Misinformation Caused Increased Urban Mobility and the End of Social Confinement Before the Second Wave of COVID-19 in Amazonia

Lucas Ferrante; Alexandre Celestino Leite Almeida; Jeremias Leão; Wilhelm Alexander Cardoso Steinmetz; Ruth Camargo Vassão; Rodrigo Machado Vilani; Unaí Tupinambás; Philip Martin Fearnside

doi:10.1007/s40615-023-01607-4

Misinformation Caused Increased Urban Mobility and the End of Social Confinement Before the Second Wave of COVID-19 in Amazonia

J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2023 Apr 24:1-6. doi: 10.1007/s40615-023-01607-4. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Lucas Ferrante¹, Alexandre Celestino Leite Almeida², Jeremias Leão³, Wilhelm Alexander Cardoso Steinmetz⁴, Ruth Camargo Vassão⁵, Rodrigo Machado Vilani⁶, Unaí Tupinambás⁷, Philip Martin Fearnside⁸

Affiliations

¹ Laboratório de Evolução e Genética Animal, Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. lucasferrante@hotmail.com.
² DEFIM, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei (UFSJ), Ouro Branco, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
³ Department of Statistics, Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil.
⁴ Department of Mathematics, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
⁵ Retired from the Cell Biology Laboratory of the Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁶ Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
⁷ Department of Internal Medicine, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
⁸ Departament of Environmental Dynamics, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil.

Abstract

Tendentious projections about COVID-19 in Brazil provided an appealing excuse for individuals and decision-makers to justify poor choices during a critical phase of the pandemic. The erroneous results likely contributed to premature resumption of in-person school classes and easing of restrictions on social contact, favoring the resurgence of COVID-19. In Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon region, the COVID-19 pandemic did not end in 2020 of its own accord, but rather rebounded in a disastrous second wave of the disease.

Keywords: Amazon; Brazil; COVID-19; Prevention; Public health; Social confinement; Virus coevolution.

Publication types

Review