I do like Fandango’s Who Won the Week post, and like to join in with some quirky stories from my own newsfeeds. The idea is that we pick a “thing” (person, organisation) who “won” the week. Like today, I normally post with a heavy dose of tongue-in-cheek. So, here goes…

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Okay, let’s get this straight. It’s bad news if anybody catches this virus. I wouldn’t wish it upon anybody.

Within that..let’s put this diplomatically…some of us have taken far more precautions than others. Some of us seem almost to have taunted the virus, to the point where I’ve thought that if anybody had to catch it, it’d serve them right, rather than perhaps somebody catching it who has been taking sensible steps to prevent both themselves and other people from being infected.

But I must admit, I am not totally sold on the idea of wearing a mask.There seems to be a general belief that all masks are equal. They’re not. A surgical mask is more than twice as effective at preventing the passage of these tiny particles (in both directions), as a basic cotton mask, so just wearing any old mask is not a cureall. But, you know, I’d be happy to wear a mask (if I ever went outside!), just because wearing one can’t harm the situation. It seems far from clearcut, but wearing a mask helps to some extent.

My winner this week does not agree.

In fact, as a world leader, he decided that wearing a mask infringed his liberty, and even watered down mask-wearing rules accordingly. I’m not sure how many people follow what politicians say any more, but to the extent that some people still do, I’m not sure taking this gung-ho attitude is entirely helpful, bearing in mind that what they say could be putting other people’s lives at risk.

But that’s not all. In fact there is a whole timeline of events.

• 19 April 2020

  My winner attended a rally alongside supporters, demonstrating against quarantine and social distancing. At a rally, without a care how close they all got to each other.

• 3 May 2020

  Another protest. But events had by now moved on, and this time the protest was against lockdown.

• 6 May 2020

  My friend was out and about again, this time being front-and-centre at a commemoration to celebrate the 130th anniversary of a military school.

• 24 May 2020

  Another demo. Still no mask, although by now, many of his supporters are wearing them.

• 31 May 2020

  Another demonstration, this time one in favour of his government. This guy sure does a lot of demonstrating, for a president!

• 17 June 2020

  Another ceremony, this time to celebrate his new Minister of Communications.

• 17 June 2020

  Keeping busy, this time with his Agricultural Minister to celebrate the start of a new “plan” for the agricultural sector, Even the minister is wearing a mask by this time.

• 2 July 2020

  Attended a high-level summit, in person. By that time, the virus was so rife that many of the others “attended” the summit by videolink.

• 7 July 2020

  My winner’s luck ran out, and he tested positive for the virus. He’s 65, so conventional wisdom says his age puts him at a higher risk, but he’s undeterred. He says he expects it to be “like the flu”. Let’s hope he’s right.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jair Bolsonaro, of Brazil.

most of my sources in this post were from The Guardian.