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Burden of Responsibility

Two months after the recurring rerun of the lockdown, it is now more than obvious that the likes of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Jair Bolsonaro have been engaged in a cynical political gamble with the lives of citizens who deserved far better from the worthies at the helm.

Burden of Responsibility

U.S. President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin (Photo: IANS)

The indifference has been catastrophic. The quirky tendency to dumb down the murderous impact of Covid-19 has been counter-productive, notably in the United States of America, Russia and Brazil.

Two months after the recurring rerun of the lockdown, it is now more than obvious that the likes of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Jair Bolsonaro have been engaged in a cynical political gamble with the lives of citizens who deserved far better from the worthies at the helm.

However robust their macho political image, a pandemic is never vulnerable to bullying. And in retrospect, this has been the fundamental problem of attitude. Nor for that matter can coronavirus be accorded the short shrift as it had been in the three countries, with President Bolsonaro even calling it a flu.

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The breathtakingly vacuous prognosis was decidedly insulting to medical science, verily the soul of irresponsibility in terms of insulting the people. The facts are catching up. The deaths in Brazil surpassed 25,000 this week and estimates suggest that they could hit 125,000 by early August.

Indeed, Brazil ranks second in the world for recorded cases. Mr Bolsonaro must now be acutely aware of the hideously mortal implications of “common flu”. In terms of human life and suffering, the “common” has turned out to be a mortal reality.

Bolsonaro’s friend, Donald Trump, has now imposed a travel ban on non-US citizens coming from Brazil. Yet the US is leading the world for coronavirus cases and fatalities, with 100,000 deaths, and the toll is rising as the lockdown eases.

Mr Trump brushed aside warnings of the approaching crisis, failed to prepare his country and has pushed for reopening in his desperation to see some improvement in economic conditions ahead of November’s elections.

Mr Putin’s Russia occupies the third position in the tally of confirmed cases. The Kremlin has announced an end to the lockdown the President had imposed at the end of March even as infections hit a record high. More than 375,000 have now tested positive, though the death toll remains low.

Though officials claim the rate of infections has begun to slow, opinion polls suggest that Mr Putin, in league with Mr Trump and Mr Bolsonaro, is now paying a political price. Last week, the World Health Organization let it be known that these three countries accounted for two-thirds of all new cases.

Instead of prioritising the saving of lives while finding ways to ameliorate the suffering caused by lockdowns, leaders have made the same cynical gamble ~ taking the shortest route to reopen their economies, blaming anyone more cautious for lost jobs and hungry households and targeting others for the death toll resulting from their own inaction.

Abandoned by their national leaders, many states, cities, businesses and institutions have taken matters into their own hands to reduce the spread of the disease. Trump, Putin and Bolsonaro have evaded the burden of responsibility.

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