Amazon Delivery

December 23, 2021

(Science) – Most residents here are riverine people (ribeirinhos in Portuguese)—riverside dwellers who have lived in the Amazon for centuries, relying on artisanal fishing and harvesting. The Brazilian government views them as a traditional group—a category that also includes Indigenous tribes and descendants of runaway enslaved Africans, known as quilombolas. These groups were given priority status to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in a national plan released in December 2020, following pressure from human rights activists and local leaders. Many Indigenous groups, which receive care from a special federally funded health department, have been vaccinated. But riverine peoples depend on local municipalities, which are mostly too poor to do much, for their health care. As a result, whereas city dwellers in Brazil are already getting boosters, many people living on remote riverbanks still wait in isolation for their first or second shots. (Read More)