Bolsonaro Dismisses Mandetta from Health Ministry: ‘It Was Consensual Divorce’

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil officially counts 1,924 deaths due to Covid-19. In this scenario, President Bolsonaro dismissed the Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta. The new Minister will be oncologist Nelson Teich.

The differences between Mandetta and Bolsonaro became more evident approximately a month ago, when the President ignored the Minister’s social isolation recommendations, walked around Brasília and greeted supporters during a demonstration. Mandetta has always advocated broad social distancing as the most efficient means to tackle the disease; this is the same stance adopted by leaders of most countries and the World Health Organization (WHO).

“It was really a consensual divorce, because above me, as President, and above him as Minister, is the health of the Brazilian people. For all of us, life comes first. The coronavirus issue is upon the whole world and each country has its own specificities, as the WHO chief rightly said. In Brazil, it is no different. As President of the Republic, I head 22 Ministries,” said Bolsonaro.

In his speech, the President referred to the priority the former Minister, as a doctor, gave to social isolation, and said Mandetta did not take into account the President’s concerns regarding the economy.

“When you talk about health, you talk about life. You can’t afford to dismiss employment: an unemployed person will be more prone to health issues than someone employed. And since the beginning of the pandemic, I have addressed all the Ministers and talked about life and employment. It is like a patient with two diseases”.

“You cannot abandon one and treat the other exclusively because, at the end of the line, that patient could lose his or her life. During that time, the Minister is entitled to argue his point of view as a doctor, and also to understand the issue of employment. As the Chief Executive, I thought this was not the way it should be handled. I do not condemn, I do not reproach and I do not criticize Minister Mandetta. He did what he thought he should do as a doctor,” said Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro said he has already spoken with the new Minister, Nelson Teich, about how he wishes the work to be conducted: taking into account the economic issue, while not losing what has been done so far.

“We cannot make decisions in a way that the work he [Mandetta] has done so far would be lost. What I discussed during this time with oncologist Dr. Nelson by my side was to make him understand the situation as a whole, but obviously without abandoning the main interest: the maintenance of life. However, without forgetting that we had other problems besides that. That other problem is unemployment,” said Bolsonaro.

The President recalled the economic measures implemented to date to assist the most impoverished population. “We are working to make this return to normality as soon as possible. So, even before other steps are taken, we have taken several measures. Among them, one of the most important is emergency aid, precisely for those who are casual workers and others like them,” he said.

Once again, Bolsonaro insisted on criticizing mayors and governors. He said he had not been consulted about the measures implemented in states and municipalities, and that the federal government will not be able to afford social aid for long.

“I spoke with Dr. Nelson. We have to gradually open up jobs in Brazil. This great mass of humble people cannot afford to stay at home. And what’s worse: when they go back, they have no job. And, the government has no way of maintaining this emergency aid, or other actions for a long time,” he explained.

Last, President Bolsonaro once again criticized isolation. “Excess will not lead to a solution to the problem, quite the opposite: it will get worse. The solution to curing the patient must not have a more harmful side effect than the disease itself. So the federal government and the President of the Republic have a broader view of each Minister. That is our job. These are often the decisions we are forced to make. Problems happen in everyone’s life and we have to find the best way to solve them,” he said.

Source: G1