[Bigdatasur] Blogpost on COVID19 in Brazil

[Nicolo Zingales]

Dear all,

greetings from Brazil, which is (and has been for several months) the epicenter of the pandemic in Latin America. Unfortunately, we have remained stable at the peak of approximately 1k deaths and 35-40k new cases per day, and there are no signs of improvement. Things may actually worsen, now that the general belief has somehow spread that isolation measures are no longer necessary (see yourself these picture of Rio de Janeiro´s beach in the last 2 weekends: https://brasil.estadao.com.br/noticias/rio-de-janeiro,praias-do-rio-lotam-neste-domingo-mesmo-com-proibicao-por-causa-da-covid-19,70003419222 and https://twitter.com/rodrigo__c/status/1302643166160605185?s=20). But what is most worrying (and arguably a cause of this wide disregard for the health risks) is how the government has been dealing with the crisis: aside from President Bolsonaro´s self-professed skepticism of the threats posed by the virus, and the disposal of two health ministers now replaced by an active-duty general who has agreed to allow the use of chloroquine for all COVID patients, we have witnessed an increasing separation of government policies from scientific evidence.
I have shared on the blog<https://data-activism.net/2020/09/bigdatasur-covid-a-brazilian-cautionary-tale-on-pandemic-negationism-open-data-is-an-essential-safeguard-for-evidence-based-policy-making/> an overview of the situation and some thoughts about the role of open data as a measure of oversight on the measures taken by the government in this delicate moment. I also have a forthcoming article critically examining the impact on the Brazilian pandemic scenario of the lack of an effective data protection framework, should that be of interest please message me privately (I am not allowed to put it out publicly yet).

Best,
Nicolo


[http://www.fgv.br/mailing/2018/direito_rio/assinatura/fgv_direito_rio.jpg]
Nicolo Zingales, PhD
Professor of Information Law and Regulation
[http://www.fgv.br/mailing/2018/direito_rio/assinatura/fgv_tel.jpg]+55 21 3799 5967  t @JusTechne
[http://www.fgv.br/mailing/2018/direito_rio/assinatura/fgv_direito_rio_map.jpg]Praia de Botafogo, 190 13º andar
Botafogo - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - CEP: 22250-900
[http://www.fgv.br/mailing/2018/direito_rio/assinatura/fgv_ass_email.jpg] nicolo.zingales at fgv.br<mailto:nicolo.zingales at fgv.br%20>

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