100 years ago, Brazil was facing Pandemic Influenza. The name of the flu has nothing to do with the origin of the disease. Spain has taken the fame of the virus precisely because it is transparent in the journalistic information of its spread differently from other countries. Still, the media in 1918 and today adopted specific policies to enlighten the population about the best scientific knowledge available.
In the current Brazilian case, a consortium of journalism companies monitors the numbers of Covid-19 daily, contributing not only to the public but also with the country’s health authorities. According to a near consensus between the medical community and international health agencies, the social distancing associated with the use of masks and obsessive hand sanitizing is the best way to avoid an intense demand for patients to go to hospitals and lead to the collapse of the health and funeral systems.
