Had he lived Josildo de Moura would have celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary this December. Instead the devoted husband and father of five died of Covid in May, gasping for breath outside a neighbourhood clinic on the outskirts of São Paulo. He was 62, and like the vast majority of Brazilians, still waiting to be vaccinated.

"The pain is endless," says his wife Cida, sitting at her kitchen table, ringed by her children and grandchildren. "And every day we hear about more families suffering as we suffer, losing a loved one."

The losses here are staggering. More than half a million Brazilians have died with Covid-19, the second highest death toll worldwide, behind only the United States. Experts here predict their country is on course to overtake the US.

Read more...