Natália Pasternak – How science denialism is fuelling the COVID-19 crisis in Brazil

Brazil has surpassed the UK in the number of confirmed cases and deaths of COVID-19. Still, the federal government refuses to acknowledge reality and relies on magical thinking and denialism, promoting miracle cures, withholding information, spreading lies and inciting riots. Join Natalia Pasternak for a look at the Brazilian response to the pandemic, and what happens when a government embraces pseudoscience in the face of an international health crisis.

Natália Pasternak is a biologist, with a PhD and post-doctorate in Microbiology, in the field of Molecular Genetics of Bacteria at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. She is the former director in Brazil of the international festival of scientific communication “Pint of Science”, invited columnist for the Brazilian national newspaper “O Globo”, Brazilian “Health” magazine, and for the UK Skeptic magazine. She is currently a research fellow at the University of São Paulo, publisher of Question of Science magazine and president of Question of Science Institute, the first Brazilian Institute for the promotion of skepticism and rational thinking.