SOUTH AMERICA
Losing the Future
So many players on Argentina’s powerhouse soccer team River Plate were sick with Covid-19 that they needed to put midfielder Enzo PĆ©rez into a game as a goalkeeper.
River Plate still defeated Independiente Santa Fe, a Colombian team, in the Copa Libertadores, the top soccer competition in South America, as the Washington Post reported. But the substitution has become an example of how the coronavirus has ravaged the continent.
Mass vaccination campaigns have helped stop the spread of Covid-19 in the US. Latin America, however, is still in a desperate battle against the virus.
Even in Venezuela, where few believe the authoritarian government’s health statistics, officials have admitted that fatal Covid-19 cases have increased 86 percent since early this year, the New York Times wrote.
Between December last year and March, mortality rates for Brazilians younger than 39 have doubled. For those in their 40s, mortality rates have quadrupled. For those in their 50s, they have tripled. In Peru, meanwhile, April was the deadliest month since the pandemic started, according to National Public Radio.
Numbers like those are why Latin America recently accounted for 35 percent of all coronavirus deaths in a single week even though the region is home to only 8 percent of the world’s population.
“This is tragic, and the consequences are dire for our families, our societies and our future,” Carissa F. Etienne, the Dominican director of the Pan American Health Organization, told the Guardian.
Chile has one of the fastest vaccination rollouts in the world. Now, the BBC reported, a surge has led to full intensive care wards and new lockdowns. Chileans must download special permits online to leave their homes twice a week for shopping, doctor’s visits and other essential services. The vaccination rollout was not coordinated with reopening the economy. At the same time, new variants struck that were more virulent than previous strains.
Poverty is partly to blame for the disaster. As the Miami Herald explained, only 10 percent of Latin Americans have received a vaccine. The poor especially have little recourse for finding the few jabs that might be available. Guyana’s former health minister described the challenge as a “vaccine apartheid.”
The US and Spain are exporting millions of vaccines to South America to help, Reuters reported.
But the New Statesman wondered if Covid-19 would mean another lost decade for Latin America. The virus is threatening to increase economic inequality and foment social unrest. This combination can lead to political instability that, in turn, shuts down the potential for reforms and economic growth that make people’s lives better.
This summer could determine the direction of the continent for a generation.
