I Got the Covid Vaccine — and I’m So Embarrassed

A “battle” between two beloved countries, with two different realities

Photo by Rafaela Biazi on Unsplash

I just came across an article from CNN on Brazil’s health crisis that just stirred a lot of emotions in me. The very first paragraph of an important session named “The Growing Perfect Storm” reads:

The Covid-19 crisis in Brazil has never been worse. Nearly every Brazilian state has an ICU occupancy of 80% or higher, according to a CNN analysis of state data. As of Friday, 16 of 26 states were at or above 90%, meaning those health systems have collapsed or are at imminent risk of doing so.

That’s the country where I grew up — where I lived twenty-six years of my life before moving to America. The country that was once a reason to gloat about, to smile, to proudly wear our yellow shirts for. The country that is now falling apart in front of my desperate eyes.

I have been aware of the current health crisis and the collapse of hospitals in Brazil, and I’ll be sharing some emotional stories here about where I come from. But CNN’s article summarized the health crisis very well in a few sentences. Their information is one hundred percent accurate. In my hometown, roughly 95% of the ICU beds are indeed full.