Bolsonaro was ‘very negative’ when Covid warned of thousands of deaths, says Mandetta | Politics

The interview was broadcast this Thursday (24), the eve of the launch of the book “A patient named Brazil: behind the scenes of the fight against coronavirus.” In the book, Mandetta presents accounts of the period in which, as Minister of Health, he dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Mandetta, Bolsonaro’s reaction to the warning was “very negative and very angry.”

“I never said in public that I would work with 180 thousand dead if we did not intervene, but I showed it to him. I gave it to him in writing, so that he would know responsibility for the paths he would choose. So it really was a very negative reaction. and very angry, ”Mandetta said.

Orthopedist and former federal deputy, Mandetta was the Prime Minister of Health of the Bolsonaro government. He was sworn in in January 2019 and remained as minister until April 16 of this year, when he was dismissed due to differences with Bolsonaro in the fight against the pandemic.

Until 1 pm this Friday (25), Brazil had already counted 140,040 deaths by Covid-19, Second survey conducted by Press Vehicle Consortium based on data from state health departments.

To the journalist Pedro Bial, Mandetta stated that Bolsonaro’s defense of the use of hydroxychloroquine – medicine that not proven effective against Covid-19 – helps explain the “denier” position of the president.

According to the former minister, people close to the president began to tell Bolsonaro versions of the pandemic that he would like to hear.

“The story of chloroquine has arrived. That created an escape valve, like: ‘I take it out and put it away,’ “said the former minister.

According to Mandetta, Bolsonaro was “angry” with the Health Ministry because the then holder of the portfolio “symbolized” news about the risks of the pandemic.

“I symbolized the news. I was angry with the ‘postman’, I was angry with the Ministry of Health,” he said.

Mandetta, who was more popular than Bolsonaro in the first months of the pandemic, had friction with the president on issues such as social detachment.

Bolsonaro defends the reopening of the economy and what he calls “vertical isolation”, that is, isolating only the elderly and people with serious illnesses, who are at risk.

After Mandetta left, the oncologist and businessman Nelson Teich stayed at the head of the ministry for a month and also left to disagree with the president, especially on the use of hydroxychloroquine.

With the departure of Teich, General Eduardo Pazuello, with no previous experience in the area, commanded the ministry on an interim basis for four months, until he took office last week.

Bolsonaro is the ‘Chinese weapon’

In the interview, Mandetta reported that Bolsonaro was convinced that the coronavirus was a Chinese biological weapon for the left to return to power in Latin America. When asked how he reacted, Mandetta said he did not refute what he called a conspiracy theory.

“There are things you don’t fight with. You look and say, ‘Until this is proven, we will deal with the facts, we will deal with life as it is, we will deal with the problem and then we will look at the conspiracy theories,’ ”he said.

Asked about his biggest mistake as a minister, Mandetta said he should have been able to demonstrate to Bolsonaro, “in a more convincing way”, the consequence of the policy adopted by the president against Covid-19.

The former minister also criticized the role of China and the World Health Organization (WHO) in the fight against the pandemic. He again criticized the WHO’s slowness in declaring a pandemic.

According to Mandetta, Brazil only changed its approach to the virus and began preparing its own healthcare system when European systems collapsed.

Relationship with Doria and ministers

Former Minister Mandetta also gave an interview to GloboNews “Estúdio i” this Friday. The doctor said he was confronted by Bolsonaro when he attended a press conference with the governor of São Paulo, João Doria (PSDB), a former ally and current disaffection of the president.

“One of the obvious decisions of the Ministry of Health is that health is not partisan. […] It is natural that he had this relationship with São Paulo. I’ve been there. One fine day there was a press conference and I went to participate. That irritated me a lot, because I was at a press conference, as a minister, within São Paulo and with the presence of the governor, ”said Mandetta.

“And at some point [Bolsonaro] He asked me, ‘Are you going to praise Doria’s work?’ I said ‘de Doria, no. From the state of São Paulo, from the city of São Paulo, ‘”she continued.

The former minister also affirmed that the relationship with the Ministry of Economy was very distant, with little participation from the team of Minister Paulo Guedes in the conversations and decisions about the pandemic.

“A dilemma was put on the table which was health or economics. It was natural, and I tried this approach, so that we would have a common position in two ministries. Health affects the Economy and the Economy affects Health so that we could talk” the same language What I felt was a great distance. […] In the case of the economy, it was practically nil. There was no joint confrontation between Health and Economy at that time, ”he said.

Mandetta praised the position of the former Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sergio Moro, and the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto.

“He [Moro] He was very concerned not only about that part of the quarantine, but about the prison system. Possibility of rebellions, epidemics. He got very close, he was very interested. He was a great partner in this solution to vaccinate the prison population against the common flu, to buy equipment, “he said.

“Roberto Campos Neto was very connected, he called every day, sent the graphs, sent questions. He had some information about some scientific articles that he sent to the ministry staff. Always worried if this would affect the interest rate, if not, what was the economic impact. There was this dialogue, “said Mandetta.

Below are excerpts from the interview with GloboNews: