Ex-health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta says he advised President Jair Bolsonaro to hearken to the science to struggle virus.
Brazil’s former well being minister has advised a parliamentary inquiry that far-right President Jair Bolsonaro ignored repeated warnings that his strategy to COVID-19 might trigger the well being system to break down within the South American nation.
Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was fired in April 2020 by Bolsonaro for not agreeing to push the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus remedy, testified on Tuesday earlier than a Senate fee investigating the Brazilian authorities’s dealing with of the pandemic.
“We expressly beneficial the president change his stance. We advised him it might trigger the well being system to break down,” Mandetta stated.
“I warned Bolsonaro systematically of the implications of not adopting the suggestions of science to struggle COVID-19.”
The previous minister additionally stated Bolsonaro knew there was no scientific foundation to prescribe hydroxychloroquine to fight the coronavirus.
He stated he was known as to a cupboard assembly with the president, the place there was a plan to vary the official indications to be used of the drug to say it may very well be prescribed for COVID-19.
Antonio Barra Torres, president of Brazil’s well being regulator Anvisa, who was additionally on the assembly, stated that might not be carried out. “The federal government was conscious that it was prescribing chloroquine with none scientific proof,” Mandetta stated.
The Brazilian Senate opened an investigation into Bolsonaro’s dealing with of the pandemic on April 27, simply days earlier than the nation surpassed 400,000 deaths linked to the virus.
Greater than 408,000 folks have died in Brazil thus far, in line with Johns Hopkins College information – the second-highest whole on the earth after the US – and public well being consultants are warning that one other lethal wave may very well be coming.
Bolsonaro, who has eschewed public well being restrictions and dismissed the virus as only a “little flu”, is going through elevated stress to account for the excessive numbers of COVID-19 deaths and infections.
However the former military captain nonetheless refuses to undertake stricter public well being measures, comparable to lockdowns, to stem the unfold of the virus.
The Senate probe will look at how Bolsonaro’s insurance policies have contributed to the disaster.
Bolsonaro is now on his fourth well being minister for the reason that disaster started and all 4 are because of testify earlier than the Senate fee, which has a 90-day renewable mandate.
Regardless of persevering with to face widespread criticism, Bolsonaro’s backers turned out in massive numbers in a number of Brazilian cities over the weekend to point out their assist for the president.
“It’s a vital second and Bolsonaro wants the folks’s assist,” Edvaldo de Paulo, a demonstrator who appeared to be in his 60s, advised the AFP information company in Brasilia on Saturday.