Some administrations hide or minimize problems and divert the public’s attention in a direction they prefer. But measures taken to gain public sympathy and distract from ineffective / late responses by governments can be dangerous.
In Mexico and Brazil, with presidents from the left and right wing respectively, the pandemic was downplayed when the first cases of coronavirus were just beginning to be reported in their countries, which brought them a lot of criticism.
In Mexico, López Obrador underestimated the importance of social distancing and continued to hug his followers in public appearances. For his part, in Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro reduced Covid-19 to a simple cold in his speeches and, after falling ill in July 2020, he offered press declarations, without wearing a mask, to announce the result.
For its part, the Tanzanian government has declared its territory free of Covid-19, amid anonymous reports of contagions and deaths related to the virus. Meanwhile, officials are waging a campaign of denial, questioning the efficacy of the masks, and have even organized press conferences to promote vegetable juices that allegedly protect against the coronavirus.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has suggested drinking vodka and taking saunas as remedies against the coronavirus and referred to fears about the pandemic as psychosis, while claiming that deaths from the disease in the country would only occur in people with underlying conditions, such as diabetes.
In Venezuela, at the end of January 2021, Nicolás Maduro announced ‘miracle drops’ that he claimed would cure Covid. The president assured people that the scientific progress made by Venezuelan doctors could completely neutralize the virus, without any side effects for the patient.
Maduro advertised the treatment during his daily speeches and the government developed a publicity campaign appearing on national television. In these commercials, people are told to take ten drops of the liquid every four hours.
The medicine released by Maduro, named Carvativir, is derived from the herb thyme and was presented as a potent antiviral, and not as an additional natural treatment. But, after the controversy it generated in the scientific community, Maduro changed his discourse, qualifying the drops as complementary medicine.
According to Maduro, the medicine was tested with successful results in mild and severe patients, and even in intubated patients. But the data from the alleged study have not been officially published, more than a month since Maduro’s initial statement. Therefore, the world’s scientific community has serious doubts about its efficacy and believes that it is prudent to wait for the evidence behind the announcement.
Some experts qualify the report as a marketing strategy to divert attention from the lack of vaccines in Venezuela. Which may cause the country to extend the immunization process for the majority of the population until 2023, a rather distant date compared to other countries.
The ‘miracle drops’ are not even the first ones promoted by Maduro’s government. In October 2020, he announced that some scientists in the country had discovered a molecule that eliminates the replication of Covid.
Maduro assured people that the DR-10 molecule neutralized and eliminated Covid-19 completely and presented a video with its properties, which was later uploaded to social networks, promising not only to be a breakthrough for Venezuela, but also for humanity.
After four months, the studies of the liquid and yellow compound, which had as its intellectual author a politician close to the government, have not yet been presented. Despite the publicity, it was soon forgotten by the population and by the administration, which now introduces the ‘miracle drops’ as a novelty.
Venezuela is not the first country to try to market a product against Covid. In April 2020, a bottled drink came out in Madagascar promising, according to President Andry Rajoelina, to be the cure for the coronavirus.
The Covid-Organics drink is distributed in different African countries as a natural remedy based on Artemisia plant, from which the active ingredient artemisinin is extracted and is used against malaria. But according to experts, it should be applied in combination treatments to avoid resistance.
For this reason, scientists warn against indiscriminate treatment without previous studies. Although the active ingredient has been used for years against malaria, they indicate caution because safety and efficacy must first be established through clinical trials, which are still being carried out by experts.
Image credits: Steve Buissinne