Denialism and dirty hearts

Homeless communities and people are already inevitable clusters, making any efficient isolation utopian...

When flirting again with the book Corações Sujos, by the writer Fernando Morais, it was impossible not to correlate its core with our days, as well as to stop reflecting on some beliefs and their evil powers that break through the curtains of centuries.

In Brazil, between 1946 and 1947, the paramilitary group Shindo Renmei still peremptorily denied the surrender of Japan during World War II, signed by Hirohito. The group, clouded by pride and honor, committed crimes against compatriots and descendants who admitted factual defeat, pejoratively called makegumis or defeatists. It was the dirty hearts. There were dozens of Japanese immigrants murdered for not embarking on the delusions of a crazy minority.

A denialist current that, through the manipulation of numbers or using violence, sought to dissuade and mask the reality pointed to the undeniable Japanese defeat and the consequent surrender.

We are in the 21st century and we are faced with the denialism of yet another minority in vogue again. This minimizes risks and induces other compatriots, equally denialists, to form imprecise concepts, accentuated by the discredit that partiality lends to some press organs. Thus, science, which should always be at the service of humanity, is masked by uncertainties, through the bombardment of conflicting and contradictory information.

The economic scenario supports the discourse, but it is impossible to disregard the political facet under the ''EPIs'' of good intentions.

Even though there are hospitals at the mercy of Brasilia's care, the view of responsibility for the health chaos, for the queues in search of medical treatment, for the lack of beds and the absence of qualified professionals, has its attention turned to state and municipal governments, attracting to them , media gazes and those of the population, becoming more meticulous in times of a pandemic. Perhaps, political aspirations add to the good will of mayors and governors an even greater diligence to the health of the population today.

A president, on the other hand, is always better evaluated when the economy does nothing. Something impossible in the midst of the recession caused by the pandemic that stagnates, suffocates and shakes the foundations of any economic structure. It is possible to conclude that the concern with health or with the economy, although justifiable each in its proportion, has as a cornerstone the elections for executive positions that are approaching.

A country whose foundations are in shambles does not re-elect its representatives.

However, would those who turn a blind eye to Brazil's third-world condition also be denialists? How can we ask the more than 10 million people who live in favelas without access to water and sewage treatment to take care of hygiene and social distancing?

Rejected, the communities and the street population are already large and inevitable agglomerations, making any type of efficient isolation utopian and these being the first lethally hit by any crisis that represents a financial flu for the wealthy. This fact adds more alcohol to this bonfire of contradictions and mercilessly consumes Brazilians poorly assisted in their most basic needs, while we count corpses and patients victimized by the virus of neglect and corruption of successive misgovernments.

It is inevitable that Brazil, and other countries, will become indebted in order to provide the underserved with minimally adequate conditions to go through this moment without even greater tragedies than the pandemic itself already causes, especially in underdeveloped countries.

In this vortex of uncertainties, fake news and impotence accumulate in antagonistic and ambivalent discourses, generating diverse positions and echoing voices of governments that carry in their DNA the genomes of disbelief.

The most sensible thing is, as far as possible, to continue delaying the evolution of contamination so that – through mutations and those still skeptical of the vaccine (despite the increase in vaccinated people) – the weakened Brazilian health system can use, in a humane way, beds , respirators, as well as assisting their patients, without assigning doctors the inglorious task of starring in an updated version of "Sophie's Choice" (Styron, 1979).

Minimizing the gravity of a pandemic, in which all the problems resulting from a shattered economy are weighed, is like spraying with epithets those who still maintain a minimum of sobriety and clarity supported by the scientific community. There will always be one among the priorities that must be raised to its rightful place by common sense.

The current ''makegumis'' and their clean hearts must serve as an example to all other hearts, guiding through their beats those kept by the shackles of a cognitive quarantine with closed eyes and disoriented by shortcuts that divert us from the tracks of reality.

Marcelo Kassab.

Writer and Dental Surgeon.