The impact of SARS-CoV-2 in dementia across Latin America : A call for an urgent regional plan and coordinated response

The SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic will disproportionately impact countries with weak economies and vulnerable populations including people with dementia. Latin American and Caribbean countries (LACs) are burdened with unstable economic development, fragile health systems, massive economic disparities, and a high prevalence of dementia. Here, we underscore the selective impact of SARS-CoV-2 on dementia among LACs, the specific strain on health systems devoted to dementia, and the subsequent effect of increasing inequalities among those with dementia in the region. Implementation of best practices for mitigation and containment faces particularly steep challenges in LACs. Based upon our consideration of these issues, we urgently call for a coordinated action plan, including the development of inexpensive mass testing and multilevel regional coordination for dementia care and related actions. Brain health diplomacy should lead to a shared and escalated response across the region, coordinating leadership, and triangulation between governments and international multilateral networks

Paradoxos da “identidade nacional” nos discursos arquitetônicos de Lucio Costa e Sylvio de Vasconcellos

n the debate about the period and the architectural style that represented the national identity in the historiography of Brazilian architecture, in the first decades of the twentieth century, different agents took place in the consolidation of the architectural heritage idea. Important characters in cultural preservation policies, such as Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade and Mário de Andrade, integrated the public space emphasizing their positions of organic intellectuals in cultural policies. Given this fact, this article focuses on the consolidation in the social imaginary of eighteenth-century architecture as an effective representation of national architecture, consolidating itself as a style/period with the largest number of buildings listed until 1970. Understanding the different subjects involved in this process, this article focuses on the effective political action of Lucio Costa and Sylvio Vasconcellos on the defense of colonial heritage, based on texts and interventions in the overturned cities throughout Brazil, shaping and consolidating their strategies around an ideology of heritage and nation. In addition, we seek to understand the direct relationship established by both agents between the “elected” national heritage architecture and the precepts of the new architectural practice linked to the Modern Movement, to which they were adherents. Justifying the new from the primitive, in a perfect relationship where everything can be explained and fitted, the eclectic architecture was treated as a copy of styles, exacerbation of ornaments and link to foreignism, in opposition at the claimed nation project. We should always review concepts and guidelines, dealing more truthfully and fairly with our eclectic heritage, and consequently with our architectural historiography.No debate em torno do período e do estilo arquitetônico que representassem a identidade nacional na historiografia da arquitetura brasileira, nas primeiras décadas do século XX, diferentes agentes tomaram lugar na consolidação do ideário patrimonial arquitetônico. Figuras marcantes às políticas de preservação cultural, tais como Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade e Mário de Andrade, integraram o espaço público ressaltando suas posições de intelectuais inerentes às políticas culturais. Tendo em vista tal fato, este artigo se debruça sobre a consolidação no imaginário social da arquitetura setecentista enquanto efetiva representação da arquitetura nacional, concretizando-se enquanto estilo/período com o maior número de edificações tombadas até 1970. Compreendendo os diferentes sujeitos envolvidos nesse processo, centra-se, assim, na efetiva ação política de Lucio Costa e Sylvio Vasconcellos na defesa em torno do patrimônio colonial, a partir de textos e intervenções nas cidades tombadas Brasil afora, conformandoe consolidando suas estratégias em torno de um ideário de patrimônio e nação. Além disso, busca-se compreender a relação direta estabelecida por ambos os agentes entre a arquitetura “eleita” patrimônio nacional e os preceitos do novo fazer arquitetônico vinculado ao Movimento Moderno, ao qual eram adeptos. Justificando o novo a partir do primitivo, numa relação perfeita em que tudo se explica e se encaixa, a arquitetura eclética foi tratada como cópia de estilos, exacerbação de ornamentos e vinculação ao estrangeirismo, se opondo assim ao projeto de nação pleiteado. Devemos sempre rever conceitos e diretrizes, tratando de forma mais verdadeira e justa o nosso patrimônio eclético, e em consequência, nossa historiografia arquitetônica