Melissa Teixeira - Health Care as a Human Right: Reflections on Brazil's 1988 Constitution During a Pandemic

“Brazil is home to one of the world’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks, second only to the United States. Journalists, international organizations like the World Health Organization, and social media campaigns like #covidnafavela have documented the high death tolls, the lack of hospital beds, and the struggles of communities without access to life-saving treatments. The images coming from Brazil are harrowing, as an underfunded and overstretched health care system responds to this crisis. But there is another story that can be told here, one that is perhaps not optimistic at the moment, but that can be inspiring for the future. One of the institutions at the heart of Brazil’s response to COVID-19 is the Sistema Único da Saúde (SUS), a publicly-funded health care system that works alongside public research institutes and private hospitals to guarantee free, equitable, and universal health care to all Brazilians.“


Read the full article here: https://histecon.fas.harvard.edu/climate-loss/brazil/index.html