New Health Minister Nelson Teich Has Advocated Social Isolation

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The new Health Minister, oncologist Nelson Teich, is an acknowledged Bolsonarist, yet he has been advocating social isolation measures as a means to fight contagion of the novel coronavirus.

In an article on April 2nd, posted on the Linkedin network, he considered that isolation would be the best way to deal with the problem at this time, although he avoided criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro’s argument for relaxing restrictions in the name of the economy.

In another text, on March 24th, he addressed the issue, advocating a holistic treatment of the health crisis and its impacts on the economy. This speech has been used by his supporters to say that he could overcome the deadlock between Bolsonaro and former Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta.

“This divided, antagonistic and perhaps radical approach is not the one that will most help society through this problem,” he wrote. He also insisted on mass testing as a strategy to attack the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

In November 2018, he had already been short-listed for the Ministry position, having left with the recently elected Bolsonaro a program to redesign procedures in public Health. On Thursday, April 16th, he met the President and was officially vetted for the position.

Bolsonaro’s focus is to avoid public differences with the new Minister, even if they have differing views.

Teich acted informally as a consultant in Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign. He was in the so-called group of generals, headed by Augusto Heleno, now head of the Institutional Security Office, along with economist Paulo Guedes.

He also had the support of entrepreneurs from the São Paulo Jewish community who had joined Bolsonaro, such as Meyer Nigri (Tecnisa) and the now head of the Communication Department, Fábio Wajngarten – he is known by the latter’s father, cardiologist Maurício, from Albert Einstein Hospital. Both have supported his name, and he enjoys the approval of the uniformed contingent in the Planalto Palace.

From Rio de Janeiro, Teich is not a public manager, but is regarded as politically skillful. He has built his career in innovation in private health care. He founded and chaired the Clínicas Oncológicas Integradas (Integrated Oncological Clinics) group from 1990 to 2018 – control of the center had already been transferred to Amil in 2015.

He then founded a health management consultancy with an emphasis on technology, called Teich Health Care. He kept in touch with the Bolsonaro government, providing advice to the Ministry of Health’s Secretary of Science, Technology and Inputs, Denizar Vianna, his former business partner.

For his advocates, this qualification can help solve practical challenges in assessing quarantine policies, for instance. The plan is to apply technological solutions on Covid-19 risks by regions, rather than nationwide, although this may clash with Bolsonaro’s resistance to the use of resources such as cell phone geolocation.

Other candidates had been probed by people in the government or connected to Bolsonaro in recent days. Ophthalmologist Cláudio Lottenberg, chairman of the Einstein Hospital Board of Directors, lost ground as a candidate due to his connection with the governor of São Paulo, João Doria.

Lottenberg chairs Lide Saúde, an organization in the group owned by Doria’s family – the governor is Bolsonaro’s greatest antagonist in conducting the coronavirus crisis. Another factor weighing against him is his brief stint at the São Paulo City Health Department in 2005 under José Serra’s mayoralty. When added to his more emphatic defense of social isolation, testing and the use of patient tracking, Lottenberg’s chances diminished to zero.

Bolsonarist groups also included on their replacement radar physician Ludhmila Hajjar, director of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology, who has advocated a greater relaxation of quarantines, adopting technical criteria.

She was referred by people consulted by Bolsonaro, as was physician Marcelo Queiroga, also from the cardiologists’ society, who is close to the President’s family.

All candidates have in common a more technical position, rather than political, and with less potential for friction with the medical community.

The main worry of the government’s military branch and of Bolsonaro’s more moderate consultants was that he would decide on a name more in line with his personal convictions in the crisis, that of disregard for the risks to public health – which could generate an even greater political crisis.

Source: Folhapress