Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, center, accompanied by his ministers all wearing masks, speaks during a press conference on the new coronavirus, at the Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, March 18, 2019. For most people COVID-19 causes mild or moderate symptoms. For others, especially the elderly and people with existing health problems, it can cause many other serious illnesses, including pneumonia. (AP Photo/Andre Borges)
March 19, 2020
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Brazil's Bolsonaro strives to regain leadership amid virus
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — After questioning the seriousness of COVID-19, defying his own health ministry's recommendations and denouncing a “certain hysteria,” Brazil's president is now projecting himself as leading the nation's response to the coronavirus crisis in what has become one of the biggest challenges to his presidency.