Brazil’s struggle to reconstruct healthcare post-Bolsonaro

On 14 January 2021, dozens of Brazilians died as authorities scrambled to get oxygen to Manaus, an isolated city in the heart of the Amazon. Over the next few days, the federal government began transporting critical patients to other states, but lines for hospital beds were still long. Without oxygen supplies, many had to be resuscitated in hallways, while others suffocated to death.The Manaus oxygen crisis is perhaps the best example of how Brazil’s former far right president Jair Bolsonaro handled the pandemic. It is also a reflection of the precariousness to which the country’s public healthcare system—also known as Unified Health System, or SUS—has descended after years of regulatory and institutional setbacks promoted by former administrations.Its reconstruction should now be one of the main priorities of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, re-elected for his third term in October 2022. Since taking office, however, it is clear he is…
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