Deny and distract: The Populist Radical Right responses of Trump, Johnson and Bolsonaro to COVID-19
Image: @anniespratt
By Michelle Falkenbach
Over the last decade, politicians of the Populist Radical Right (PRR) such as Donald Trump in the United States, Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom or Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil have established themselves as serious competitors in political and electoral systems worldwide. PRR politicians are defined as any party or single politician whose political style combines the belief in an ethnically united people with a common territory, the belief in the value of obeying authority, and preference for the ‘common sense’ of a unified people over ‘corrupt elite’ knowledge.
The actions of the Populist Radical Right in government tend to focus on their preferred issues: immigration, integration and security. But what about a policy such as health which does not fit well with the preferred rhetoric of PRR politicians? How do these politicians respond to a global pandemic? Not well, as Scott L. Greer and I argue in a new open-access commentary for the International Journal of Health Policy and Management. Just consider three leading PRR politicians: Donald Trump of the US, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson of the UK, and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil.
President Trump publicly dismissed risks of the coronavirus, refused to wear a mask in public for months and did not exercise the leadership necessary to mobilize the federal government. Instead, he would claim things like, “when you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people; you’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people, slow the testing down please” and supported massive cuts to research and health institutions. The result: A public health disaster claiming the lives of almost 160,000 Americans to date (the highest number worldwide, and probably an undercount since it excludes people who did of COVID-19 without testing). Instead Trump focused his efforts on migration (e.g. suspending visas) and border closures, both of which were senseless considering that the virus was clearly endemic in the US and people leaving the US for other countries were a bigger global health threat than those entering. By late June Trump had effectively abandoned the US response plan and dismantled the federal coordinating system, restarting rallies and changing the topic to his preferred issues of "law and order" (racist code in the United States) and a putative economic rebound.
Similarly, Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom chose to ignore the gravity of the situation as well ultimately contracting the virus himself. Unsurprising errors such as inconsistent contract tracing, inconsistent and poorly explained policies for schools and generally unclear communication made the situation worse made the situation worse. Public health messaging was confusing (the meaning of a government call to "stay alert" was never explained despite its being a key slogan) and flat out ignored by Johnson’s advisor, Dominic Cummings, who very publicly disregarded quarantine. None of this was particularly helpful as the country surpassed Italy in deaths from the virus by over 10,000 making it Europe’s death rate leader by far.
Turning to South America, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is still, after registering almost half a million infections, and testing positive, denying the severity of the disease. Even after 17,500 Brazilians were reported dead from the virus in mid-May, the President refused to take the matter seriously. He was quoted saying things like the virus was no more than a “little flu” and that China is responsible for provoking hysteria throughout the world. Instead of supporting local measures of contagion throughout the country, Bolsonaro has taken to firing health ministers that disagree with him. Currently, he is on number three. Brazil is second only to the United States with 2.7 million officially recorded corona infections, however the estimated number of unknown cases is speculated as being much higher.
What becomes strikingly clear is that these three PRR politicians have very little competence in matters of public health and healthcare. Trump's suggestion of injecting disinfectant to treat the virus and Johnson and Bolsonaro’s continued handshaking and close contact with people underlines their attempt to downplay the pandemic. Health is not a good issue for PRR politicians, and so it is unsurprising, if tragic, that they consistently try to change the topic rather than address the problem.
