What doubts, concerns and fears about COVID-19 emerged during the first wave of the pandemic?

Dear authors,

The article “What doubts, concerns and fears about COVID-19 emerged during the first wave of the pandemic?” [1], published in February 2021, is of great importance for society so that we can understand what the population knows and thinks about the coronavirus. The article shows that effective control of the infectious agent requires effective communication with the society. So, it is noted that such doubts have come along and evolved with the pandemic, emphasizing the importance of resolving them by alternative means of communication, even if not by official institutions.

Brazil is the third country with the highest number of Covid cases in the world [2] and still there is no definitive plan to combat the pandemic. Furthermore, two primary sources of information coexist in the country: government channels and main stream (TV, radio, internet). Therefore, a problem appears from the moment that we have the two sides are at a conflict regarding the disclosure of information. On the one hand, the Brazilian government discourages the population from maintaining social isolation, through flexibility measures and speeches that minimize the relevance of the virus, while on the other hand, the mainstream media continues to warn people about the real risks of the pandemic, influencing them to stay at home for as long as possible, follow the rules of detachment and avoid consuming drugs without proven cure effectiveness as a prevention (like Ivermectin) [3]. Consequently, such rivalry implies in a soaring number of doubts among the population, which starts to wonder who is right or wrong, thus resulting in a lack of confidence towards the pandemic.

Moreover, a mass dissemination of fake news spread around the country and around the world, bringing all and any type of distorted information about COVID-19, which even led WHO to create the term “infodemic” to name the event [4]. WhatsApp, Facebook and other major social networks have been dominated. in these circumstances, even the Brazilian government has published Fake News in official media, from homemade methods to prevent and cure the disease to banking scams. Whether the absence of information or the desire to benefit their beliefs, such news has taken part of society to the point of turning against science. While some wait anxiously for the arrival of immunization, others encourage the resurgence of the Anti-vaccine movement. This, however, represents a major threat to Brazil’s public health, since the recurrence of diseases previously exterminated, such as mumps, rubella and measles, already causes complications [5]. The involvement of a pandemic virus in movements like this generates catastrophic proportions, which underscore the importance of having alternative means to confirm the veracity of the infinite information that reaches us every day.

Still in relation to this conflict, the government has done little and hardly does to remedy the frequent uncertainties of citizens, merely concerned with maintaining its power doing everything to do so. As has done during the pandemic, for instance, when the Brazilian Ministry of Health replaced two ministers (doctors) who encouraged the responsibility and compliance with the isolation measures and replaced them with a general of the armed forces of Brazil, conniving with the actions of the president of the republic.

Ergo, governmental measures ended up discrediting science, which left numerous regarding knowledge about COVID-19 [6]. therefore, increasing brazilians questions concerning governmental decisions, a fact that leads to even more doubts and, thus, greater need to clarify them. As mentioned in the article “The promotion of adequate behaviors among the population, especially after the return to this "new" normal must be supported by a robust health communication strategy.”a method that, despite being embraced by countries such as Portugal and USA, was not adopted in Brazil. Nevertheless, months after the first covid wave, brazilians continue to suffer the consequences from the lack of governmental's pandemic management plan, which could have solved society's questions and concerns.

Declaration of Competing Interest

We declare no competing interests.