COVID-19 as a global disaster: Challenges to risk governance and social vulnerability in Brazil

Abstract

On March 11 2020, the Director of the World Health Organization characterized the Public Health Emergency by COVID-19 as a pandemic (PAHO, 2020). In this article we understand this pandemic as a Global Disaster that can evolve into a Complex Emergency presenting risks for a Humanitarian Crisis in many countries, including Brazil. In this context we face two challenges: the governance of risks and coping and reducing vulnerabilities. In Brazil political, social and economic threats overlap with the dangers caused by the Sars-Cov-2 virus. These threats undermine the capacity for risk governance and widen and intensify social inequalities, making Brazil the new epicenter of the global disaster by COVID-19.