Hello, my name is Alexandre C. I am 44 years old and I work at a public bank in Brazil that acts as an instrument of public and monetary policy in the country. We had a service that provided the payment of emergency aid to more than seven million Brazilians, and not a single day of the pandemic did I stop working.

In March 2020, we did not use any type of personal protection such as masks, since there were no awareness campaigns. We didn’t have masks, gloves, or gel alcohol on the bench, even though we worked with a lot of people. In April I was infected with COVID-19, I became very ill.

Everyone I work with has been contaminated because of government neglect. We bank workers were “forgotten,” we worked day and night to earn an income, heard complaints, and were unable to quarantine.

I have always loved traveling around Latin America, I am a lover of history, and all this isolation made me very sad because I stopped seeing the world with colors. I didn’t go out for anything anymore. I haven’t seen my mom in a year. Many physical and mental sequelae remained in me after my COVID-19 infection.

Brazil is plunged by sadness, hunger, unemployment, lack of money, and inequality. And with the current government, I have no hope for a better country, and I still fear a military dictatorship in the country. I don’t want my family to go through this. Unfortunately, Brazil is a country poor in education. Here, many have little and few have much.

 

Editor’s note: Sequelae is defined as “a pathological condition resulting from a disease or injury.” See: Sequela