The world is running against the clock in order to develop a safe and efficient vaccine for COVID-19. These developments are not free from political hardships - despite many biomedical complexities - and social consequences. In the international system, this vaccine-race is showing us the many flaws of international cooperation (which we can, surely, fix....  Read this >>

Everything seems normal in Brazil, except that we now have more than 120,00 COVID-19 deaths. Among the most challenging topics to be handled in this continental country is science, fake news (as usual, baby), and the Brazilian Unitary Health System (SUS). The latest discussions about vaccine development in Brazil include a convoluted topic: science and t...  Read this >>

Dear all, I hope you are doing fine! The last 24 hours have been complicated in Brazil, primarily because of the widespread corruption news about the President's wife. Honestly, these things do not impress me too much. I do not feel comfortable in admitting this. Well, but amid a pandemic and many corruption scandals, I asked myself how to (not) solve the...  Read this >>

When the first signals of quarantine were shown in Brazil, I remember that many people said, "we are overreacting. This "Chinese virus" will not cause damage in Brazil." Well, from the first beginning, these people were wrong! I can also recall many sentiments of xenophobia about Chinese people and Brazil's neighbors (mainly towards Argentina, Paraguay, a...  Read this >>

In July 2010, I left my parents home to live an incredible experience in Québec, Canada. I finished high school at École Secondaire des Patriotes (Saint-Eustache, QC), and I came back to Brazil. But I came back to start my University life in 2012. I used to go back to my parents' house every holiday until 2015 when I returned home for five m...  Read this >>

Welcome to June! I love this month for several reasons: it's my birthday (June 7), it's cold in Brazil then I can wear my favorite winter stuff, it's the month of Northeast parties (called Festa de São João, google it), and it's the precisely the middle of the year. Well, I'm excited about my birthday. This year I'll not have a party no...  Read this >>

I am pretty excited today! I am feeling hopeful and happier than in previous days. Well, I also have many things that concerned me about my country's erratic behavior toward COVID-19. Last week, a ministerial meeting video was released, and it seems that many (many) issues came out. To name a few:  the Ministry of Environment said that the governm...  Read this >>

It was a tough day. Today I had two meetings about two relevant types of research: one about a large project with the Brazilian Ministry of Health on obesity and multilateralism, the other about noncommunicable disease risk factors with our Latin American partners (among them Peru, Argentina, Mexico, and Costa Rica). Then, I realized how technology had en...  Read this >>

A new month has come, but an ongoing challenge is still here: coronavirus. While I try to keep my mental health, Brazilian politics goes very, very bad. At first, our Ministry of Health left the office. The main reason lies in his decisions and recommendations that were not aligned with President's expectations. Our President is hardly committed to the en...  Read this >>

Since January 2020, I've been living in the South of Brazil. My family lives here and I was born in this wonderful city called Sao Miguel do Oeste, close to Argentina. This region has been increasingly embedded into political conservatism and economy here is above all things (maybe in the same level as the catholic church). My province, Santa Catarina, wa...  Read this >>