Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Brazil Government Yanks Virus Death Toll As Data Befuddles Experts

Associated Press

   RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's government has stopped publishing a running
   total of coronavirus deaths and infections in an extraordinary move
   that critics call an attempt to hide the true toll of the disease in
   Latin America's largest nation.

   Saturday's move came after months of criticism from experts that
   Brazil's statistics are woefully deficient, and in some cases
   manipulated, so it may never be possible to understand the depth of the
   pandemic in the country.

   Brazil's last official numbers showed it had recorded over 34,000
   deaths related to the coronavirus, the third-highest number in the
   world, just ahead of Italy. It reported nearly 615,000 infections,
   putting it second, behind the United States. Brazil, with about 210
   million people, is the globe's seventh most populous nation.

   On Friday, the federal Health Ministry took down a website that had
   showed daily, weekly and monthly figures on infections and deaths in
   Brazilian states. On Saturday, the site returned but the cumulative
   numbers of infections for states and the nation were no longer there.
   The site now shows only the numbers for the previous 24 hours.

   Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tweeted Saturday that disease totals
   are "not representative" of the country's current situation.

   A Bolsonaro ally contended to the newspaper O Globo that at least some
   states had sent falsified data to the Health Ministry, implying that
   they were exaggerating the toll. Carlos Wizard, a businessman expected
   to assume a high-level post in the Health Ministry, said the federal
   government would conduct a review to determine a "more accurate"' toll.

   "The number we have today is fanciful or manipulated," Wizard said.

   A council of state health secretaries said it would fight the changes
   by Bolsonaro, who has dismissed the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic
   and tried to thwart attempts to impose quarantines, curfews and social
   distancing, arguing those steps are causing more damage to the economy
   than the illness.

.