Twitter deletes virus denier Bolsonaro  tweets

Two tweets from the account of Brazil’s extreme tight  President Jair Bolsonaro in which he questioned measures of social isolation to contain the spread of the coronavirus were removed on Sunday night on the grounds that they "violated the rules" of the social network.

He  had published three videos in which he was seen to be contrary to the guidelines of his Ministry of Health, strolling through Brasilia on  Sunday, approaching followers in small crowds and reinforcing his call to break the quarantine.

Two of the three posts were removed Sunday night, and a tag explaining their removal remained in its place.

"Twitter recently announced worldwide the expansion of its rules to reach content that eventually goes against public health information directed by official sources and may place people at greater risk of transmitting covid-19," the social network said in a statement. to the media.

"What I have talked with people is that they want to work, what I have said from the beginning, we are going to be careful, over 65 years old stays at home," Bolsonaro told a street vendor in one of the deleted videos.

Less than 24 hours earlier, the Health Minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, had once again highlighted the importance of social isolation in the fight against the disease, which in Brazil has  4,256 cases and 136 deaths.

"Death is there if God wants. We just can't stand still, there is fear because if you don't die of the disease, you starve," says the vendor to Bolsonaro, who replies, "You're not going to die."

The 65-year-old far-right president also promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus. Relying on "a French study," the remedy "is a reality," Bolsonaro said.

When consulted, his  advice did not specify which study he was referring to.

In a fourth video the president, who advocates a "return to normality" in the country, questioned the quarantine defended by governors and some mayors as a containment measure to prevent the spread of the virus.

"That horizontal isolation, if it continues like this, with the amount of unemployment, later on, we will have a very serious problem that will take years to resolve," he said in the piece taped outside the official residence.

"Some want me to shut up, follow the protocols, how many times does the doctor not follow the protocol," said the president. "Let's face the virus with reality, it is life, we must all die one day," he added.

Bolsonaro describes the new coronavirus as "a flu" and advocates the reopening of shops and schools, and the isolation exclusively for people over 60 (those most vulnerable to the disease), without explaining how this could be done.