, which could not handle the daily overflowing corpses, dug the ground and built a large cemetery. As there were so many infected people, they even wandered about saying,’Manaus must have reached mass immunity’.

In September of last year, the results of an initial study that confirmed such rumors as facts came out and drew attention. In a paper titled “Covid-19 population immunity in the Brazilian Amazon region,” the researchers revealed that 76% of the 2 million Manaus population appears to have antibodies.

However, the expected’collective immunity’ did not exist. Manaus is now in a more painful situation than during the first pandemic. One of the authors of the paper, Professor Easter Sabino of the University of Sao Paulo, recently told The Economist that “I didn’t think a second epidemic would come,” and that he regretted putting the term’collective immunity’ in the title of the initial thesis.

Several analyzes have emerged as to the reason why the infected people started to explode in Manaus again. First, it is possible that the number of antibody holders of 76% itself was overestimated. Pedro Halal, a professor at the National University of Pelota in Brazil, pointed out, “As a result of a random sample survey last June, only 15% of Manaus had antibodies.” However, those who were swollen in anticipation of’collective immunity’ came back to the beaches of the Amazon, and the number of diagnostic tests decreased significantly.

It is also possible that a mutant virus recently discovered in the Amazon region has spread Corona 19 again in the Manaus region. The mutant virus, which was first identified by four Brazilian tourists who entered Japan on the 6th, is known to have stronger infectivity than the existing Corona 19 virus and has the ability to avoid antibodies. In Manaus, a person who had been infected with the existing Corona 19 virus in April has also been reported to be re-infected with the mutant virus this time. The Economist said a survey of blood samples from infected people in Manaus, collected in December last year, suggests that 42% of them were infected with the mutant virus.

Manaus’ situation seems to continue to worsen for the time being. Brazil has secured 6 million doses (one dose) of vaccine, but only 70,000 doses have been allocated to the Amazon region. In Brazil, protests are continuing against President Bolsonaro, who has been called the “Trump of South America,” to take responsibility for the failure to respond to Corona 19 and to resign.

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